Present Reality Research Articles

“Paul and Mary Would Like You to Bake”

In a time of devolution and fragmentation in the UK, The Great British Bake Off plays into the elements of heritage film and imperial nostalgia and especially all things considered ‘English’. However, the show also attempts to include a more diverse representation of the British people and recreate a national identity that leaves more space for ethnic minorities. Linking theories on national identity and theories on heritage film, this article examines how the GBBO format acts as heritage television which idealizes certain aspects of English history, as well as how the inclusion and celebration of contestants with an ethnic minority background adds to a portrayal of an idealized form of British multiculturalism. These findings lay the basis for a discussion on the connection between food culture and multiculturalism, and how GBBO tries to combine the past ‘glory’ of England with the present (multicultural) reality of Britain.

Poetic Thinking Today: An Essay

Poetic Thinking Today: An Essay

The Need for a Black Feminist Climate Justice

The Need for a Black Feminist Climate Justice

Animating Truth: Documentary and Visual Culture in the 21st Century

Animating Truth: Documentary and Visual Culture in the 21st Century

The Life of Words: Etymology and Modern Poetry. By David-Antoine Williams. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. viii+390.

<i>The Life of Words: Etymology and Modern Poetry</i>. By David-Antoine Williams. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. viii+390.

The Historical Development of Local Government Administration and Its Contemporary Realities in Nigeria

Local government is the government at the grassroots closest to the people. It is the tier of government administration that coordinates the activities of citizens at the local community levels. Local government as a concept of government existed long before the arrival of the colonialists. There were forms of local government administrations in Nigeria before colonial rule. During colonialism, the British's indirect rule system was built upon existing local administrations in Nigeria. However, the story is not the same for local government administration regarding structure and organization in the country today. The study x-rayed the various phases and eras of local government development in Nigeria. It further analyzed the present realities of local administration in the country. The study employed a qualitative approach. The qualitative data were generated from interview responses from relevant stakeholders (such as Traditional leaders and senior local government administrative staff). Also, data were gathered from existing relevant literature. Data collected were analyzed using the context analysis method. The study revealed that local government administration in Nigeria has passed through torturous phases. It identified the lack of local government autonomy amongst others as the main challenge bedeviling its development in the country. The study concluded with recommendations to reposition local government for effective service delivery as Nigeria's third tier of government.

MICROCONTROLLER-BASED VERTICAL FARMING AUTOMATION SYSTEM

Food is an essential need of life. It is how man is fed and reinforced to complete his everyday exercises. The requirement for nourishment for the upkeep of man has set horticulture in charge of man's issues on the planet. With a quickly expanding populace on the planet, man has imagined more up-to-date and inventive ways of developing yields. This development is gathered in country areas of nations all over the planet; yet with the monstrous urbanization occurring in this present reality, it is turning out to be progressively hard to have good horticultural produce that will cook for the gigantic populace. Accepting Nigeria as contextual analysis, the expanded urbanization has put a gigantic expectation ashore, energy and water assets inside the metropolitan region of the country. The larger part of the food eaten in the metropolitan regions is developed in the provincial regions. This framework anyway requires longer transportation times from the provincial areas to metropolitan regions, leading to pollution and deterioration. This examination paper gives an answer in which food harvests can be developed effectively in the metropolitan regions by planting in upward stacked layers to save space and utilize negligible energy and water for water systems.

Developing Partnership for Quality Agricultural Education in Nigeria: A Narrative-Textual Case Study

The paper explored the Narrative-Textual Case Study (NTCS) to confront the present realities of how stakeholders in Agricultural Education can help meet the UN2030 Agenda for sustainable development in Nigeria through partnership. The UN2030 Agenda for quality education and partnership were critically examined to develop an understanding of what partnership can bring to stakeholders for a better-sustainable livelihood. The findings of the study showed amongst others that, the NTCS can be used to promote contributions to knowledge in tackling sustainable development issues of the present realities; Poverty, armed conflicts and other factors are obstacles confronting quality agricultural education in Nigeria and this is beyond just access; adopting an integrated approach to sustainable development issues and partnership can only be achieved through collaborative efforts by all relevant stakeholders. Based on the findings, the following were recommended among others: government of Nigeria and developing partners should develop a synergy on how best to tackle issues confronting the implementation of quality in our education, as well as ensuring that partnership is properly integrated to tackle these issues; also, the government of Nigeria should muster political will for necessary partnership for achieving quality in agricultural education. Keywords: Narrative Textual Case Study, Partnership, Quality Agricultural Education, Agricultural Education Stakeholders, UN2030 Agenda DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-4-03 Publication date: February 28 th 2022

The Guilty Veteran: The Spiritual Implications of Veteran’s Guilt

Guilt is a very old and powerful force in humanity that crosses most boundaries of culture and religion. Feeling guilty or fearing pronouncement of guilt can significantly influence a veteran’s mental health. It can be manifested in several ways, including flashbacks, terrifyingly vivid dreams, and startle responses, all of which blur distinctions between past and present realities. It also has a powerful spiritual dimension and the relationship between guilt-sin-punishment-redemption is a feature of many religions and faith groups. This paper seeks to outline the spiritual implications of guilt for veterans and their families. To achieve this, it will be necessary to initially understand guilt in both a general and spiritual sense. From this basis, the potential sources of guilt can be examined, and then critical spiritual implications can be understood. Management of veterans and their families with guilt issues must always be a collaborative effort, undertaking trained and accredited professionals in all of these areas.

Is there such a thing as a capitalist eschatology?

This short communication presents preliminary notes about how to study the role of eschatology in the contemporary economy, focusing specifically on space-colonizing ambitions of US entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk. It is suggested that the proposed research agenda focuses on three problematics, relating to immediacy, investment, and ideology. As such, the text proposes to study the making of alternative futures by situating imaginaries of humanity becoming a multiplanetary species in the present realities of political economy.

Features of teaching staff management in higher educational institutions of Ukraine: past and present realities

Introduction. The article examines the peculiarities of the management of the teaching staff of several state universities of the Western region of Ukraine in the pre-war and present-day period. It was determined that with the skillful use of various forms of stimulation, there are hidden huge reserves of increasing the efficiency of personnel management of higher education institutions. Purpose. The purpose of the article is to identify positive and negative aspects of personnel management at different hierarchical levels and key problems of personnel interaction in several state universities of the Western region, activation of their creative potential and integration of employee interests and expectations in modern conditions. Method (methodology). In the conducted research, emphasis is placed on the comparison of the results of the sociological (questionnaire) survey of the personnel of universities of the Western region of Ukraine for the past years and the realities of today. Results. A comparison of the features of the management of the teaching staff of several state universities of the Western region of Ukraine in the pre-war period and today is carried out. The opinions of employees of certain universities of the Western region of Ukraine on the issues of professional training of personnel, material and technical support of universities, the degree of awareness of employees, the effectiveness of group forms of work, satisfaction with the moral and psychological climate of the organization, the active participation of the employee in the activities of the team, remuneration, competence of managers, efficiency applied methods of management and stimulation of personnel activity.

Статистический анализ внутренних миграционных процессов в России

Purpose of the article. The article analyzes the data of the current migration situation in the Russian Federation. Materials and methods. The main problem of migration movements is identified and their relevance in the present reality is reflected both in the whole world and in Russia. In particular, the migration movement within the borders of the Russian Federation is considered. One of the main types of migration is considered – internal. Results. With the help of Rosstat data for 2010-2020, the growth trend of migration flows and their impact on the development and economy of the state is characterized. The data of the arriving and departing population within the country were analyzed, as well as the migration growth was calculated and a graph of the dynamics of migration processes in Russia was constructed. The controversial definition of the concept of «migration», the main reasons for its appearance, classification, types and consequences after it are revealed and studied. Calculations of the following indicators were carried out: absolute change, growth coefficient, growth rate, growth rate, value of 1% to increase, - for the entire study period according to the basic and chain indices. Conclusion. The results of calculations and absolute changes in the graphs are reflected and confirmed, as well as the results of the research and analysis are summarized.

Industry 5.0 Readiness – “Optimization of the Relationship between Humans and Robots in Manufacturing Companies in Southeast of Ireland”

Doyle-Kent and Kopacek expressed that lessons can be learned from the challenges identified in the adoption and deployment of Industry 4.0 as it relays to the level of readiness of manufacturing industries and other stakeholders being a critical factor when moving to Industry 5.0. In this research, an investigation into the fears of humans about the use of cobots and robots in the manufacturing space, how companies can increase value by investing in robotics, but remain ethical and improve human resources, was carried out. Areas such as upskilling humans and reconstructing their tasks in line with industry 5.0 requirements were evaluated and the willingness of humans to learn and upskill after so many years in the field and doing manufacturing in a particular way. Critical issues associated with the adoption of autonomous robots and collaborative robots (cobots), were revealed. The findings show that the level of awareness and readiness of Industry 5.0 is still minimal. It further reveals the need for education providers to offer a ‘state of the art’ curriculum to fit the needs of smart manufacturing facilities. In addition, policy makers should upgrade policies to align with the present realities in the manufacturing industries.

Environmental education and healthy housing as strategies for the prevention of COVID-19 at the household level.

Context: The COVID-19 is the most recent global health concern that affects human health mainly the respiratory system with more than 170 million people affected by the virus worldwide. Also, Latin America has been emerging as an epicenter of contagion, and transmission is gradually increasing among the communities in each of the countries analyzed. The infection of more than 30 million people in Latin America supposes the construction of new models and habits of public health that promote attitudes to reduce the number of cases and mortality. Method: A proposal was defined based on three frameworks and models—the principle of healthy housing promoted by the Panamerican Health Organization, the four types of knowledge transfer without memorization proposed by the OECD, and the theory of social constructivism (in which knowledge is built from a present reality). This proposal is aims to help a community to understand the health risks present at home so that they can prevent the spread of the virus COVID-19 through the use of good practices. Results: The proposal shows categorized risk factors at home that increase the possibility of contagion of COVID- 19 and getting infected; also, it presents possible solutions to these factores, which focus on good practices of healthy housing to improve habitability and prevent diseases that also allow the virus to spread. Conclusions: It is necessary to implement strategies that humanize public health problems and that in turn include the knowledge that the field of engineering can contribute to solve these problems. In addition, these strategies must emerge from practical work focused on the community. An example of this is the proposal for good practices for healthy housing to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Формування механізму адаптивного стратегічного планування для підприємств транспорту

The distorted idea of entrepreneurs about the essence and significance of the application of strategic planning leads to the lack of development of effective mechanisms for its implementation. This issue is especially acute for transport enterprises that depend on production-technological and marketing changes occurring not only in transport, but also in other sectors of the national economy. The presence of a significant arsenal of strategic planning tools developed by Western scientists requires their adjustment, adaptation and modification for use by Ukrainian enterprises. The article draws attention to the fact that the issue of the mechanism of strategic planning at the enterprise, being a socioeconomic unit, becomes topical in the present day reality. It is mainly covered at the level of hromadas, regions or the State as a whole, but is rarely considered in the plane of enterprises. The analyzed approaches of domestic scientists to the formation of the mechanism of strategic planning at enterprises indicate a limited use of the existing strategic planning tools, which focuses on the use of one method and the absence of the necessary components of the mechanism with a certain interoperability and interconnection among them. Such an approach is non-rational and ineffective given the difficult and changing conditions of operation of enterprises. With attention to the above, an adaptive strategic planning mechanism for transport enterprises has been formed, which is designed to coordinate the stages of strategic planning and determine the instruments to take into account the maximum number of factors, as well as form directions on the way to ensuring competitive activities, increase financial stability, overcome insolvency and stagnant processes in the activities of the enterprise taking into account environmental changes. The main components of the proposed mechanism are the strategic planning process itself, based on the principles, components and objectives of strategic planning and taking into account the prerequisites for the occurrence of threatening situations; comprehensive monitoring of the company’s activities, covering system analysis, determination of strategic priorities and influence of factors of the external and internal environment; defining the horizon of strategic planning, which provides for the development of medium, long-term and two-term plans; calculation of forecast indicators according to the indicator system and their adjustment in case of changes in the influence factors; evaluation of the efficiency of the strategic plan. The presence of these components is the key to successful strategic planning and implementation of strategic programs.

XTAL VR System Use in a Novel AAM Research Cockpit

The Flight Simulation Facilities (FSF) at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Langley Research Center (LaRC) provide high-fidelity, man-in-the-loop (MITL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) simulation services to a number of research customers including NASA, academia, aviation industry partners, and other government agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The Simulation Development and Analysis Branch (SDAB) management has determined that future research related to the emerging Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) sector will require a new type of simulator with a vastly different cockpit layout and field of view requirements for the out-the-window visual systems than any of the current cockpits. This new simulator might also benefit from integrated head-mounted displays (HMD). For these reasons, SDAB has decided to design and build a new cockpit that will meet the future AAM electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) simulator needs. In this paper, the authors discuss the novel use of state-of-the-art head worn devices (HWD) to present augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) environments to researchers to improve the quality of the cockpit design and reduce the time-to-market and cost to obtain the new cockpit.

Effect of Reynolds number on pressure behavior of slider contact with triangular dimple considering slip

One of the engine components used to reduce friction between two rotating machine elements is the bearing. Currently, studies on the provision of surface roughness on the bearing surface are being conducted to improve its performance. Simplification of surface roughness texture is modeled with various dimple shapes. There is still a paucity of literature dealing with the Reynolds equation in the context of slip and cavitation. This work proposes to utilize numerical analysis to examine the pressure induced by differences in the shape of the dimple. The dimple is portrayed as a triangle with two distinct forms. When approaching the present reality, cavitation is taken into account. Lubricating fluid enters through the dimple on the inlet side and departs through the outlet channel. Slippage is also a factor in computational fluid dynamics simulation. The pressure behavior is determined by varying the Reynolds number. The results show that the higher the Reynolds number, the more pressure is generated. The pressure produced by the triangular dimple shape with high sides at the outlet is greater than the pressure formed by the high-textured dimple at the inlet. The slippage has an impact of 17% on pressure enhancement.

LITERARY PROJECTION OF PANDEMIC IN MARLEN HAUSHOFER’S NOVEL «THE WALL»

The context of a historical period may provoke unexpected interpretation of this or that book because of its parallels with current social phenomena. The plot of M. Haushofer’s novel has such distinct similarities to the present reality, that it makes scientists reinterpret it. Though this literary work was published in German in 1963, it was translated into Ukrainian in 2020, that explains a small number of studies, devoted to its analysis. The number of the reviews on this novel has recently grown in English-language literary sources, emphasizing the need of reinterpretation of the novel in the context of the spread of coronavirus infection, that proves topicality of the theme of the article. The purpose of the study is to examine the specificity of a literary projection of pandemic in M. Haushofer’s novel «The Wall», identifying and analyzing literary versions of mythoscenarios in it. Yu. Vyshnytska’s concept described in her monograph «Mythological scenarios in the modern literary and publicist discourse» was chosen as a theoretical foundation of the research. The following methods of literary analysis – intertextual, semiological, psychoanalytical and poetological – were used in the course of the research. At the beginning of the novel «The Wall» there are elements of the mythoscenario of the end, based on eschatological plots. This mythoscenario in M. Haushofer’s work is a part of a dualistic model together with the mythoscenario of the beginning which is a universal worldview model. The dystopia «The Wall» can be considered an original literary projection of pandemic that is visible most distinctly in the plot of isolation, in articulation of the basic archaic opposition «life–death». The work of the Austrian author vividly visualizes it in the mythoscenarios of the beginning, the end and initiation which show diffusion of the structural contours and transgenic features – the ability of one mythoscenario to merge with another. Interpretation of these mythoscenarios allows identifying the analyzed novel as an example of neomythological literature. M. Haushofer’s dystopia opens space for literary studies of different aspects, in particular, prospects of further research can be seen in psychoanalytical investigation of the character-narrator’s state caused by isolation.

Political Elitism in Nigeria: Challenges, Threats and the Future of Citizenship

This paper explores the impacts of political elitism in Nigeria. This is informed by our past experiences and present realities of Nigerian political elites that play exclusionary politics which this paper interrogates. It argues the thesis that there is need for inclusive governance and political participation in order not to turn Nigeria into a fragile state. The purpose of this is to ensure that good governance is achieved and sustained. This is based on the reason that political relationships between elites and citizens dictate development outcomes. Delivering development involves working with the political dynamics that has citizens’ welfare as its focus. It does this by addressing social justice and extremes of inequality as “bottom-up” as well as “top-down” political, social and economic processes that sustain effective states, efficient markets and vibrant societies. Governance describes the way states and societies manage their affairs politically and the way power and authority are exercised. Entrusting governance to a few people that constitutes the political class endangers development, political participation and settlements. It also increases cycles of poverty among citizens that do not belong to the elite class. This reinforces the argument of the thesis that political elitism creates poor relations and hinders economic development and sustains fragile citizenship. Hence, this paper adopts critical phenomenology as its methodology to redefine political participation with inclusiveness while dismantling the tempting tendencies of political elitism and corruptive practices that stagnate governance and development. This paper submits that inclusive political participation will ensure that governance is centralized and built on finest philosophical ideals for overall nation building for the benefit of Nigerian citizens. By this, Nigeria will not be left in the hands of few less sensitive political elites.

Shades of Invisibility

Shades of Invisibility is an ongoing experimental artist’s documentation of my practice in making Chernobyl Journey, an activist film that I have been working on for twelve years. In Chernobyl Journey live action tells the story of my four trips to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone between 2009 and 2015 in search of rare Przewalski Horses, while animation is used to subversively unravel this apparently straightforward and chronological story backwards, tracing my fascination for the Exclusion Zone back to memories of an acute and life-changing illness in my own timeline from May to August 1986. In the film, animation is used not only to portray my inner private world of sensations, emotions and memories, but also to trace the slow process of arriving at self-knowledge through unravelling invisibilities of a very external and political nature. However, it is not the animation itself that makes the film experimental and subversive, but the way in which the animation is intimately woven into the live action footage. Through methods of compositing and blending, a counter historical narrative is inscribed into the fabric and the forbidden spaces of the two landscapes my auto-ethnographic story inhabits. As well as providing an outlet for my counter historical auto-ethnographic story, Chernobyl Journey also debunks the myth that nature will spring back like a lightly trodden on blade of grass, even after the worst excesses of human exploitation, extraction and environmental disaster. Shades of Invisibility is informed and inspired by my reading of New Materialist texts, in particular Jane Bennett’s ‘Vibrant Matter’. In the text I attempt to explore the efficacy of agencies other than my own will upon my art, using invisibility as a linking theme to create a network of interlocking pathways into subject matter that is dense, multi-layered, interdisciplinary, complex and sometimes politically taboo. My approach to documentation is activist in itself, as it questions the hylomorphic and anthropocentric world view that underpins auteur theory. I argue that this model of creativity based on the unrestrained and unaccountable power of the human individual’s will mirrors the neo-liberal model of unrestrained extractive capitalism that is contributing so much to our present reality of climate crisis, loss of species diversity and global injustice.