Path Of Progress Research Articles

COVID-19 Pandemic, Technological Progress and Food Security Based on a Dynamic CGE Model

The global spread of COVID-19 has complicated the international equilibrium of grain production and trade. China now faces external shocks in the international grain market and deep-seated problems associated with the structure of domestic supply. We used a dynamic, computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to analyse the effects on China’s food security and macroeconomics under the COVID-19 scenario and four technological progress paths in the agricultural sector. We showed that the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting China’s food security in the short term, and critical quantitative variables such as grain production and grain consumption per capita have declined. Considering food security and macroeconomic development, labour-saving technological progress outperformed neutral technological progress, land-saving technological progress, and capital-saving technological progress in the short run. While land-saving technological progress contributes the most to the arable land area per capita of wheat and other grains in the long run.

Type-I Collagen/Collagenase Modulates the 3D Structure and Behavior of Glioblastoma Spheroid Models.

Multicellular tumor spheroids have emerged as well-structured, three-dimensional culture models that resemble and mimic the complexity of the dense and hypoxic cancer microenvironment. However, in brain tumor studies, a variety of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) cell lines only self-assemble into loose cellular aggregates, lacking the properties of actual glioma tumors in humans. In this study, we used type-I collagen as an extracellular matrix component to promote the compaction of GBM aggregates forming tight spheroids to understand how collagen influences the properties of tumors, such as their growth, proliferation, and invasion, and collagenase to promote collagen degradation. The GBM cell lines U87MG, T98G, and A172, as well as the medulloblastoma cell line UW473, were used as standard cell lines that do not spontaneously self-assemble into spheroids, and GBM U251 was used as a self-assembling cell line. According to the findings, all cell lines formed tight spheroids at collagen concentrations higher than 15.0 μg mL-1. Collagen was distributed along the spheroid, similarly to that observed in invasive GBM tumors, and decreased cell migration with no effect on the cellular uptake of small active molecules, as demonstrated by uptake studies using the photosensitizer verteporfin. The enzymatic cleavage of collagen affected spheroid morphology and increased cell migration while maintaining cell viability. Such behaviors are relevant to the physiological models of GBM tumors and are useful for better understanding cell migration and the in vivo infiltration path, drug screening, and kinetics of progression of GBM tumors.

Differential Evolution of Farmers’ Livelihood Strategies since the 1980s on the Loess Plateau, China

Understanding the evolution of farmers’ livelihood strategies (FLS) is crucial for maintaining the sustainable development of farmers’ livelihoods, especially on the arid Loess Plateau, China. This study constructed a novel analytical framework for analyzing the evolution of FLS and the critical influencing factors. Changwu County, an apple cultivation region, was selected as a case study. The results suggest that four types of livelihood strategies (crop-planting, apple-planting, work-oriented, and part-time comprehensive) have emerged since the 1980s. The evolutionary process of leading FLS varies across geographic location. In the loess tableland region and economic fringe region, this evolution followed a progressive path from the crop-planting type to the apple-planting type to the work-oriented type, while in the loess gully region, loess ridge region, and economic core region, FLS jumped directly from the crop-planting type to the work-oriented type. The geographic location, training opportunities, garden area, cultivated land area, production and living materials, loan opportunities, and education level were found to be the critical factors influencing the differentiation and development of FLS. The analytical framework proposed here is also applicable for studying the evolution of FLS in other counties on the Loess Plateau, considering the representativeness of the selected case.

Transforming the Media and Entertainment Industry

Technology is the mast that keeps the flag of the entertainment industry flying high. As technology evolves and the mode and quality of entertainment changes vigorously, India represents one of the Top 5 Entertainment and Media markets across the world. The growing usage of 3G, 4G and portable devices, rising advertising revenues, growing consumer demand has resulted in the growth of the Indian media and entertainment industry at a CAGR of 10.9 percent from FY 17-18. Constant support from TRAI (Telecom Regulatory authority of India) and the Govt. of India has pushed the Indian Media and Entertainment(M&E) Industry on a progressive growth path. This manuscript traces the evolution of the M&E landscape and discusses specific cases from the M&E industry where social media has been instrumental in hugely impacting the consumption of the M&E content.

PILLARS OF INDIAN ECONOMY IN COVID-19: COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF FARMING & AGRO BASED INDUSTRY

The country was under lockdown from more than two months due to COVID-19. In this crisis, the farmers have not allowed food security to be endangered. Moreover, they have increased food production despite all the obstacles. Right now, farmers are facing many obvious and climatic problems. Prime Minister of India has said that we have to convert this crisis into opportunity. The solution to farmer’s problems is necessary, to make the country Atmanirbhar Bharat and to take it rapid fast on the path of progress. The outbreak of this epidemic has come at a time when the harvesting of Rabi crops had already started. However, taking necessary steps, Ministry of Agriculture has worked with all agencies of selling and buying agricultural products, units notified by the state governments, farmers and agricultural labourers along with machines used in harvesting and sowing and agro-horticulture exempted from and out of state. In addition, the All India Transport Call Centre was launched to remove bottlenecks in the movement of seeds, pesticides, fertilizers and fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs, fish and other perishable agricultural products

Development of intelection of preschool children in mathematics classes

Our nation is currently on its own path of progress, rejuvenation, and rise in these quickly changing times. Structural reforms are being implemented in the socio-political, economic, cultural, and educational arenas to guarantee the economic growth of our state. The entire world is positively evaluating this situation and acknowledging that Uzbekistan is following its own path, whether it be in the economic or spiritual realms. The question of how to raise young people, shape their worldview in every area, and enrich their mathematical vision of the world from an early age is at the heart of all this. This child would need to be highly spiritual, intelligent, and intelligent and would need to live in harmony with the times, create, and be the owners of our future. In this article, in mathematics classes, feedback and feedback on the development of the intelection of preschool children are kept.

КРЕАТИВНІСТЬ В ТУРИЗМІ: РЕГІОНАЛЬНИЙ АСПЕКТ

The acuteness of the modern moment and the search for optimal solutions regarding the level of economic development stimulates the world society to think outside the box. States and regions in their development use advanced approaches and technologies. It is on creative thinking, as the chances of progress, that the emphasis is placed in the article. The historiography of creativity as a phenomenon, technology and process is analyzed with an emphasis on its importance in modern science. The practical usefulness of creative thinking is revealed through the understanding of modern tourism. The exceptional role of the tourism industry as a driver of the modern economy is noted. The multifactorial and multicultural nature of tourism is emphasized, because it is this segment of the economy that successfully combines historical retrospective, geographical conditionality, culture, education and digital. The creativity of tourism has an exceptional chance of local promotion and branding of various creative industries. Their set is transformed through a system of cultural events aimed at the implementation of creative ideas. Accordingly, the focus is on the development of festival tourism in general as a creative phenomenon. Cooperation with the EU countries is indicated among the features of the development of festival tourism in Ukraine. Taking into account the peculiarities of mutual development and research of European traditions, it contributes to strengthening the practical usefulness of creative industries, implemented through relevant programs: Cultural Bridges, Creative Europe, etc. As an example, the experience of involving creative industries in the tourist development of the historical "pearl" of the Poltava region – the city of Gadyach and its environs is traced. The historical and cultural significance of the city of Gadyach is monitored in the context of the development of event activities, which stimulates the formation of festival tourism on the potential of the city of Gadyach. The article analyzes a number cultural-educational and historical-cultural events in the period 2016–2021, which contributed to the branding and recognition of the city in the system of the tourism industry of Ukraine. Unfortunately, most of the planned events in 2022 have been postponed to the post-war period. However, today's challenges do not stop the development of tourism and require already now to develop creative solutions for the future. The creative environment emerging in tourism is critical for the production of commercial innovations, the development of the creative essence of a person. Festival tourism, as a creative phenomenon, is acquiring new forms and features in the system of the tourism industry of the world and Ukraine. This is one of the important drivers of the modern economy on the path of progress, even in times of uncertainty and challenges.

Fairly assessing unfairness: An exploration of gender disparities in informal entrepreneurship amongst academics in business schools

• First used of the “pair matched” technique to compare female and male academics. • First quantification of a leaky pipeline of informal entrepreneurship for both genders. • Women are less numerous to be involved in informal entrepreneurship. • Most female academics follow a progressive path in their entrepreneurial journey. • Female academics struggle to move to remunerated entrepreneurial engagements. Assessing gender disparities in science commercialisation has been in the centre of the unresolved debates on the inadequacies of the methods used to compare female and male academics. Drawing from the literature on non–IP-based academic entrepreneurship and gender disparities in science, this study used the “pair-matched” technique to isolate 406 female and male academics in business schools (203 of each gender from a sample of 729 academics) who share common characteristics regarding academic position, subdisciplinary affiliation, and experience. The study confirms that a comparison of female and noncomparable male academics could lead to an unfair judgement of female academics’ performance. However, the results show that even compared to comparable men, women are less involved in remunerated consultations, generate a smaller proportion of their revenue from consultations and are less engaged in the creation of consultancy companies. In addition, the study allows us to quantify a leaky pipeline of both genders involved in informal academic entrepreneurship and to identify four paths, from progressive to nonprogressive. Most female academics follow a progressive entrepreneurial path but often struggle to move from nonremunerated to remunerated entrepreneurial engagements. The study concludes with implications for university administrators on knowledge transfer and gender inequality.

Spillover effects of policy uncertainty on the foreign exchange rate: Evidence from selected developed and developing countries

Following the Great Depression of the 1930s, a number of prominent economists believe that the global financial crisis that erupted in 2008 from the American financial market played a significant role in changing the path of global economic progress and intensifying various uncertainties in various market-related activities and processes. Therefore, our research has attempted to quantify how the U.S.‘s economic and monetary policy uncertainty affects the dollar's exchange with its 12 major trading partners, both from developed and developing countries. As part of our analysis, we also factored out the potential impact of the recent global financial crisis—2008. We applied the MM-QR panel conditional quantile regression of Machado and Silva (2019) to the monetary model for exchange rate determination with data from 2000:M1 to 2017:M2. Even though the global financial crisis is under control, the estimated results of the MM-QR panel conditional quantile regression have revealed that the developed countries' economic policy uncertainty, not the U.S.'s economic policy uncertainty, has caused their currencies to depreciate against the U.S. dollar. But the uncertainty of U.S. economic policy has had an asymmetric effect on the exchange rates of developing countries against the U.S. dollar before and after the global financial crisis. Moreover, the U.S.‘s monetary policy uncertainty has depreciated both developed and developing countries' currencies against the U.S. dollar, both with and without control of the global financial crisis. The global financial crisis has also depreciated developing countries' currencies while it has appreciated developed countries' currencies against the U.S. dollar. As a result, this study concludes that whether in developed or developing countries, economic and monetary policy uncertainty has a significant impact on the nominal exchange rate.

The Nigerian State and the crisis of industrialization: lessons from Singapore

Nigeria faces the crisis of industrialization and development despite rich mineral and natural resources endowment. The present work is therefore set out to investigate the role of the Nigerian state in this crisis. The Nigerian post-colonial state, due to a certain stereotyped rationalization for explaining her underdevelopment, is dressed in a borrowed rope of certain characters; such characters, the paper contends are rather those of the ruling and political class, not the Nigerian state. It is the dependencia propositions that by the nature and character of the post-colonial state; and by the global character of capitalism, the integration of peripheral and dependent economies into the world capitalist orbit, portends disaster. This by the emergence of the Asian tigers such as Singapore has proven to be ahistorical and not in sync with contemporary reality. This paper finds the crisis in leadership, in the manner of organization of resources and in the patrimonial redistribution instead of wealth creation, thus making the Nigerian state a failed planner and regulator of development. The resource curse theory is adopted as the theoretical framework for the present work. As desktop, qualitative and descriptive research, extensive reliance is placed on secondary data with the use of content analysis. The example of Singapore proves that what is needed is a transformational leadership, whether democratic or totalitarian, with the political will to make sacrifices, champion, organize and utilize Nigeria’s abundant natural and mineral resources and lead her on the path of industrialization and social progress.

INDIAN DIASPORA AS A COMMUNITY: PAST AND PRESENT

Human beings are always in the process of development.There are many paths of progress. Migration has been ever permanent one of the best ways. Several reasons are responsible behind migration such as survival, study, job and own wish etc.The deepest feeling of nostalgia has been forever pinched to each migrator. Nostalgia means an experience of belongingness towards the home country being present in the host country. The term ‘Diaspora’ is a dynamic body . It is the movement across cultures. A person who has migrated from his or her country to another country but still connected with our root country. The diaspora society and communities are described as a source to make a bridge between various civilizations. They are represented as filler of the gaps amongst the different countries' cultures.

Gospel of Joseph (I. Brodsky’s poem “Gorbunov and Gorchakov”)

The article traces the intertextual layers of I. Brodsky’s poem “Gorbunov and Gorchakov” (Shakespeare, Goethe, Dante, A. Chekhov, L. Andreev, M. Bulgakov, etc.), establishes a connection with the sacred texts of the Old and New Testaments. The hidden disciple (apostolic) plot is revealed and, as a result, a different arrangement of characters is proposed than is traditionally accepted in Russian studies: the heroes Gorbunov and Gorchaks are considered not as opponentsantipodes, but as heroes closely connected, in particular, by the relations of the teacher and the follower. The three-part (conditional) composition of the poem, focused on the three days and three nights depicted in the text, with its symbolic trinity emphasizes the progressive apostolic path of Gorchakov and emphasizes his special role in the fate of Gorbunov (after L. Andreev, not Judas the traitor, but Judas the disciple). The inner “follower” layer of the poem allows Brodsky to move to the archetypal plot, metaphorizing details and symbolizing situations, translating them to a higher level, saturating them with a capacious philosophical and poetic meaning. The well-thought-out chronotopic structure of the poem — Easter Eve, Holy Week, madhouse — is based on complex allusions and the “internal semantics” of the sign, number, and letters. The theological function in Brodsky’s poem is assumed by the Word, the divine Verb.

Towards carbon neutrality: The role of different paths of technological progress in mitigating China's CO2 emissions

China's carbon neutrality in 2060 is a hot issue discussed by policymakers and scholars. Previous literature shows that technological progress is the key to CO2 emission mitigation, but ignores the role of different paths of technological progress. This paper uses the panel data covering China's 30 provinces from 2008 to 2017 to study the effect of different paths of technological progress on CO2 emissions including domestic innovation, foreign technology import and regional technology transfer. Furthermore, the assimilation effect of technologies from domestic and foreign is investigated, and its impact on CO2 emissions is explored. The empirical evidence indicates that: (1) there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between domestic innovation and China's CO2 emissions. (2) Foreign technology imports cannot decrease CO2 emissions and carbon intensity in high-emission regions. Meanwhile, domestic technology transfer increase CO2 emissions and carbon intensity in high-emission regions. However, foreign technology import of low-emission areas can achieve CO2 emission mitigation. (3) The assimilation of technologies from abroad and domestic can increase CO2 emissions and carbon intensity in high-emission regions. But the absorption effect of technologies from domestic can decrease CO2 emissions and carbon intensity in low-carbon regions. According to the above results, this paper proposes some targeted policy suggestions for the choice of technological progress paths for CO2 emission mitigation in different regions of China.

Conditional prediction of consecutive tumor evolution using cancer progression models: What genotype comes next?

Accurate prediction of tumor progression is key for adaptive therapy and precision medicine. Cancer progression models (CPMs) can be used to infer dependencies in mutation accumulation from cross-sectional data and provide predictions of tumor progression paths. However, their performance when predicting complete evolutionary trajectories is limited by violations of assumptions and the size of available data sets. Instead of predicting full tumor progression paths, here we focus on short-term predictions, more relevant for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. We examine whether five distinct CPMs can be used to answer the question "Given that a genotype with n mutations has been observed, what genotype with n + 1 mutations is next in the path of tumor progression?" or, shortly, "What genotype comes next?". Using simulated data we find that under specific combinations of genotype and fitness landscape characteristics CPMs can provide predictions of short-term evolution that closely match the true probabilities, and that some genotype characteristics can be much more relevant than global features. Application of these methods to 25 cancer data sets shows that their use is hampered by a lack of information needed to make principled decisions about method choice. Fruitful use of these methods for short-term predictions requires adapting method's use to local genotype characteristics and obtaining reliable indicators of performance; it will also be necessary to clarify the interpretation of the method's results when key assumptions do not hold.

The Nigerian Girl Child and Reality of An Abusive Absurdity: A Reflection on Philosophy for Children in Higher Educational System

One of the social ills in contemporary Nigeria state is the abusive condition of the girl child. She has been abandoned, starved, beaten, enslaved and sexually molested by the society that ought to care about her but instead tames and guides her. Hence the paper attempts a social re-engineering process through philosophy for children dimension in higher education with a view to minimising, if not curbing, this ugly tragedy. The study employed both philosophical analysis and descriptive survey type. Philosophy for children is not an effort at teaching children the philosophical jargons but rather towards enablement of philosophical skills and its applications to questions of personal significance to the student. Findings revealed that the girl child abuse, though on the rise recently, but could be reversed where she is well trained in philosophical mindset at early age. Also, justice prevails when the abuse is timely reported to the law enforcement agents. Further, the establishment of victim-friendly court system would go a long way in facilitating quick dispensation of justice. Nevertheless, the vigorous pursue of ethical genuine poverty alleviation programmes would undoubtedly reduce the trend of the abuse in the society. The paper concluded that society should endeavour to nip the problem in the bud through conscientious philosophical guidance of Nigerian girl child at all time by all stakeholders. It is stated that the involvement of higher educational system will assist the parents, guardian, girl child, law enforcement agents, the law makers, the clinicians, the theoretician, the researcher and all other concerned with children’s welfare in such a way to shed light on a path of progress in decreasing and preventing this affront on our girl child in particular and children in general.

From the History of the Conservatory Creation in Azerbaijan

This article is devoted to the first conservatory creation of the Muslim East, which was opened in the city of Baku on August 26, 1921. In itself, this remarkable fact testifies to the difficulties that arose on the way to creating this Higher Musical Educational Institution in Baku. The article consistently highlights the most important facts related to the opening and activities of the conservatory. It is important to emphasize that despite all the difficulties that arise along the way, Uz. Hajibeyli and his associates persistently went to their cherished dream – the creation of the first conservatory in Baku. The purpose of the research is to identify the conditions in which the first conservatory of the Muslim East was created. Uz. Hajibeyli took years of consistent work to create that strong foundation on which the building of the conservatory was erected, now BMA named after. Uz. Hajibeyli. Note that August 26, 2021, marks the 100th anniversary of the first conservatory in Azerbaijan founding. The research methodology is based on genuine historical facts with which the activities of Uzeyir Hajibeyli were associated in the process of creating the conservatory. The scientific novelty of the research is associated with some facts of Uz. Hajibeyli’s life, which were not mentioned at all in Soviet times. All these facts, one way or another, come out of the time of the existence of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. The ADR national anthem was written by Uz. Hajibeyli. It is also the anthem of modern Azerbaijan. Conclusions. The approaching centenary anniversary of the first conservatory in Azerbaijan allows not only to evaluate the path it has travelled but also to pay tribute to its creator, Uzeyirbek Hajibeyli, the founder of Azerbaijani professional music, a great visionary who consistently leads Azerbaijani music along the path of progress and conquest of heights in composing, performing and educational processes in the republic.

Intelligent Cyber-Security System for IoT-Aided Drones Using Voting Classifier

Developments in drones have opened new trends and opportunities in different fields, particularly in small drones. Drones provide interlocation services for navigation, and this interlink is provided by the Internet of Things (IoT). However, architectural issues make drone networks vulnerable to privacy and security threats. It is critical to provide a safe and secure network to acquire desired performance. Small drones are finding new paths for progress in the civil and defense industries, but also posing new challenges for security and privacy as well. The basic design of the small drone requires a modification in its data transformation and data privacy mechanisms, and it is not yet fulfilling domain requirements. This paper aims to investigate recent privacy and security trends that are affecting the Internet of Drones (IoD). This study also highlights the need for a safe and secure drone network that is free from interceptions and intrusions. The proposed framework mitigates the cyber security threats by employing intelligent machine learning models in the design of IoT-aided drones by making them secure and adaptable. Finally, the proposed model is evaluated on a benchmark dataset and shows robust results.

Editorial

Editorial

Centrifugal force assessment in ram sperm: identifying species-specific impact

BackgroundCentrifugation is routinely employed in handling the ejaculates of some species, but it is not part of the commonly used protocols in ram. However, the development and implementation of new assisted reproductive technologies, alternative preservation models based on washing sperm from a cellular ageing-accelerating substance such as the seminal plasma, and basic studies in spermatology is associated with the use of centrifugation. This requires a specific evaluation of the centrifugation protocols considering the species-specific relationship with the potential damage produced by this procedure. No previous studies have determined the effect of different centrifugation forces on ram sperm. Therefore, we aimed to assess the performance of three centrifugal forces (600×g, 3000×g, and 6000×g for 10 min at room temperature) and their effects on ram sperm motility and functionality.ResultsSperm motility and functionality parameters were assessed at 0 h and after 2 h of incubation at 37 °C. As expected, a higher cell packaging degree was obtained at high centrifugation forces (P ≤ 0.0001). Cell packaging was unstable at all centrifugal forces. Thus, there was a high cell resuspension rate after less than 2 min. Regarding sperm quality, there was a change in movement pattern of 3000×g and 6000×g centrifuged sperm after 2 h of incubation at 37 °C, characterized by an increase in rapid progressive motility, linearity, straightness, and beat frequency, and a decrease in medium progressive motility, curvilinear velocity, path velocity, and head lateral amplitude. Non-significant differences were obtained among the different treatments concerning the total viability. However, we observed a significant increase (P ≤ 0.05) in the percentage of viable apoptotic sperm in the samples centrifuged at 6000×g at 0 h.ConclusionsCentrifugal forces equal to or greater than 3000×g induced some deleterious effects in ram sperm quality, and lower forces did not provide a successful cell packaging degree.

An innovative maturity model to assess supply chain quality management

PurposeThis paper aims to present and discuss an innovative maturity model (MM) to assess supply chain quality management (SCQM). The SCQM MM can be used to guide organizations in the development and improvement of quality in their supply chains (SCs). Additionally, this paper intends to better understand that integration and its impacts on organizational performance.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed MM was developed based on an exhaustive literature review of the most relevant MMs developed in the areas of quality management, supply chain management and other relevant domains.FindingsThe proposed MM consists of a matrix with 100 criteria organized in five organizational dimensions and five maturity levels, embracing the most relevant SC issues and describing a progressive path towards a state of full maturity.Originality/valueIt is an innovative tool useful for both academic experts and practitioners to integrate quality management across the SC, thus promoting and improving organizational performance from an integrated and sustainable perspective.