Domestic Activities Research Articles

Cultural Heritage at Conisbrough Castle: Expanding Resident Narratives, Public Education, and Aspects of Medieval Domestic Life for a Diverse Audience

English Heritage Trust (EH) prides itself on communicating the histories of its sites through playful forms of engagement. In the recent scholarship of EH heritage managers David Sheldon (2011), Joe Savage, and William Wyeth (2020), new forms of creating play and providing site histories are considered alongside the challenges of updating signage and activities to meet visitor expectations. Expanding castle narratives beyond the Norman origins, increasing representations of women and lesser-known historic figures, and addressing the domestic function of castles are a priority for Sheldon, Wyeth, and Savage as they create case-by-case programs for their many properties. This paper considers what pedagogical methodologies are utilized at EH’s Conisbrough Castle, the selected story for presentation and why, and what display methods can be expanded to add to the visitor understanding of Conisbrough’s longer story through the Middle Ages. Using a mix of display boards, video, and text-based signage, managers at Conisbrough recall the de Warenne family narrative and recognize the Conisbrough keep’s domestic function. This is a successful recollection of this one resident’s story, however, only featuring this narrative limits Consibrough’s history to the Norman period. As EH seeks to grow their castle histories, I propose creating new engagements through the current display media that emphasize the importance of multiple tenant stories across time in castle spaces. Increased opportunities to relate to the past and retain information through play will assist visitors as they come to recognize the home as witness to both domestic activity and those events that occurred on the world stage.

Empirical analysis of investment in Pakistan’s upstream sector

The paper examines the oil and gas exploration and production in Pakistan and finds the effectiveness of regulatory regimes in attracting investment. The empirical part involves estimating the error correction model where the upstream sector's oil and gas rigs count is regressed on crude oil price and domestic economic activity using monthly data from January 1995 to February 2023. The study further finds the impact of exogenous variables, including petroleum policy dummies, incidences of terrorism, and LNG import, on the drilling activities in the country. Specifically, we test the data for unit root and check the cointegration before estimating an error correction model to examine the dynamic relationship among total rigs, oil prices, and the Quantum index of manufacturing (QIM), a proxy for monthly economic activity. The results highlight the existence of cointegration, implying a long-run relationship between the variables. The natural gas reserves in Pakistan's upstream sector respond positively to crude oil and domestic wellhead gas prices, with a price elasticity of more than 1 for gas price to reserves addition. The gas rigs model gives more robust results. Moreover, incidences of terrorism, LNG imports and policy dummies are significantly affecting the natural gas rigs.

Assessment of Water Quality During 2018-2022 in the Vam Co River Basin, Vietnam

Water pollution in the Vam Co River basin is becoming more complicated due to untreated wastewater being directly discharged into rivers and canals from agricultural, industrial, and domestic activities. To assess the water quality in this area, this study conducted monitoring at ten sampling locations (S1-S10) from 2018 to 2022, calculated the Water Quality Index (WQI) for each parameter, and simulated water quality in 2022 using the 1D- MIKE 11 model developed by DHI with two main modules including HD and AD. The findings showed that most parameters did not surpass the allowable limits per QCVN 08-MT:2015/BTNMT on Vietnam National Technical Regulation on Surface Water Quality. However, organic and microbial pollution led to certain parameters, such as BOD5, COD, and Coliform, exceeding the limits. The lowest water quality was recorded in Long An province, especially at sampling locations S3, S4, and S6, with the average WQI for nine water quality parameters from February to July 2022 being 58.4, 67.8, and 21.1, respectively. Additionally, the simulation outcomes of the MIKE 11 model salinity, BOD5, DO, and NH4 aligned with the real measurements taken. It has been observed that the southern area of the Vam Co River Basin possesses poorer water quality than the northern part, with Long An province located downstream of the Vam Co River basin being the primary source of pollution. The development of this hydraulic model signifies a crucial milestone in comprehending and regulating the effects of pollution in monitoring and managing water management systems, controlling saline intrusion, and ensuring water supply for agricultural production and daily use in the Vam Co River basin.

ASSESSMENT OF THE CURRENT STATE OF FUNCTIONALITY OF THE SYSTEM OF SCIENTIFIC AND SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES OF SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS OF THE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE OF UKRAINE IN THE CONTEXT OF EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE

In the conditions of Ukraine's aspiration to join the European Union, the evaluation of the effectiveness of the systems of the existing research institutions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine requires special attention.
 The article deals with the peculiarities of the functioning of the systems of scientific and scientific and technical activity of scientific institutions of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in the context of European experience, perspectives of legislation and normative regulation regarding the state of the organization of scientific research in the field of military science. The approach of foreign scientific institutions regarding the main issues of the organization of scientific and scientific and technical activities, the use of various models of organization and conducting research, issues of quality control of scientific products, and its comprehensive evaluation is presented. Some aspects regarding the peculiarities of the functioning of the management systems of subjects of scientific and scientific and technical activity, the main principles and approaches to the creation and development of national systems of scientific research in the field of military science are considered.
 The main problematic issue is the imperfection of the legislative and regulatory framework, the organizational structure of research units, the personnel structure and the complex system of their support.
 In this context, it is of interest to further study foreign approaches and methods of evaluating scientific and scientific and technical activity, taking into account the best approaches for domestic scientific institutions, the possibility of integrating global scientific and educational experience into the reality of domestic scientific activity.
 It is promising to develop well-founded recommendations for improving the efficiency of the existing system of scientific institutions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Wastewater Treatment Using Fruit Peels and Rice Husks

Domestic and industrial activities produce wastewater that contain dangerous pollutants that might be harmful to society, public authorities and industry. As the world’s population grows and natural habitats deteriorate, securing clean water sources for everyone became more difficult. Remediation of wastewater using activated carbon from bio materials which is fruit peels and rice husks is gaining attention among research, as it reduces the cost of activated carbon production. Hence, activated carbon from rice husks and fruit peels were proposed to be used for wastewater treatment in this study. The activated carbon from fruit peels and rice husks are used to remediate wastewater using absorption method that are a low-cost and environmentally friendly alternative in treating wastewater. Carbonization process is the main approach to produce an activated charcoal, followed by chemical activation and adsorption process. The treated wastewater then undergoes several tests to evaluate the quality of wastewater after absorption treatment such as Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), pH test, colour test and heavy metal removal test. As a result, for COD test, the value of untreated and treated wastewater is 1.24 mg/L and 0.53 mg/L. For BOD test for treated and untreated wastewater is 4.98 mg/L and 3.90 mg/L. It also changed the pH value from 8.21 to 7.98 after the treatment process. For colour test, it also decreased for before and after treatment which is 91 %. For heavy metal removal, which is Zinc metal, the value also decreased from 0.0097 mg/L to 0.0052 mg/L. It is proven that fruit peels and rice husks to be effective to treat the textile wastewater while still being low cost-effective for its production.

Dynamics of Brexit Negotiations from the European Union 2016-2020 Period

This article discusses the dynamics of negotiating Britain's exit from the EU or Brexit. Negotiations between the UK and the EU took a long time, from the leadership of PM Theresa May to PM Boris Johnson. During Theresa May's time, Brexit efforts failed to materialize and succeeded under Boris Johnson who dared to maneuver by ignoring the parliament. This study uses a qualitative method using negotiation theory and the concept of national interest. Sources of data obtained through e-books, news, journals from Scopus and Google Scholar. The findings of this study are traceable causes, actors and parties involved during the negotiation process occurs. In addition, one of the reasons the UK wants to leave the EU is the reluctance of the EU to control its domination over the UK in domestic activities, in terms of the economy and the policy of free movement of workers.

Impact of the Exchange Rate on Economic Growth in Nigeria

This paper examines the impact of the exchange rate on economic growth in Nigeria. In particular, it investigates both the long-run impact, the short-run dynamics, and the long-run relationship of the underlined variables of the impact of the exchange rate on economic growth in Nigeria using the autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) and an error correction model (ECM). The results show that there is a positive relationship between the exchange rate and economic growth in the long run and a positive relationship between trade openness and economic growth in the long run. Foreign direct investment net inflows also have a positive relationship with economic growth. More specifically, the results indicate that a 1 percent rise in the exchange rate in the long run leads to a 0.006 percent rise in economic growth rates, and a 1 percent rise in trade openness and foreign direct investment net inflows in the long run increases economic growth by 0.12 and 2.27 percent, respectively. Given the positive impact of exchange rates on RGDP, maintaining a stable exchange rate environment is crucial, and policymakers should aim to implement measures that promote stability while also considering policies that enhance competitiveness. This may involve monitoring and managing currency fluctuations to ensure they remain favorable for both domestic industries and export activities.

Financing of space activities by organizations in conditions of war

The article provides a thorough characterization of wartime space activity, which has grown and evolved significantly over the past six decades. It is substantiated that the utilization of space under the auspices of several space states has turned into a type of activity in more than 60 countries around the world. Authors carried out a study of trends in the sources of funding for the space industry, as well as identified negative factors that affect the pace of development of the space industry established in previous years, namely: problems in the world economy caused by the introduction of sanctions against the Russian Federation, inflation rates, changes in interest rates and loss Ukraine's export opportunities. We studied the European Space Agency report on changes to funding amounts for space sector projects that fit the definition of projects with rapid development for the years 2019–2022. The impact of the conflict on Ukraine's space industry and strategies for maintaining pre-war accomplishments under novel circumstances are identified. The process via which the government and private businesses fund domestic space activities is examined. The purpose of the article is a thorough analysis of the pre-war and post-war financing of space activities, as well as the formulation of the main models of financing the space industry in the post-war period in order to bring it to a new level of functioning. The research underscores space activity as a major financing priority in developed nations. Pre-war, the space industry showed rapid growth, initially state-funded, later attracting private investments. However, ongoing conflict in Ukraine led to reduced funding for less profitable projects, emphasizing the need for a balanced strategy using state and private investments for post-war reconstruction and maintaining a strong national defense capability in the global space sector.

KEANEKARAGAMAN PLANKTON DAN HUBUNGANNYA DENGAN KUALITAS AIR SUNGAI SEKITAR PABRIK KELAPA SAWIT (STUDI KASUS DI ASAM-ASAM, JORONG KABUPATEN TANAH LAUT)

The Asam-Asam River is one of the waters located in Tanah Laut Regency and is in an oil palm plantation area which is very close to the Palm Oil Mill (PKS). The Asam-Asam River has an important role for the surrounding community who use these waters as a source of water for the community around fishing activities, domestic activities such as washing clothes and supplying water for oil palm plantations. Water from PKS activities is thought to have changed the condition of the waters of the Asam-Asam river, therefore identification of plankton diversity in the Asam-Asam River was carried out and data collection of water quality parameters (pH, temperature, DO, BOD, COD, Nitrate and Phosphate) as supporting data for the identification results plankton. This research was conducted in August 2021. Observation points and water sampling were carried out at 2 stations in the Asam-Asam River. The supporting parameters observed were pH, temperature, DO, BOD, COD, nitrate and phosphate. Station II had the highest abundance of phytoplankton because the presence of the genera Oscillatoria, Tablelaria and Spirogyra was much higher than Station I. In the results of the two observation stations, the class Bacillariophyceae was the most common.

Economic policy uncertainty and the Greek economic crisis

PurposeThe authors construct an index of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) for Greece using textual analysis and analyze its role in the 10-year Greek economic crisis.Design/methodology/approach To identify the causal relationship between various measures of economic activity and EPU in Greece, the authors use a sophisticated “shock-based” structural vector autoregressive identification scheme. Additionally, the authors use two additional models to ensure the robustness of the results.Findings EPU is negatively associated with domestic economic activity and economic sentiment, and positively with bond credit spreads. EPU is also estimated to have prolonged the crisis even in periods when macroeconomic imbalances were cured. The results are robust across various model specifications and different proxies of economic activity.Originality/value Brunnermeier (2017) observed that uncertainty may be central to understanding the evolution of the Greek crisis. Yet little attention has been paid to policy uncertainty in the existing long and growing literature on the Greek crisis. The authors attempt to fill this gap.

Crafts in the Time of Coronavirus

Crafts in the Time of Coronavirus

Dreg Deposits and Domestic Beer Production: Assessing the Ubiquity of Chicha Production in the Wari Empire

ABSTRACT Chicha (a fermented beverage) was an essential element of the political economy for some prehistoric Andean societies. In this article we outline the archaeological correlates of chicha production for the Wari Empire (ca. 600–1100 CE) using excavated evidence from the provincial center of Cerro Baúl and results from informant guided experimentation, which involved making chicha with maize (Zea mays), with drupes from the Peruvian pepper tree (Schinus molle), and using both ingredients. This information offers a guide to identify production at other sites and assess the ubiquity of small-scale brewing in Wari-affiliated domestic settings in Moquegua, Peru. We conclude that fermentation vessels are an imperfect but unambiguous indicator for brewing, although multiple lines of evidence could be marshaled in their absence, and that chicha brewing was largely exclusive to state-sponsored, specialized production in the Wari province of Moquegua, rather than a broadly practiced, ubiquitous domestic activity.

Assessment of socioeconomic and ecosystem services of the blue economy in Tanzania using the UNECA's Blue Economy Valuation Toolkit

Even though Tanzania has been engaging in domestic and international sea-based economic activities for centuries, there are no specific statistical data on the contribution of the blue economy to the Tanzania’s economy reinforcing the importance of this work. The purpose of this paper is to present economic, social, and ecosystem values that the blue economy resources generate in mainland Tanzania by using the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Blue Economy Valuation Toolkit (BEVTK). In 2020 the major blue economy industries in Tanzanian contributed USD 7.2 billion to the gross value added (GVA) and employed over 2 million individuals. The value of ecosystem services was approximately USD 104.24 billion in the year 2020, with large permanent freshwater lakes contributing significantly (74.87%). The Composite Social Index Value of BE was estimated at 48.64, indicating that the blue economy contributes positively to the social development of mainland Tanzania. Among the negative outcomes of social indicators, the BEVTK generated a youth unemployment (12.2%) and a gender inequality index (53.0). The BEVTK presented here can be applied to another country context where decision-makers have similar interests in assessing the blue economy components and their contribution to the national economy.

Beyond school-related learning: Parent-child homework talk as a morality building activity

Family interactions constitute an arena for children's moral development: it is indeed through ordinary talk, and shared, task-oriented activities that children are socialized into moral orders and culturally informed ways of thinking and acting. Drawing on a video-based study on the everyday life of 19 middle-class families and adopting a discourse analytic approach, the paper sheds light on the socializing function of a domestic activity: homework. We illustrate that, when it unfolds as a family activity, the issues at stake go far beyond its school-oriented goals: homework provides ‘ethical affordances’ that make relevant moral talk whereby parents introduce children to some unquestioned principles such as homework must be done neatly and it is part of the child's duties. We contend that, by participating in morally loaded homework interactions, children are socialized not only into a school-aligned cultural list concerning what is right and what is wrong about homework, but moreover into a constitutive, taken-for-granted pillar of human sociality: the moral assessability of human conduct, i.e., its being subject to evaluations informed by the ‘right vs. wrong’ category. Implications for teacher training and parent education programs are discussed in the conclusion.

Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Academic Travels

Abstract The purpose of this research is to reveal the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak on the domestic and international travel activities of Turkish academicians for academic reasons and to get insights into academicians’ opinions about how this pandemic would affect academic studies by preventing travel and socialising. An email interview technique is used. Collected data were analysed by using MAXQDA Analytics Pro 2020. As a result of content analysis, 70% of the respondents declared that their academic travel plans were cancelled due to this pandemic. The study emphasised that virtual travels seem to increase accessibility and equality for many academicians, especially those with travel restrictions.

Uncertainty and investment: Evidence from domestic oil rigs

AbstractWe provide new evidence on the response of investment to uncertainty, using granular and high‐frequency (weekly) data on domestic oil drilling and oil prices since 2012, corresponding to the period of widespread horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in the United States. Weekly data permits much weaker identifying restrictions than is required with monthly data that is common in the literature. We measure domestic drilling activity by the number of rigs drilling for oil, and we measure oil uncertainty by implied volatility from options on oil futures and the return on delta‐neutral straddles from options on oil futures. We show that the number of oil drilling rigs are tightly linked to both oil prices and oil uncertainty, and we find that oil uncertainty significantly decreases the number of drilling rigs, with a one standard deviation increase in uncertainty reducing the number of drilling rigs by up to 5%.

Kilns and potters: Measuring pyrotechnology diversity to assess dynamics of firing techniques diffusion within Southwest Asia Communities, 6500-4700 BCE

This paper focuses on the outward diversity of firing structures in the Late Neolithic and Early-Middle Chalcolithic settlements in Southwest Asia, just after the initial adoption of the kiln in the second half of the 7th millennium BCE. Why was the kiln, considered as a more efficient firing technique, not adopted by all the potters within the same settlements? The diversity of firing structures cannot be attributed to environmental factors, or to the type of pottery produced. Therefore, at the intra-site scale, it might be explained by the variability of the social relationships between the potters, that would have involved specific dynamics of firing technique diffusion. The way the potters organised the pottery production in each village area acknowledged a specific organisation of labour. Then, this approach aims to determine whether a particular organisation of pottery production could have facilitated the diffusion of the kiln. To this end, we have measured the average diversity of firing structures within groups of settlements defined by a specific spatial layout of the chaîne opératoire. Therefore, by comparing the diversity of firing structures of each group of settlements, we have highlighted that the diversity rate was low and the use of kilns was more widespread in settlements were pottery production activities were separated from the domestic activities. In these settings, potters probably had more opportunities for mutual assistance, exchange and collaboration with other potters external to their household.

Wavelet-based temporal models of human activity for anomaly detection in smart robot-assisted environments1

Detecting anomalies in patterns of sensor data is important in many practical applications, including domestic activity monitoring for Active Assisted Living (AAL). How to represent and analyse these patterns, however, remains a challenging task, especially when data is relatively scarce and an explicit model is required to be fine-tuned for specific scenarios. This paper, therefore, presents a new approach for temporal modelling of long-term human activities with smart-home sensors, which is used to detect anomalous situations in a robot-assisted environment. The model is based on wavelet transforms and used to forecast smart sensor data, providing a temporal prior to detect unexpected events in human environments. To this end, a new extension of Hybrid Markov Logic Networks has been developed that merges different anomaly indicators, including activities detected by binary sensors, expert logic rules, and wavelet-based temporal models. The latter in particular allows the inference system to discover deviations from long-term activity patterns, which cannot be detected by simpler frequency-based models. Two new publicly available datasets were collected using several smart-sensors to evaluate the approach in office and domestic scenarios. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solutions and their successful deployment in complex human environments, showing their potential for future smart-home and robot integrated services.

ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТЬ МЕДИЦИНСКОЙ РЕАБИЛИТАЦИИ ПАЦИЕНТОВ С ПОСЛЕДСТВИЯМИ ТРАВМ И ЗАБОЛЕВАНИЯМИ КОСТНО-МЫШЕЧНОЙ СИСТЕМЫ В РЕСПУБЛИКЕ ТАТАРСТАН

Abstract. Introduction. Musculoskeletal and connective-tissue disorders rank the third among diseases leading to primary disablement among adults in the Republic of Tatarstan. They are characterized by long healing periods and contractures. Timely rehabilitation of patients allows preventing many complications and restoring their former activity levels. Aim: To assess changes in the medical rehabilitation for patients with musculoskeletal and peripheral nervous disorders in the Republic of Tatarstan in 2020-2022. Materials and Methods. Clinical and expert-assessment statistical processing techniques, generalization method, and comparative analysis were used to process the data of patients with musculoskeletal and peripheral nervous disorders, who underwent medical rehabilitation in the Republic of Tatarstan in 2020-2022. We also used the statistical data made available by the Head Office of Medical and Social Expert Assessment in the Republic of Tatarstan at the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation. Ministry of Health of the Republic of Tatarstan. Statistical analysis was performed using the GraphPad Prism 9 software. Quantitative variables are presented as medians and quartiles, while the qualitative one as percentages. Comparative analysis (for dependent samples) was based on identifying the statistical significance of differences between indicators using Wilcoxon criterion. Differences at p < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results and Discussion. In 2022, there was a 49-% increase in the number of patients who were provided with medical rehabilitation in the Republic of Tatarstan, including a 69-% increase in the number of patients with diseases relating to musculoskeletal and peripheral nervous systems. Number of first-declared disabled people (disability group 3) decreased by 3.8% in 2022, since as medical rehabilitation of patients with musculoskeletal and peripheral nervous disorders increased by 42% in inpatient hospital conditions and by 76% in outpatient and polyclinic conditions in 2022. Conclusions. Increasing number of patients with musculoskeletal and connective-tissue disorders, who had undergone medical rehabilitation at the inpatient and outpatient stages, led to a decrease in the number of first-declared enabled people (disability group 3) by 3.8%. This substantiates the need for further development of medical rehabilitation in traumatology and orthopedics to preserve the labor potential, stabilize the disability levels, return the patient to social and domestic activities, and create optimal conditions for their active engagement in social activities and health resumption.

Sensory integration of danger and safety cues may explain the fear of a quiet coyote.

Sensory integration theory predicts natural selection should favour adaptive responses of animals to multiple forms of information, yet empirical tests of this prediction are rare, particularly in free-living mammals. Studying indirect predator cues offers a salient opportunity to inquire about multimodal risk assessment and its potentially interactive effects on prey responses. Here we exposed California ground squirrels from two study sites (that differ in human and domestic dog activity) to acoustic and/or olfactory predator cues to reveal divergent patterns of signal dominance. Olfactory information most strongly predicted space use within the testing arena. That is, individuals, especially those at the human-impacted site, avoided coyote urine, a danger cue that may communicate the proximity of a coyote. By contrast, subjects allocated less time to risk-sensitive behaviours when exposed to acoustic cues. Specifically, although individuals were consistent in their behavioural responses across trials, 'quiet coyotes' (urine without calls) significantly increased the behavioural reactivity of prey, likely because coyotes rarely vocalize when hunting. More broadly, our findings highlight the need to consider the evolution of integrated fear responses and contribute to an emerging understanding of how animals integrate multiple forms of information to trade off between danger and safety cues in a changing world.