Human Sciences Research Articles

AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD SECURITY COOPERATION AS A PATHWAY TO PEACE AND RECONCILIATION BETWEEN COUNTRIES

Peace and ways to achieve it have always been among the most important concerns of mankind. The age of war and peace is tied to human history. Food has been a human need since the beginning, and agriculture and food production have been integral throughout human history. There have been many wars over food, food resources, and agriculture. However, the question addressed in this article is how to make food and agriculture a means to achieve peace. This has happened in the past, either after improving relationships between countries from enmity to friendship or, more rarely, during a time of transformation. There is still the possibility that this approach could become a component of peace agreements, making them stronger. Considering that no two cases are ever completely similar in historical events and human sciences, it is possible to propose a new theory or suggestion by examining the most correlations.

Mastering the Art of Active Listening in Italian Language: Overcoming Challenges with Effective Solutions

The study investigates the development of listening skills in foreign language classrooms, emphasizing its importance as a core competency that naturally aligns with other language skills like comprehension and production. The motivation behind this research is the often overlooked focus on listening in teaching practices, where educators may mistakenly assume it will develop automatically through classroom activities such as lectures or reading exercises. This assumption can result in gaps in language acquisition due to the unique challenges posed by learning a foreign language. The research not only explores listening skills but also examines other key aspects of foreign language education, including student motivation, instructional materials, learning obstacles, and student interests. Conducted in Albanian schools as part of a project by the Faculty of Human Science at the University of Vlora and the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the University of Tirana, the study gathered data through questionnaires. The findings were then analyzed to propose potential solutions to the issues identified. Received: 12 July 2024 / Accepted: 31 October 2024 / Published: 05 November 2024

Roles of Individual Institutions in Achieving Pharmaceutical Sovereignty as Exemplified by the Medical Technology Transfer Centre of the Scientific Centre for Expert Evaluation of Medicinal Products

INTRODUCTION. The strengthening of the health system and the improvement of access to medicines directly depend on the development and marketing authorisation of national innovative medicinal products. Technology transfer is a key tool in bringing medicinal products to market.AIM. This study aimed to evaluate the role of the Medical Technology Transfer Centre of the Federal State Budgetary Institution ‘Scientific Centre for Expert Evaluation of Medicinal Products’ of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation (FSBI ‘SCEEMP’) in facilitating the implementation of federal projects in medical science and in achieving of pharmaceutical sovereignty.DISCUSSION. This article is an overview of the main trends in and features of the development of the pharmaceutical industry in the Russian Federation and around the world. The article highlights significant federal decisions made to attain pharmaceutical sovereignty and improve access to medicines for the population. The authors consider documents regulating the work of the Medical Technology Transfer Centre and outline its roles and responsibilities. Additionally, the authors analyse the ability of the Medical Technology Transfer Centre to provide project support throughout the medicinal product development process and to address issues pertaining to efficient pharmaceutical development, patent law, and product commercialisation. The article assesses the role of the Medical Technology Transfer Centre in the development of the pharmaceutical industry in the Russian Federation.CONCLUSIONS. The Medical Technology Transfer Centre supports projects as part of efforts to implement federal projects in human medical science. The Medical Technology Transfer Centre can be considered a driver of effective innovative development in the national pharmaceutical industry.

VERSIONS OF THE SZÉKELYʼS SELF-IMAGE FROM HEROIC TO IRONIC

The collective mental image of oneʼs community is closely related to the image created by strangers. Human sciences such as social psychology, political science, history, but also literary studies deal with the study of national images. The Székelys, a group of Hungarians with a specific dialect, traditions, and a separate sense of identity, already created lasting images of self-representation in texts in the 18th century, which are supplemented by the external images developed about them. The study examines the characteristics of the Székelyʼs self-image presented in literary form, how it has changed over time, and what kind of image Hungarians living in other regions have of the Székelys.

Profiling public perception of emerging technologies: gene editing, brain chips and exoskeletons. A data-analytics framework

Three AI developments, classified as forms of human enhancements, center around progress at the intersection of AI, nanotechnology and biotechnology. Our research advances the understanding of AI and human enhancement by data-driven analytics and offers practical tools for future research and societal applications. It is based on a survey that was launched by PRC in February 2021 to more than 5,000 respondents from the U.S. It consists of about 100 questions that are grouped using a prefix code by the 3 above-mentioned human enhancement, science role, concerns and excitements, perceived algorithm fairness and demographics. To investigate this survey and extract insights regarding the general attitude, a data analytics framework is proposed that consists of clustering using DBSCAN and K-means, ANOVA for clusters, PCA, t-SNE and UMAP for graphical visualization, prediction and advanced customers’ profiles analyses. Both clustering methods indicate distinct profiles for AI customers. Most of them are moderate, but two smaller groups define the tech-ethics advocates and tech-forward visionaries. For prediction, in the multi-class classification task, the ROC-AUC score is 0.852 and average F1 Score is 0.987. Following the results, both technology creators and legislators must work collaboratively to ensure that technological advancements are ethically grounded, widely accepted and aligned with societal values.

Preface: 5th International Conference on Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS 2024)

5th International Conference on Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS 2024) was held from October 19-20, 2024 in New York, United States. The conference is co-organized by Guangzhou College of Commerce and Asian Union of Information Technology. This HASS welcomes the sociologists, artists, designers, humanists, educators, teachers, policy makers, scholars, and graduate students, etc. from different cultural backgrounds to present and discuss research, developments and innovations in all fields of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. The aim of HASS 2024 is to provide a platform for sociologists, artists, designers, humanists, educators, teachers, policy makers, scholars, and graduate students, etc. from different cultural backgrounds to present and discuss research, developments and innovations in all fields of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. It provides opportunities for the delegates to exchange new ideas and application experiences, to establish business or research relations and to find global partners for future collaboration. All papers were reviewed using a double-blind review process: authors declared their names and affiliations in the manuscript for the reviewers to see, but reviewers did not know each other’s identities, nor did the authors receive information about who had reviewed their manuscript. Many thanks go as well to all of the reviewers who helped us maintain the high quality of manuscripts. Lastly, sincere thanks to the members of the conference committees and organizing team for their hard work. HASS 2024 Organizing Committee

The Influence and Strategies of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Academia, Ethics and Society

In the context of the emerging digital environment, generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is quickly becoming implemented in different spheres of life and even begins to replace people in some professions. This means that GAI is leading a new round of technological and industrial revolution. The application and growth of artificial intelligence has improved the society as well as the economy and but has issued many ethical and social problems thus making ethical governance of artificial intelligence more relevant. To contribute to the further development of the concept GAI under the conditions of sustainable development of human society and science, industries and scholars around the world have started researches on this technology. However, as GAI is still an embryonic field, more research efforts must be directed toward this field in the future. Researched articles that compare the use of GAI to the effects on ethical and societal concerns will form the basis of this paper and the resulting discussion of the pros and cons of this technology, this paper considers and demonstrates the difficulties of students, educators, and academics facing the consequences of GAI development. Finally, it has suggestion for the governance of GAI’s next phase of growth.

Leveraging the Use of Learning Technologies in Higher Education to Optimise Student Learning

In recent years, lecturers and educational practitioners in higher education institutions (HEIs) have widely discussed and debated pedagogical innovation. This research aimed to critically analyse the lecturers' views on the use of learning technologies to optimise student learning in HEIs. This research was conducted at a private higher education institution in Pretoria, South Africa. The effective use of learning technologies lends itself to pedagogical innovation and optimisation of student learning so that they are better prepared to integrate into the world of work. A qualitative research design was used for this study. The method of data collection was individual interviews with five lecturers from different faculties. Faculties include Education, Humanities and Social Science, Finance and Accounting, Law and Information Technology. Data was analysed through the lens of the SAMR model framework using qualitative thematic analysis. The key findings indicated that lecturers believed learning technologies are used effectively when fit-for-purpose and integrated into quality planning. Furthermore, lecturers emphasised that training, development, and collaborative decision-making were essential in selecting learning technologies. Module developers and lecturers need to work in collaboration and not in isolation.

All You Need is Recalcitrance; A Stengerian Fable for Psychology

Recalcitrance is a form of resistance particularly relevant to human sciences. This essay explores how Isabelle Stengers outlined this topic from a critical reading of certain experiments in the history of psychology. Since living beings cannot remain indifferent to the proofs and interrogations they are submitted, scientists must remain attentive to avoid the frequent feature of pliability by which the studied subject adapts its behavior to satisfy the experimenter’s expectations. Further developments have proposed this concept as a demarcation criterion for good and bad experiments for psychology. The second half of the essay offers an auto-ethnographic account of my own clinician practice. From a series of empirical vignettes, a speculative fabulation is woven to explore whether Stenger’s thesis on recalcitrance could and/or should be implemented in psychotherapy.

Latin America: A hub for agrobiotechnological innovations.

Modern biotechnology is one of the last century's major advances in human science. Particularly in the agronomical field, the landscape of crop improvement technologies has witnessed a great expansion, driven by the integration of molecular and genetic engineering methodologies into the breeding toolbox. Latin America (LATAM) serves as a pioneering region in incorporating such techniques with several countries swiftly embracing these technologies. This review aims to give a comprehensive overview of the elements that influenced agrobiotech acceptance in LATAM countries and how such cases could provide support for upcoming technologies to be considered worldwide. Nearly 50 years of biotech breakthroughs have provided humankind with an impressive portfolio of tools already integrated into several life-sciences areas. The agronomical field has greatly progressed thanks to technologies derived from Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and high promises are being made to also incorporate genome -editing products. LATAM's case is a prime example of how early introduction of novelties in the crop production chain can result in improved yields, paving the way for future developments to be easily integrated into the technological ecosystem of a region. The example set by LATAM can also be useful for the present gene-editing regulatory scenario. With several countries presently on the path to approving these methods in their current crop systems, basing their next steps on the southern continent's example, could represent a safe and practical pathway towards a new agronomical revolution.

The Briar Patch Collaboratory: An Experiment in Soulcial Work Praxis

ABSTRACT The story of Br’er Rabbit, utilizing wits and the briar patch to escape a harrowing ordeal, was passed down from enslaved Africans to African Americans. From this tale, we learn that the briar patch provides refuge, representing the pillars of humanity – grace, space, time, and opportunity – that support the freedom quest. Likewise, Soulcial Work Praxis (SWP), a wholistic framework for advancing justice, equity, wellness, empowerment, and liberation (JEWEL), seeks to bridge the micro-macro divide and integrate “heads” (reflections), “hearts” (feelings), “hands” (actions), and “soul” (humanity) to transform individuals, relationships, communities, institutions, and environments. As a product of SWP, the Briar Patch Collaboratory (BPC) is a human science, development, and service so(ul)cial enterprise that supports the vision, development, and work of visionary philosophical artivists (VPAs) through training, research, initiatives, and socially innovative enterprise to generate innovative triple bottom-line (social-economic-environmental) solutions to complex bio-psycho-socio-cultural challenges.

Analysis of the situation of journals published in Hungary and indexed by Scopus in 2023

This year, Scimagojr has published its 2023 list of more than 28,000 journals. Almost half of the journals are published by Western European publishers; Hungary publishes the fewest number of domestic journals relative to its population among the Visegrad countries. Hungarian journals in the Humanities and Social Sciences are barely represented in the Scopus indexing database, on the one hand, due to the lack of a technical quality assurance protocol and, on the other hand, due to the lack of DOI identifiers. In this study, we examine the changes in the SJR of journals in 2023. Norway and China have both produced negative lists of journals with too high proportion of national authors. An increasing number of Hungarian authors are publishing in domestically published journals, which raises questions about their participation in international discourse.

The essence of contextual therapy, its place in the field of family therapy, and its role in the future.

This article aims to present the basic tenets of contextual therapy and its treatment goals, methodology, and theory of change. It provides an orientation for readers who are new to the approach and should serve as an updated frame of reference for readers already familiar with it. An important contribution of this article is that it clarifies the place of contextual therapy in the vast field of family therapy and dispels some common misunderstandings about the path of its founder, Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy (1920-2007). Additionally, it demonstrates why contextual therapy should be counted among the postmodern, collaborative approaches to family therapy, which contradicts the usual view that it belongs to the earlier modern models of family therapy. Furthermore, it shows that contextual therapy is well-equipped to incorporate the current and future contributions of human sciences and offers unique therapeutic resources to address the individual and relational consequences of injustices that should remain relevant for the foreseeable future.

The here and clown

This practise-as-research paper applies Cormac Power’s three categories of presence (2006) to contemporary clown training and performance in the theatre with specific reference to a recently devised performance that used clown principles to open up challenging discussions around shame, race and Afrikaner Identity. Through my perspective as a South African educator, clown practitioner and postdoctoral fellow, I propose that the contemporary clown’s failed efforts to sustain the audience's belief in their persona is what paradoxically leads to the clown’s success by drawing attention to presence as a multibodied phenomenon. Failure, a key principle of clowning, is an effective performance strategy that relies on the performer's awareness of their presence as a dynamic exchange to establish and maintain connection with an audience through listening and reacting to audience appreciation (laughter) or lack thereof (silence). Through critical reflection of the clown as both a state of presence and a performative strategy, this paper highlights the valuable role that the clown’s insider-outsider position plays in bringing about awareness and learning in both theatrical and pedagogic contexts. This work is based on the research supported by the National Institute for The Humanities and Social Science.

Family and drugs: considerations of a sociologist

Modern reality and the realisation of the vastness and depth of social problems have long since oriented the great mass of scholars of the so-called ‘human sciences’ away from considerations pertaining to the social sphere and into that of macra processes.

What Explains Hop Growers' Fungicide Use Intensity and Management Costs in Response to Powdery Mildew?

Methods for causal inference from observational data are common in human disease epidemiology and social sciences but are used relatively little in plant pathology. We draw upon an extensive data set of the incidence of hop plants with powdery mildew (caused by Podosphaera macularis) collected from yards in Oregon from 2014 to 2017 and associated metadata on grower cultural practices, cultivar susceptibility to powdery mildew, and pesticide application records to understand variation in and causes of growers' fungicide use and associated costs. An instrumental causal forest model identified growers' spring pruning thoroughness, cultivar susceptibility to two of the dominant pathogenic races of P. macularis, network centrality of yards during May-June and June-July time transitions, and the initial strain of the fungus detected as important variables determining the number of pesticide active constituents applied by growers and the associated costs they incurred in response to powdery mildew. Exposure-response function models fit after covariate weighting indicated that both the number of pesticide active constituents applied and their associated costs scaled linearly with the seasonal mean incidence of plants with powdery mildew. Although the causes of pesticide use intensity are multifaceted, biological and production factors collectively influence the incidence of powdery mildew, which has a direct exposure-response relationship with the number of pesticide active constituents that growers apply and their costs. Our analyses point to several potential strategies for reducing pesticide use and costs for management of powdery mildew on hop. We also highlight the utility of these methods for causal inference in observational studies.

Open access publications drive few visits from Google Search results to institutional repositories

AbstractGiven the importance of Google Search in generating visits to institutional repositories (IR), a lack of visibility in search engine results pages can hinder the possibility of their publications being found, read, downloaded, and, eventually, cited. To address this, institutions need to evaluate the visibility of their repositories to determine what actions might be implemented to enhance them. However, measuring the search engine optimization (SEO) visibility of IRs requires a highly accurate, technically feasible method. This study constitutes the first attempt to design such a method, specifically applied here to measuring the IR visibility of Spain’s national university system in Google Search based on a set of SEO-based metrics derived from the Ubersuggest SEO tool. A comprehensive dataset spanning three months and comprising 217,589 bibliographic records and 316,899 organic keywords is used as a baseline. Our findings show that many records deposited in these repositories are not ranked among the top positions in Google Search results, and that the most visible records are mainly academic works (theses and dissertations) written in Spanish in the Humanities and Social Sciences. However, most visits are generated by a small number of records. All in all, our results call into question the role played by IRs in attracting readers via Google Search to the institutions’ scientific heritage and serve to underscore the prevailing emphasis within IRs on preservation as opposed to online dissemination. Potential improvements might be achieved using enhanced metadata schemes and normalized description practices, as well as by adopting other actionable insights that can strengthen the online visibility of IRs. This study increases understanding of the role played by web indicators in assessing the web-based impact of research outputs deposited in IRs, and should be of particular interest for a range of stakeholders, including open access and open science advocates, research agencies, library practitioners, repository developers, and website administrators.

The New (White) Normal: Human Anatomy and the Naturalisation of White Bodies in British University Teaching, 1860–1910

Summary The discipline of human anatomy has often been overlooked in histories of race science in favour of comparative anatomy, anthropology, ethnography and statistics. However, understanding the historical relationship between human anatomy and race science is particularly important because of the discipline’s central role, unlike its sister disciplines, in medical education. This article begins to redress this oversight, demonstrating that human anatomy played a key role in the development of nineteenth-century race science in Britain. This article considers three main elements of ideas about racial anatomical difference: the language of racial hierarchy, anatomists’ location of racial difference within the body and the perpetuation of these ideas over time. In so doing, I argue that research into racial difference was demonstrably anatomical during the late nineteenth century, playing a key role in British anatomists’ discipline-building processes, and that these ideas were present within the classroom, influencing generations of medical students.

Navigating Academic Horizons: The Role of Location-Based Games in Multidisciplinary University Transition

The study focuses on the development and evaluation of a location-based game called CMU Journey, which is aimed at helping first-year students become acquainted with their new university setting during the phase of transition. The study’s three primary goals are to: (1) create a location-based game to improve knowledge acquisition related to university transition for freshmen; (2) evaluate the performance of the developed location-based game in supporting knowledge acquisition relevant to university transition; and (3) explore students’ experiences and perspectives with the location-based game designed for university transition. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study collects quantitative data through pre-post measures as well as qualitative data synthesis using an online open-ended questionnaire. Participants in the study are from Chiang Mai University’s Humanities and Social Sciences (N = 434), Technology and Science (N = 341), and Medical and Health (N = 256) programs. The findings show that students who finished the program learned considerable information about starting university, had a favorable attitude regarding studying due to the location-based game, and experienced motivation. An examination of both quantitative data from surveys and qualitative feedback from utilized data found a mix of both positive and negative comments from users. The results presented indicate the potential of location-based games as a beneficial tool for assisting with university transition, along with opportunities for future game design and implementation improvements.

Impact of student funds and fellowships on climate change research and human well-being

Impact of student funds and fellowships on climate change research and human well-being Sophie Farmani, Assistant Professor, Arts, Communications and Social Sciences Department, at the University Canada West, charts the positive impact of student funds and fellowships on climate change research and human well-being in the Canadian context. With the rising complexity and prevalence of global challenges and their impact on society, it is more crucial than ever for social sciences, alongside technological advancements, to actively get involved in improving human well-being. Among the countries with a focus on research and innovation, Canada’s dedication and contributions to research surrounding climate change are noteworthy.