Traditional Work Research Articles

Cellfare: Delivering Self-Targeted Social Protection Using Mobile Phones

This article proposes a new form of self-targeted social protection scheme: beneficiaries carry out a series of small tasks on their mobile phones, each linked to a small payment. Key advantages over traditional public works include potentially large reductions in leakage, costs, and delays. The proposed scheme may also be suitable to wider demographics as it does not require physical labour and can be availed from home. A prototype implementation of a ‘cellfare’ scheme was tested in rural India, and 42 participants with experience of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, a large Indian public works programme, favourably compared the proposed scheme to the existing one.

Practical Research on the Work of College Counselors in the Internet Era

With the rapid development of modern technology, the internet and computers have been widely integrated into production and daily life. To achieve sustainable development goals and move towards diversification in the education sector, it is necessary to introduce modern educational concepts and work models. Counselors are an indispensable element in the work of college students. Traditional work models are no longer able to meet the personalized development needs of students and even seriously hinder the progress of the work. Counselors should transform their traditional work thinking, rely on internet technology to expand their work space, break the constraints of time and space, and provide objective conditions for exploring the future prospects of their work. In order to improve the overall efficiency of daily management work, counselors need to follow the trend of the times, seize the opportunities of the times under the premise of adhering to the laws of student development, and give full play to the advantages of internet technology applications to meet the diverse challenges of their work.

Investigating in vivo force and work production of rat medial gastrocnemius at varying locomotor speeds using a Muscle avatar.

Traditional work loop studies, that use sinusoidal length trajectories with constant frequencies, lack the complexities of in vivo muscle mechanics observed in modern studies. This study refines methodology of the "avatar" method (a modified work loop) to infer in vivo muscle mechanics using ex vivo experiments with mouse extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles. The "avatar" method involves using EDL muscles to replicate in vivo time varying force, as demonstrated by previous studies focusing on guinea fowl lateral gastrocnemius (LG). The present study extends this method by using in vivo length trajectories and electromyographic (EMG) activity from rat medial gastrocnemius (MG) during various gaits on a treadmill. Methodological enhancements from previous work, including adjusted stimulation protocols and systematic variation of starting length, improved predictions of in vivo time varying force production (R2 0.80 - 0.96). The study confirms there are significant influence of length, stimulation, and their interactions on work loop variables (peak force, length at peak force, highest and average shortening velocity, and maximum and minimum active velocity), highlighting the importance of these interactions when muscles produce in vivo forces. We also investigated the limitations of traditional work loops in capturing muscle dynamics in legged locomotion (R2 0.01 - 0.71). While in vivo length trajectories enhanced force prediction, accurately predicting work per cycle remained challenging. Overall, the study emphasizes the utility of the "avatar" method in elucidating dynamic muscle mechanics and highlights areas for further investigation to refine its application in understanding in vivo muscle function.

Is transcranial alternating current stimulation effective for improving working memory? A three-level meta-analysis.

Working memory, an essential component of cognitive function, can be improved through specific methods. This meta-analysis evaluates the effectiveness of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), an emerging technique for enhancing working memory, and explores its efficacy, influencing factors, and underlying mechanisms. A PRISMA systematic search was conducted. Hedges's g was used to quantify effect sizes. We constructed a three-level meta-analytic model to account for all effect sizes and performed subgroup analyses to assess moderating factors. Recognizing the distinct neural underpinnings of various working memory processes, we separately assessed the effects on n-back tasks and traditional working memory tasks. A total of 39 studies with 405 effect sizes were included (170 from n-back tasks and 235 from other tasks). The overall analysis indicated a net benefit of g = 0.060 of tACS on working memory. Separate analyses showed that tACS had a small positive effect on n-back tasks (g = 0.102), but almost no effect on traditional working memory tasks (g = 0.045). Further analyses revealed mainly: A moderately positive effect of theta tACS (without anti-phase stimulation) on n-back tasks (g = 0.207); and a small effect of offline stimulation on working memory maintenance (g = 0.127). Overall, tACS has minimal impact on working memory improvement, but it shows potential under certain conditions. Specifically, both online and offline theta tACS can improve n-back task performance, while only offline stimulation enhances working memory maintenance. More research is needed to understand the mechanisms behind these effects to make tACS an effective method.

Enhancing Physical Science Education: The Integration of Digital Practical Work in Teaching Electrodynamics for Experiential Learning

Digital practical work (DPW) has emerged as a highly effective and indispensable component of science education, enhancing and extending traditional laboratory experiences. DPW aims to complement physical laboratory experiments, particularly those that teachers may find challenging to conduct or lack the confidence to perform. In this study, a content training workshop on electrodynamics was implemented to showcase DPW's effectiveness. The workshop was designed to equip in-service physical science teachers with the skills needed for integrating digital tools into their teaching methods. To gather comprehensive data, the study utilized video recordings, discussions, and evaluation reports, providing rich qualitative evidence of DPW's effectiveness. These methods captured teachers' understanding of electromagnetic concepts, their experiences, and their perceptions of DPW. The findings revealed that DPW significantly enhanced teachers' knowledge of electrodynamics and their awareness of effective digital pedagogy. The study strongly recommends integrating DPW into physical science teaching, particularly when traditional laboratory work is impractical. Unlike conventional teaching that merely transmits information, physical science education requires hands-on, practical observation to support theoretical concepts and promote meaningful learning. DPW bridges this gap, ensuring that students receive a robust and engaging science education, regardless of the constraints of the physical laboratory environment.

Social work students’ perspectives on the future of human rights

ABSTRACT This study explores social work students’ perspectives on human rights in their practice, drawing on focus group interviews from universities in Germany, Poland, and the Philippines. Focus group discussions were coded using thematic content analysis based on an inductive approach in which themes emerge from the conversations between participants and the researchers and among themselves. It examines emergent themes on envisioning human rights’ future in social work, highlighting novel application approaches. The research underscores the necessity of incorporating human rights education, emphasizing respect, equality, and dignity, into social work curricula. Students discuss the evolving nature of societal norms and human rights, advocating for adaptive, culturally sensitive approaches to meet demographic and societal changes. The findings suggest a paradigm shift toward a more inclusive perspective that integrates environmental and collective rights, marking a significant move from traditional social work practices. Additionally, the research highlights the international political context, including the rise of authoritarian nationalism, which poses significant challenges to the advancement of human rights globally. This underscores the urgency for social work to act as a counter-movement in defense of human rights and democratic principles.

Implementation of Labor Law in the Era of Industrial Revolution 4.0 - Challenges and Solutions

The Industrial Revolution 4.0 has drastically transformed global industries, introducing advanced technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence, and digitalization into the workplace. This rapid technological shift has presented significant challenges for labor laws, which are often designed for traditional work environments. This study explores the implementation of labor law in the context of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, analyzing the challenges faced by both employers and employees in adapting to these new technological advancements. Using a qualitative methodology, this research employs a juridical review of existing labor laws, supported by an in-depth case study examining how these laws are applied in technology-driven industries. The findings indicate that labor laws often lag behind the technological advances, leading to gaps in legal protections for workers and ambiguities in employer obligations. The case study highlights specific instances where current labor regulations fail to address issues related to remote work, job displacement due to automation, and workers' rights in the gig economy. Solutions are proposed to modernize labor laws, ensuring they are adaptable to future technological developments while safeguarding workers' rights. The study concludes that there is an urgent need for legal reforms to balance innovation with fair labor practices in the era of Industry 4.0.

Proposal of a Modernized Work Through Analysis of the Sense of Well-Being in the Landscape Paintings of Chinese Writers “Shen Zhou” and “Shi Tao”

This study explores the potential value of promoting psychological health by analyzing individual well-being through traditional Chinese landscape paintings. Chinese landscape paintings incorporate the natural view and humanistic spirit of the major philosophical ideas of Confucianism, Taoism, and Zen Buddhism in the East. In particular, the landscape paintings of “Shen zhou(沈周)” and “Shi tao(石濤)” convey a feeling of peace and leisure. We explore how works can evoke sense of well-being with the emotional needs of modern people. The research methods include various literature studies, surveys, statistical analyses of Chinese people, and commentary on works created by the researcher by reapplying the sense of well-being in Chinese landscape paintings to modern design. This study finds that the sense of well-being in landscape paintings has a significant effect on improved psychological stability among modern people, thus identifying an opportunity to recognize the value and meaning of traditional art in modern people’s lives. In addition, this study links the modernization and commercialization of traditional works through the researcher’s individual creative works. Furthermore, the researcher reveals the characteristic elements of traditional Chinese landscape paintings and combines them with modern landscape painting techniques. Accordingly, various research-related and creative activities using landscape painting can be conducted that design and provide creative products to promote psychological well-being and vitality among busy modern people.

Online harassment in labor relations

The article notes that the integration of social media into our daily lives has led to the blurring of the boundaries between work and personal space and, as a result, the growth of harassment on social media. Based on various statistics and international studies, it can be argued that harassment at work, especially sexual harassment, is a complex, unresolved problem for many companies around the world, and the constant growth of remote work that began during the pandemic directly leads to an increase in complaints about aggressive actions on the Internet. The authors of the article point out that harassment on social media in the workplace does not have to be limited to traditional working hours, and the harasser can be not only a colleague, manager, or technical staff, but also a client, supplier, etc. To effectively combat harassment in the workplace, organizations must first develop a zero-tolerance policy against harassment or any other form of discrimination and cultivate a culture of empathy. However, a policy or training alone is not enough if there is no detailed and effective mechanism for reporting harassment to a manager or an authorized body at the enterprise. The article analyzes the foreign and national experience of the procedure for reporting harassment and protecting violated rights. The author concludes that since Ukrainian legislation does not define harassment and does not establish liability for such actions, employees have the opportunity to protect their rights only within the framework of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Men and Women” and the Law of Ukraine “On Principles of Prevention and Combating Discrimination in Ukraine”. Therefore, the issue of supplementing national legislation with such a term as harassment, defining its possible forms and establishing liability, as was done, for example, with regard to mobbing, is now an urgent one.

Modernizing Traffic Management in Telangana: Integrating Technology for Enhanced Road Safety and Efficiency

Abstract: This work therefore aims to explore the trends of traffic management efforts in operation since the formation of Telangana in year 2014. The traffic problems have emerged due to the fast-growing urbanisation, and with the road network of now 32,445 km, Telangana has adopted new measures into addressing the challenges. The paper also considers both conventional and recent trends in policing, including advanced technology like high-definition cameras, challan prepared by computers, and software programmes incorporating artificial intelligence. Secondly, the work shows that the indicators of road safety have improved substantiationly with 2016 as the starting year, and accidents, fatalities, and injuries decreased by 2020.. Such problems as increased working hours, ceaseless training in new technologies, and data protection issues are still there, however, the case of Telangana demonstrates that in a situation of the technological progress, it is still possible to create a coherent and effective system of security and public confidence for developing countries’ regions. In this paper, it is agreed that multiplying of modern technologies with traditional police work has enhanced traffic management and road safety in the state

Running out the digital clock: transatlantic privacy politics and veto points in time

ABSTRACT Why does the European Commission continue to sign onto unstable international data flow agreements with the United States? After two agreements were struck down by the European Court of Justice, and clear signals that a new one could meet a similar fate, the European Commission agreed to the Data Privacy Framework. To make sense of this behavior, we connect traditional work on veto points with work on historical institutionalism to highlight an international negotiation strategy – running out the clock. While traditional veto points literature suggests multiple institutions with varying preferences will limit the set of potential policies or their adoption, we highlight how these dynamics change when considering veto points in time. We showcase our argument by building three historical narratives detailing the negotiation of the successive data flow agreements. Our findings have important implications for the future of the transatlantic privacy regime as well as negotiation dynamics.

Exploring residents’ expectations and designers’ perspectives towards post-earthquake permanent housing: A case study in Antakya

Post-disaster permanent housing is the backbone of the recovery efforts after destructive events. It holds great potential to adopt new technological innovations and to provide improved conditions for these everyday spaces. However, previous investigations suggest that these housing projects lack consideration of the inhabitants' expectations, needs, and values due to environmental, cultural, and social factors, resulting in a dissatisfactory built environment. Following the Kahramanmaraş earthquake on February 6, 2023, this research aims to explore the expectations of affected residents in the historic district of Antakya. We expect to contribute to decision-makers, designers, and the technology industry to develop more user-centered housing recovery efforts in the aftermath of these devastating events. The findings revealed four implications from the expectations for post-earthquake homes: (1) designing for togetherness, (2) valuing community efforts and traditional work, (3) including productional activities, and lastly, (4) preserving and reminiscing heritage values. Additionally, we discussed these four implications with multi-disciplinary designers to expand the discussion space for designing post-earthquake permanent homes in Antakya. Overall, these implications suggest some future architectural changes in homes as their residents' expectations, including the creation of new heritage and production spaces using digital, physical, and mixed reality technologies, as well as the emergence of new social gathering spaces. By conducting a case study in Antakya, our research highlights the potential for the further development of post-disaster permanent homes that not only provide shelter and safety but also enhance the overall quality of life for the residents, both for Antakya and the other relevant cases worldwide.

Crafting Sustainable Success in Hybrid Work Practices - Quality of Work Life and Mediating Effects of Job Satisfaction & Leadership Support

The rise of hybrid work arrangements, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, introduced both challenges and opportunities for organizations and employees. This study seeks to examine the sustainability of hybrid work models by analyzing the role of leadership support (LS) and job satisfaction (JS) as mediators in the relationship between Quality of Work Life (QWL) and Work-Life Balance (WLB). Data were collected via online surveys from 343 valid respondent employees working in the private corporate sector in India who had experience in remote or hybrid work setups. The hypothesized relationships among the named variables were tested using the PLS-SEM approach, with a standard bootstrapping procedure employed to disclose direct and indirect effects among latent variables. The findings indicate that employees strongly preferred the hybrid work model over the traditional work setting. Also, it reveals that QWL positively influences WLB, with both LS and JS serving as significant mediators. Leadership support, in particular, emerged as a crucial factor in the hybrid work context, influencing job satisfaction among employees and helping to strike a good balance between their professional and personal lives. The novelty of this research lies in its empirical demonstration of how leadership support and job satisfaction mediate the relationship between QWL and WLB, providing actionable insights for organizations to navigate the complexities of hybrid work model. The study recommends that organizations should formalize hybrid work arrangements; prioritize leadership communication; conduct regular team-building activities and focus on outcome-based performance evaluations. These strategies will enhance job satisfaction, strengthen leadership roles, and promote long-term prosperity with a positive societal and ecological impact.

Ornamental Patterns of Contemporary Indonesian Batik: Clothing for Strengthening the Articulation of Appearance Characteristics

Batik is a significant aspect of Javanese and Indonesia culture, celebrated for its complex motifs, rich history, and deep cultural values. The research method used is qualitative research based on exploration and explanation supported with Iconographical Analysis and Elegant Design Theory. UNESCO’s recognition of batik as a world culture heritage, has led to a revival in interest and respect for this art form in Indonesia. Historically, batik was reserved for the nobility, but nowadays, it has evolved into national attire with contemporary significance. The focus of this study is to position batik as not only a traditional work of art that has developed into contemporary fashion, but also contains various ethical and aesthetic boundaries as a reflection of the intelligence of clothing culture. Contemporary batik is seen as a medium that can enhance the wearer’s appearance. Several characteristics of a person’s appearance that can be strengthened based on batik ornamental patterns are authoritative, openness, responsible, dynamic, and simplicity. This pattern is actualised in fashion design with a format resembling the letters or punctuation marks of Y, +, \, Z, and I.

Improved Low-Rank Matrix Approximation in Multivariate Case

The low-rank matrix approximation (LRMA) algorithm is an important method in signal processing. This algorithm is usually used in many tasks such as the matrix estimation and machine learning algorithms. In the past, many convex regularizers, such as the absolute-value norm, were presented for LRMA. Recently, many works show that LRMA on many nonconvex regularizers, such as the quadratic and logarithmic regularizers, can give better efficiency than the convex regularizer. Furthermore, many traditional works present LRMA in the univariate case, and do not consider in the multivariate case. Therefore, LRMA in the multivariate case on the nonconvex regularizer is presented in this work. Note that our proposed method is based on the singular value decomposition (SVD) algorithm. The relationship between singular values is considered by this multivariate case. We also present the novel nonconvex regularizer for LRMA. The simple solution for our method can be obtained from this regularizer. In many random signals, our proposed method is evaluated with the state-of-the-art algorithms. Experimental results show that the best results can be obtained from the proposed method.

How management support and diversity factors affect employee performance within the digital workplace

PurposeWe aimed to determine how remote management support (MS) practices and staff diversity influenced employee performance (EP) within the digital workplace (DW) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article highlights the challenges managers face in achieving EP in the DW compared to traditional work environments.Design/methodology/approachWe developed a theoretical model (MS→DW→EP) and tested it based on the computer-assisted web interview (CAWI) conducted in mid-2022. Factors of primary, secondary and organizational diversity moderated the relationship between the variables. We purposely selected a sample of 1,000 respondents with remote working experience.FindingsThe results show that the DW partially mediates the relationship between MS and EP. The greater the uncertainty in managing people, the more flexibility, trust and job satisfaction required in the DW to achieve EP. Organizational diversity influenced the model more (i.e. teamwork vs individual work) than the primary and secondary diversity (i.e. gender and education).Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the sample size was large, we cannot consider it statistically representative.Practical implicationsZoomers and Millennials reflect full mediation in the model that supports EP.Social implicationsBroader work autonomy, smaller organizations and teams as well as hybrid work arrangements, reduce the necessity for in-person meetings with superiors.Originality/valueSupervisors had to reduce control over the DW while expanding organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) to enhance job satisfaction and thus ensure the expected EP during the pandemic. We may consider allowing an employee to postpone work as a new managerial activity within MS.

ACLNDA: an asymmetric graph contrastive learning framework for predicting noncoding RNA-disease associations in heterogeneous graphs.

Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), including long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs), play crucial roles in gene expression regulation and are significant in disease associations and medical research. Accurate ncRNA-disease association prediction is essential for understanding disease mechanisms and developing treatments. Existing methods often focus on single tasks like lncRNA-disease associations (LDAs), miRNA-disease associations (MDAs), or lncRNA-miRNA interactions (LMIs), and fail to exploit heterogeneous graph characteristics. We propose ACLNDA, an asymmetric graph contrastive learning framework for analyzing heterophilic ncRNA-disease associations. It constructs inter-layer adjacency matrices from the original lncRNA, miRNA, and disease associations, and uses a Top-K intra-layer similarity edges construction approach to form a triple-layer heterogeneous graph. Unlike traditional works, to account for both node attribute features (ncRNA/disease) and node preference features (association), ACLNDA employs an asymmetric yet simple graph contrastive learning framework to maximize one-hop neighborhood context and two-hop similarity, extracting ncRNA-disease features without relying on graph augmentations or homophily assumptions, reducing computational cost while preserving data integrity. Our framework is capable of being applied to a universal range of potential LDA, MDA, and LMI association predictions. Further experimental results demonstrate superior performance to other existing state-of-the-art baseline methods, which shows its potential for providing insights into disease diagnosis and therapeutic target identification. The source code and data of ACLNDA is publicly available at https://github.com/AI4Bread/ACLNDA.

Isolated Spiral Solutions of the Ginzburg–Landau Equation

Using finite element simulation, we study the main features of rotating wave solutions of the cubic complex Ginzburg–Landau equation. To focus on the characteristics of the waves themselves, we have used a circular domain to avoid the effects of irregular boundaries; we have inhibited the formation of defects using an Archimedean wave centered at the origin as the initial condition, and we have chosen a domain size long enough to contain several spiral arms but not so long as to promote long-wave instabilities. This allows us to focus on the geometric features of the solutions often overlooked in traditional works with random initial conditions in large domains. We show with our simulations that the convective and absolute stabilities differ from those predicted for plane waves. Likewise, we show that the appearance of spirals and anti-spirals can occur in any of the quadrants of the parameter space and depends fundamentally on the initial conditions. Finally, regarding the stability of spiral waves against sideband disturbances, we show that the persistence of two-dimensional spiral waves, if fulfilled, does not correspond to the Eckhaus criterion. Our simulations allow us to corroborate the idea that two-dimensional spirals depend on the size of the domain and that they require new analytical results whose trends are identified in this work.

A continuous concrete vibration method for robots based on machine vision with integrated spatial features

The traditional manual concrete vibration work faces numerous limitations, necessitating efficient automated method to assist in this task. This study proposes a vision-based continuous concrete vibration method for vibrating robots. By enhancing the YOLOv8n model with attention mechanisms, our proposed method demonstrates a high AP of 93.31 % in identifying reinforcing grids, and an FPS of 25.6 on embedded systems. For the first time in concrete vibration tasks, this study utilizes spatial positional information to cluster coordinate data, transforming confidence-sorted data into spatially ordered sequences. Vibrating robot case test shows that the proposed method enhances the vibration speed by 22.18 % and improves the vibration success rate by 11.67 % compared to traditional strategies. Additionally, the on-site experiment conducted at four construction sites demonstrated the robustness of the proposed method. These findings advance automation in concrete vibration work, offering significant implications for the fields of robotics and construction engineering.

COVID-19 pandemic & neurosciences in India- the CoINstudy: Impact of the pandemic on research related to the neurosciences.

Background & objectives We aimed to assess the impact of COVID-19-related disruptions on ongoing and future projects related to neuroscience research and young researchers in India. Methods We conducted a countrywide online survey using a structured, self-administered questionnaire involving medical trainees, post-doctoral fellows, PhD students, early career faculty members and basic neuroscience researchers. The purpose was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the respondents' ongoing/planned research activities and capture their concerns related to future research. Results Five hundred and four valid responses were analyzed. More than three-fourths of the respondents were in their early careers - 64.1 per cent were resident doctors, and 19.8 per cent were early career consultants. Maximum responses were received from respondents working in neurology (228; 45.2%), followed by psychiatry (192; 38.1%) and neurosurgery (49; 9.7%). More than three-fourths [83.5%, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.8-0.867] of the respondents reported that the pandemic had affected their research. About one-third of the respondents (171; 33.9%) reported delays in completing research studies. Respondents adapted to the pandemic's circumstances by making methodological changes in their research (155; 30.8%). Most respondents (301; 59.6%) reported being diverted from their traditional work settings to COVID-19-related clinical services. Respondents conducting prospective studies and randomized controlled trials and those diverted to COVID-related services were significantly more likely to report the adverse research impact. Interpretation & conclusions In our survey, an overwhelming majority of the respondents reported that the pandemic adversely impacted their study. This trend was independent of sex, designation, and research output of individual subjects. The serious impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on neurosciences research warrants the attention and concerted efforts of the research supervisors, institutional heads, funding agencies and other stakeholders.