International Scenario Research Articles

A European road to socialism? The P.C.I., the E.E.C. and Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War

ABSTRACT After years of struggling both on domestic and international scenario, during the late 1980s the Italian Communist Party (P.C.I.) promoted an ambitious European agenda, aiming at ‘overcoming’ the bloc policy and recomposing European unity, following Mikhail Gorbachev’s ‘Common European Home’ project. Thus, the P.C.I. intensified its diplomatic efforts towards both the European Economic Community (E.E.C.) and Central and Eastern Europe (C.E.E.) countries, proposing itself as a link between the Western Socialists and the most change-oriented Communist parties towards a renewed and unified ‘European Left’. During the 18th Party Congress, held in March 1989, the P.C.I. launched the ‘European Road to Socialism’, supporting European integration as the only possible way to maintain the social achievements of the workers’ movement. The sudden transition of Central and Eastern Europe countries towards a Western-style market economy stopped this project, accelerating the P.C.I.’s own transition towards post-Communism.

Enablers, markers, and aspects of quality innovative placements across distance: insights from a co-operative inquiry

ABSTRACT Internationally, COVID-19 has forced educational reform and disrupted already strained social work field education systems. This inquiry began pre-pandemic, responding to placement scarcity, which was only exacerbated by the pandemic as agencies migrated to online service delivery and universities responded to sudden placement cancellations. Educators found themselves navigating two interlinked global trends: 1) workplace learning that was changing radically; and 2) the immediate need to identify and develop placement opportunities. This article presents themes from a co-operative inquiry that interrogated four innovative international placement scenarios from Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, highlighting enablers, markers, and aspects of quality learning. The four exemplars evidence the pedagogical challenges and opportunities presented by placement innovation and online learning. These placements reveal how tensions regarding placement scarcity, rapid placement innovation, and the concurrent need to mitigate risk while preserving placement quality were managed. The authors propose that creativity and innovation guided by well-articulated educational principles, learning outcomes, and pedagogical practices, promote the construction of quality placements that transcend potential risks. The challenge moving forward is upholding contemporary approaches to placement teaching and learning that ensure social work students’ acquisition of professional knowledge, values and skills that are necessary for practice.

Metadata and Semantics Metadata: Contemporary Discussions in the Digital Context

This article discusses the international scientific panorama on semantic metadata using bibliometric indicators and the positioning of Information Science concerning the theme. Bibliographic research and bibliometric studies provided the opportunity to identify indicators of scientific production on semantic metadata to show how this theme is addressed in the international scenario. Bibliometric indicators on semantic metadata are presented as results related to annual production, areas of knowledge, types of documents, main sources of publication and keyword clustering analysis. It can be concluded that the bibliographic production on semantic metadata is still not significant in the Information Science research agendas, which presupposes the development of research that considers theoretical and methodological constructs on semantic metadata in the current technological context.

INDUSTRY AND RESEARCH COLLABORATION A MODEL FOR INDIA

The purpose of this paper is to understand the technological innovation taken place in pharmaceutical industry based on institutional research and the gaps between the investment made in research the utilisation of research by the industry. Though the topic is open for argument but it will be beneficial for public policy makers concerned with science and technology and economist thriving for technological change and innovation. The paper aims at putting a discussion for a need on investment and private businesses collaboration with institutional research. This gives space and time for new knowledge to transform the existing technology for betterment of life. It critically talks in the context of pharmaceutical companies in India while getting an outline from industrially developed countries. It highlights the fact that first industry academia collaboration enhancement agenda was held on 5th March 2013, in New Delhi. This itself explains the requirement of institutional research for technological upliftment which will further be supported by literature presented by the researchers.
 The international scenario showed that 1980’s Bayh Dole Act of United States is the best model to strengthen the industry and research collaboration. The model has been implemented worldwide. This paper presents the analysis of countries like U.S.A, United Kingdom, China and OCED countries. The reason for this is that these countries have well developed academia industry collaboration and strategic partnership between them. Though these countries have better GDP and stable economy. However, India is a growing economy and new ideas will help it in making it stronger.
 India is at a starting stage of developing the process academia research and industry collaboration, so there is a way for new strategies to make way in the bottleneck for collaboration. Even in India Bayh Dole Act has been implemented under different name. But one of the major challenges regarding its implementation that India receives is in transparency and clarity in terms of policy and lack of inputs from different organisations. In addition, different are positive about India’s growth and in order to sustain such growth in coming years it is imperative to have technological advancement and innovation to accelerate to propel the economic growth of the country. Thus, research centres near firms seems to get more related to research work concerned or required by the industry. In other words, in industry research collaboration geographical proximity has main of the main role to play in it. The study bases its argument on rich literature that advocates that the collaboration is beneficial for both research and industry.

The rights of migrants to the identification of their dead: an attempt at an identification strategy from Italy

Europe is turning a blind eye on a humanitarian disaster unfolding at its doorsteps, with thousands of migrants dying unidentified in Mediterranean waters. Since 2014, Italy has been struggling in an almost indifferent international scenario to identify its dead migrants. Despite the lack of sufficient resources, of the difficulties in collecting post mortem data from the disseminated bodies, and of the problems of contacting and collecting ante mortem information from relatives, it has been proven, with a series of pilot studies, that not only can these bodies be identified but that relatives are also looking for their loved ones and need death certificates. This article focuses on the administrative limbo and lack of regulations obliging single states to engage in appropriate procedures to maximise identification.

As and [Formula: see text] cooccurrence in drinking water: critical review of the international scenario, physicochemical behavior, removal technologies, health effects, and future trends.

Drinking water contaminated with As and [Formula: see text] is increasingly prevalent worldwide. Their coexistence can have negative effects due to antagonistic or synergistic mechanisms, ranging from cosmetic problems, such as skin lesions and teeth staining, to more severe abnormalities, such as cancer and neurotoxicity. Available technologies for concurrent removal include electrocoagulation ~ adsorption > membranes > chemical coagulation > , and among others, all of which have limitations despite their advantages. Nevertheless, the existence of competing ions such as silicon > phosphate > calcium ~ magnesium > sulfate > and nitrate affects the elimination efficiency. Mexico is one of the countries that is affected by As and [Formula: see text] contamination. Because only 10 of the 32 states have adequate removal technologies, more than 65% of the country is impacted by co-presence problems. Numerous reviews have been published concerning the elimination of As or [Formula: see text]. However, only a few studies have focused on the simultaneous removal. This critical review analyzes the new sources of contamination, simultaneous physicochemical behaviors, available technologies for the elimination of both species, and future trends. This highlights the need to implement technologies that work with actual contaminated water instead of aqueous solutions (55% of the works reviewed correspond to aqueous solutions). Similarly, it is necessary to migrate to the creation of pilot, pre-pilot, or prototype scale projects, because 77% of the existing studies correspond to lab-scale research.

Integrated contract in Law 14.133/2021: new law, same problems? A study of comparative law

The purpose of this article is to analyze whether expansion allowed cases for design-build biddings might improve positive impacts on the efficiency of public procedures. Hence, both Brazilian and international experiences will be studied with attention to design-build and turnkey contracts. In integrated contracting procurements, basic and executive projects must be done by the same company that shall execute the project and its further execution. Consequently, public Administration must only provide a draft. Resolutely, the hypothesis is that these amplification allowances increase the risks of other contract failures. The methodology used was a dialectical-inductive method comparing both Brazilian and international cases of integrated contracts. Firstly, it is demonstrated when Design-Build procurements were first allowed in Brazil and how and why their uses have been amplified. Additionally, the international scenario shall be examined to determine if restrictions imposed by most countries have accompanied the use of integrated contracts for public Administration in Brazil. Subsequently, a comparative examination of several hiring public models will be examined to answer whether integrated contracts biddings might benefit public sectors. The conclusion is that significant expansion of possibilities of using the integrated contracting, forecasted in Law 14.133/2021, poses risks of reducing the efficiency of public administration unless several measures are to be adopted in the planning phase with particular attention to those related to the draft selecting requirements, just like most developed countries have already done.

Optimization of CSP Plants with Thermal Energy Storage for Electricity Price Stability in Spot Markets

This research presents a novel optimization strategy for concentrating solar power (CSP) plants with thermal energy storage (TES) systems that aims to stabilize and reduce electricity prices in spot markets. In the current international scenario of initiatives with regulatory changes aiming to reduce climate change effects and therefore CO2 emissions, many countries are reducing the fossil fuel share in their respective electrical systems and increasing electrical renewable energy systems. These carbon free generation systems have inherent problems such as their intermittence which, combined with the lack of high-scale energy storage systems, cause a stability risk in electrical grid systems and require conventional fuel systems to match demand and production. In this research, we analyze spot price markets using a marginal price system that relies on natural gas and is quite sensitive to an increase in fuel prices, causing a direct increase in the final energy cost in systems with a high renewable energy share, and we study how optimally sized CSP plants with TES can be used as manageable solar energy systems and contribute to both price and grid stability. For the Spanish market, we analyze the ongoing market situation and generation mix and we present an optimization scheme using the System Advisor Model (SAM) software that aims to maximize energy availability throughout the day and contribute to peak generation. The results show that the optimization strategy increases the profitability of CSP plants but also ensures a contribution to spot price stability and reduction. A sensibility analysis is presented, and a case study is analyzed in southern Spain. The results show the importance of optimized CSP plants in an energy transition and a strategy is proposed that can be extended to other locations worldwide.

About the Performance of Latin American Gynecology and Obstetrics Journals in the International Scenario.

About the Performance of Latin American Gynecology and Obstetrics Journals in the International Scenario.

Scientific and Technological Prospecting of 1H-1,2,3-Triazoles

Abstract: The use of 1H-1,2,3-triazoles has become an important scaffold for applications in different technological sectors. Therefore, we sought to carry out technological monitoring to understand the international scenario involving 1H-1,2,3-triazoles from the patents filed, in addition to evaluating the relationship between the growth in the number of patents and the improvement of strategies for obtaining these compounds via a metal-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction. Technological monitoring was performed with the support of the PatentInspiration ® platform, using the keywords "1,2,3-triazol", "1,2,3-triazole", and "1,2,3- triazolyl". A total of 960 registered patents were found, most for the years 2014 and 2019. The main filers were prestigious multinational companies, such as Syngenta, Merck, Sandoz, Pfizer, and Bayer. The United States, China, Japan, and Germany lead patent registrations, mainly addressing innovations in chemistry and metallurgy, human needs, and new technologies. These results help to understand the state of innovation for this topic, pointing out the characteristics of the main discoveries concerning 1H-1,2,3-triazole derivatives.

Production of kraft pulp from Ochroma pyramidale wood

ABSTRACT Brazil stands out in the international scenario in the production of short-fiber pulp. Despite the great Brazilian biodiversity, that production is based on exotic Eucalyptus clones. In this sense, there may be great potential in the assessment of new sources of fibers from the Brazilian flora, including the Amazon. The present study aimed to assess the technical potential of the wood of Ochroma pyramidale (Malvaceae) for the production of kraft pulp. Four-year-old trees were harvested from a commercial forest for lumber production in Mato Grosso state (Brazil). We determined the wood’s chemical compositions (holocellulose, Klason lignin, soluble lignin, extractives and ash contents), physical properties (density and porosity), and fiber morphology (fiber length, width and thickness, lumen diameter, wall fraction, coefficient of flexibility, and slenderness and Runkel ratios). The wood was subjected to pulping with an effective alkali charge ranging from 10 to 24%, with intervals of 2%. Ochroma pyramidale wood presented characteristics favorable to the production of cellulosic pulp, such as appropriate fiber dimensions and low lignin, extractives, and ash content. The amount of residual active alkali and pH of the black liquor were positively related to the increase of the alkali charge employed in the pulping process. The increase of alkali charge decreased the pulp yield, kappa number and waste content, and increased the hexenuronic acid concentration.

Ethics and Sustainable Development in Indian Context

The sustainable development is deeply embedded in both national and International scenario, it is a big global problem; therefor India has also keen concern on the protection of environment, development and sustainable development. The depletion of natural sources, industrialization, and urbanization, development of science and technology and also tremendous growth of population are major threat to human survival. Ecology is common heritage for all human being the need of society increase day by day and its effect on the natural sources and environment, natural sources and limited and irrecoverable. Therefore it is a pious, moral and legal obligation and duty on government, judiciary and citizens of India to protect, conserved and preserved the natural resources and environment with sustainable development. The Indian judiciary and Government have emerged as most important tool for promoting sustainable development with protection of environment and natural sources.

Scientometrics: a tool for the insertion of Brazilian Dermatology in the world scientific production

INTRODUCTION: The Brazilian scientific production in Dermatology in the international scenario was verified by scientometrics (Sociology segment on quantitative aspects of science). OBJECTIVE: The insertion of Brazil in the international scientific production scenario can and should be conducted from a more strategic perspective, and it is necessary to observe the production of documents indexed in Scopus in the Dermatology area and related topics in a more detailed way. METHODS: Through exploratory, inductive, quantitative, and qualitative research on the Scopus platform – a digital platform comprising more than 25 thousand scientific articles and analytical tools to extract results and trends in the field of research, it was possible to obtain quantitative data on Brazilian scientific production in General Dermatology and six prominent dermatoses. RESULTS: It was possible to analyze and point out the most prominent dermatoses currently in the literature and the related authors, compare Brazilian data with those from other countries that stand out in the scientific literature in Dermatology, and elaborate and justify effective strategies for the international insertion of Brazilian Dermatology scientific production.

A customização de processos de avaliação de prontidão tecnológica baseados na escala TRL: desenvolvimento de uma metodologia para o Exército Brasileiro

Technology Readiness Assessment (TRA) based on the TRL scale is a process that aims to minimize problems in defining the stage of maturation of technologies, as well as providing efficient communication between specialists, managers and other stakeholders in organizations that acquire high-tech products and systems. In this context, the work analyzes the customization of the APT process from the perspective of a focal organization. To this end, the DCT (Department of Science and Technology) is used as a case study. The DCT is the focal organization of a network for the development of defense technologies and products within the scope of the Brazilian Army. The data collected came from the literature review (study of customizations made by reference organizations in the national and international scenarios) and from empirical data from DCT programs. With these data, it was possible to propose a customized methodology for the specificities of the Brazilian Army.

Indo-Russia Relations: A Political Analysis

Global Political scenario has always been influenced by relations between the states, which in turn affects the global order. The Indo-Russia relations cannot be explained merely as a Bi-lateral relationship. The seven-decade friendship between these two Asian giants should be analysed in the spheres they collaborated in the context of the impressive magnitude of their engagements. The historic relationship had withstood the turbulence of cold war, aftermath of the collapse of USSR and the challenges posed by a unipolar world order. Russia’s resurrection after the Soviet collapse and India’s fast paced development gave these nations new arenas for cooperation and engagement. The purpose of this paper is to study this enigmatic relationship between these two nations using a theoretical approach, drawing from primary and secondary published data. By exploring Indo-Russian relations in the historical and current international scenario, this paper attempts to chart out the scope for furthering constructive engagement in the evolving Indo-Pacific scenario.

Black, Caspian Seas and Central Asia Silk Association (BACSA) for the Future of Sericulture in Europe and Central Asia.

Simple SummaryThis paper describes the 16-years long activity of the Black Caspian Seas and Central Asia Silk Association, which was founded in 2005 to revive the sericultural activity in the area indicated by its own denomination. The reasons why this Association was established are described as a direct consequence of the decline in the sericulture agroindustry following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the world cocoon/raw silk decrease of production (except for China and India) since the 90s of the 20th century. Therefore, the enlargement of its membership to countries outside of the boundaries of the geographical area is outlined as well as its internal organization and the actions performed to promote the interaction among the member countries, especially the biyearly conferences. The international scenario is depicted to explain the criticalities experienced in promoting sericultural activities in the region, as well as the opportunities offered by the new applications of the silk, silk proteins and mulberry derivatives.The history and recent activities of the Black Caspian Seas and Central Asia Silk Association are presented in this paper: the countries that participated in its foundation, the FAO’s action to revitalize sericulture in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the following widening of the Association geographical limits of to enclose other European countries, which were not well-represented in other similar organizations. Some statistical data are illustrated for a better description of the scenario in which the BACSA executive board acted: the world silk production quantity and the relative production of BACSA countries in respect to the Chinese expansion. The themes treated in the BACSA conferences are reported to explain which matters the Executive Board considered the most relevant for the relaunch of this activity in relationships to the international challenges in the subsequent years; the project proposals that were presented to international donors are summarized. A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is shown, where key-factors in determining the strengths and weaknesses of this organization and its member countries for a successful re-establishment of sericulture, are considered. In addition, future trends of sericulture with regard to innovative productions and the Green Deal are examined.

An Innovative Approach for Automatic Character Recognition of Indian Languages

evelopment of OCRs for Indian script is an active area of activity today. Optical character recognition (OCR) is the mechanical or electronic translation of images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text (usually captured by a scanner) into machine-editable text. In simple words OCR is a visual recognition process that turns printed or written text into an electronic character-based file. OCR is a field of research in pattern recognition, artificial intelligence and machine vision. Though academic research in the field continues, the focus on OCR has shifted to implementation of proven techniques. A lot of work had been carried out for OCR at international scenario but in Indian context a concrete approach for character recognition is still required as scripts of Indian languages are from the group of most complex scripts and it is very hard to recognize them. Indian scripts present great challenges to an OCR designer due to the large number of letters in the alphabet, the sophisticated ways in which they combine, and the complicated graphemes they result in. The problem is compounded by the unstructured manner in which popular fonts are designed. There is a lot of common structure in the different Indian scripts. All existing OCR systems developed for various Indian scripts do not provide sufficient efficiency due to various factors. The objective of this paper is to discuss a more efficient character recognition technique. This paper introduces a new technical approach to recognize Indian script characters which are unpredictable due to different problems in other OCR‟s.

Use of Narcotics in Pakistan: Situation Analysis and Way Forward

The use of narcotics in Pakistan is mainly looked at as if it is something isolated from the political games that are played at regional and global levels. This research is partially an attempt to explain why this could not be the case. It looks at the connections between regional and global divisions of power relationships to set stage for understanding the flaws in our conception of the menace of drugs and their proliferation in our society at certain moments in our history. The role of shadow economy in this context has also remained under researched. This paper attempted to address these gaps in knowledge that mislead, misdirect our understanding and conception of drugs and their use, as well as affecting our effectively reacting to these social problematics. The conclusions drawn are the way forward for our policy making apparatuses. Pakistan is signatory to a number of bilateral and multilateral pacts and treaties on narcotics control. It also has vibrant national anti-narcotics and illicit drugs prevention policies and various task forces to deal with the menace of use and abuse of banned substances like National Anti-Narcotics Council (NANC), Ministry of Narcotics Control, Inter-Agency Task Force, Anti-Narcotics Force, National Anti-Narcotics Policy. Despite all these efforts, use and abuse of drugs is on the rise. In the present international scenario, especially the FATF related policies, international pressure and procedures, use of narcotics is no longer an isolated incident but rather part of a very huge ensemble of problems for Pakistan to deal with. Legally, there are no barriers to going after the complete eradication of the narcotics in Pakistan. In other words, the problem is not having the required legal and administrative cover to prevent the use, sale, and import of narcotics in Pakistan. There is plenty of cover available to drug enforcement agencies but still the menace of drug control is on the rise. This gives rise to many problematics. Why is it the case that with so much international cooperation the menace of illicit drugs is on the rise? Could this be the result of what international relations theorists refer to as “the shadow economy” which fuels this massive inflow of drugs, appropriately labelled as “Afghan opiates,” in Pakistan? What are the bottlenecks that prevent implementation of narcotics control policies? Are there other factors that hamper effective implementation of avowed national commitment against the use and abuse of narcotics in Pakistan? Is shadow economy, that the world has failed to harness, something that Pakistan can tackle with its limited resources? Or are there any capacity issues and double-dealings that leave the strongly worded national commitment against banned substances in the lurch? Answers to these pressing questions have been sought in this paper.

Globalization, Academic Migrants and Education: Case Study of Palestine Scholars in India

The Israel-Palestine conflict is one of the most complex issues in nature; the issues of sovereignty, territorial issues, and much more are still unresolved in the Israeli-Palestine conflict. More specifically, this ongoing conflict had affected the Palestinians' life, identity, psychology, and development. A thorough literature review reveals that there is an absence of scholarly research in the area of academic migration of Palestinian scholars about the educational challenges in Indian universities. This research uses a qualitative approach with case study methods. The researcher used field study and Snowball Sampling methods to select the study samples. The in-depth perception of six cases was analyzed on the issues of their stay in India, educational challenges in universities, a pedagogical transaction in the classroom, and the different cultural contexts (of their home country and destination country). The study revealed the academic disparities they face about language were problematic, and this hampered the conversation. Critically understanding the international scenario and position of the Palestinian scholars, this research study will contribute to the development of an empathetic understanding of the students from different conflict zones.

THE DYNAMICS OF THE SUCCESSION OF CURRENCIES IN THE 21ST CENTURY – A CASE OF CHINESE FINANCIAL LEADERSHIP?

The global monetary system since the Industrial Revolution in two periods had two periods. First, a period with Britain as the great economic and political power and the Pound Sterling as the most important international currency and second, the United States as the leading economy and a dollar-based international scenario. The relation between goods, money, and foreign exchange markets is important to understand patterns in terms of exchange rate and currency internationalization. Therefore, the Crowther balance of payments cycles may be important to identify these patterns and to serve as a standard of reference to investigate shifts in exchange rate, and their consequences on balance of payments movements. Since 1978, China has emerged as a strong candidate to assume protagonist in the global monetary system, displaying high and stable economic growth. This paper aims to investigate the necessary conditions for China to internationalize the Renminbi, local currency, and to infer its status in that progress.