14th Annual International Conference on Global Studies Athens International Symposium on Education and Research Program (Athens Local Time) (Note: each presentation includes at least 10 minutes for questions and discussions if available)
Friday 18 December 2020
09.30-10.30 Registration
10.30-11.00 Opening and Welcoming Remarks:
Gregory T. Papanikos, President, ATINER
11.00-11.30
Paul Carnegie, Associate Professor, Institute of Asian Studies, University of Brunei Darussalam, Brunei. Title: Precarious Circumstances: Rethinking Human Security in Southeast Asia.
A central problem in examining multiple insecurities in Southeast Asia is at what level of analysis. Besides the more obvious threats and impediments to human security posed by conflict or natural disaster, each country confronts a different context of human security. They face a variety of intersecting circumstances that render situational day-to-day forms of precariousness difficult to recognise and interpret. There are an array of often unseen and specific challenges embedded in people’s daily-lived experience. Yet, state-led action tends to underplay the diverse realities of human insecurities on the ground and aggregate individuals and communities within narrowly constructed framings of ‘risk’ and ‘vulnerability’. This is problematic. It creates an essentialised discursive appearance that understates the contextual range of precariousness faced by marginalised individuals and communities. In the process, localised issues of power, politics and inequality are often overlooked. The following presentation considers the complex relationships between ‘safety’ and ‘risk’ and that of ‘trust’ and ‘uncertainty’ in understanding the politics of precariousness. It argues that the field of human security needs to engage more fully with a range social science concepts and approaches if it is to gain greater analytical purchase on precarious lives in the Southeast Asian context.
11.30-12.00
Akira Shimada, Associate Professor, Nagasaki University, Japan. Title: Can Study Migrants Alleviate the Brain Drain or Enhance the Brain Gain of the Host Country? Another Effect of Study Migrants.
This study investigates the effects of accepting study migrants on natives’ human capital accumulation analytically under the possibilities of natives’ labour migration and the negative effects of study migrants on natives’ education. It is usually inferred that study migrants build human capital that is applicable to the host country and that for this reason they will likely work in the host country after education. Based upon these inferences, it is argued that countries can increase their domestic human capital by accepting able study migrants. However, such an argument is often made without taking the effect of study migrants on the education of natives into account. Although it is a controversial issue whether study migrants have negative or positive effects on the education of native students, given the increase in the number of study migrants, it is not appropriate to disregard their effects in analyses. This study attempts to clarify how natives’ human capital accumulation is related to the acceptance of study migrants. For this purpose, this study assumes a country in which natives with heterogeneous innate ability receive education with study migrants at the young age and work in or out of their home country at the old age. This study shows that the country experiences the brain gain as well as the brain drain when accepting study migrants—even if they negatively affect natives’ education and all of the study migrants leave the country after their education. In addition, the country can control the brain drain and the brain gain by manipulating the number of study migrants. Specifically, if the wage disparity between the natives’ home country and their destination is small, the country experiences the brain drain. However, they can reduce the brain drain and turn it into the brain gain by increasing the number of study migrants. On the other hand, if the wage disparity is large, the country experiences the brain gain and can enhance it by reducing the number of study migrants. These results arise from the fact that both positive and negative effects operate simultaneously when changing the number of study migrants. By increasing it, natives suffer from greater negative effects and a reduced demand for education. Since natives’ human capital and their migration probability decrease, which makes migration less profitable, the number of natives who attempt to migrate becomes smaller. This restrains the outflow of natives’ human capital and makes natives’ total human capital in the country larger. However, at the same time, human capital of individual natives who remain in the country also becomes smaller and makes natives’ total human capital in the country smaller. This study contributes to the literature on the brain drain and the brain gain by revealing the effect of accepting study migrants on natives’ human capital via natives’ migration decisions. It also contributes by revealing the possibility for the government to control the brain drain and the brain gain effectively by manipulating the number of study migrant.
12:00-12:30 Stefano Neri, Associate Professor, University of Milan, Italy. Title: Covid-19 and the Italian National Health Service
12:30-13:00 Ozge Can, Assistant Professor, Yaşar University, Turkey.
Defne Gonenc, Researcher, Yaşar University, Turkey. Title: Diverse Strategies and Actions of Environmental Organizations in the Aegean Region.
Turkey is among the developing countries which suffer from serious environmental degradation after the second half of the twentieth century. Unjust economic development, fast urbanization and unregulated industrialization caused deepening ecological crisis in the country. As a response, various non-governmental organizations has been established to deal with the intensifying crisis. Since the government and the companies have been mostly reluctant to undertake sufficient measures to alter their behavior for environmental protection, environmental civil society has been pushing to reverse the degradation. Although their efficacy remains questionable, environmental civil society organizations and movements have been embracing different goals and employing various strategies and modes to attain these goals. This study examines the organizational characteristics and strategic actions of the environmental non-state actors in the Aegean Region of Turkey. By analyzing primary quantitative data collected via survey from 146 environmental organizations, we study the differing organizational, strategical and tactical repertoires. We explore their key organizational characteristics, priorities, tactical choices and collective action repertoires as well as their self-identified strengths and weaknesses.
13:00-13:30 Zafer Kizilkaya, Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for European Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Mohammad Salman, Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute for European Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
Title: Turkish Policies in Northern Syria and its Implications for the Refugee Flow to Europe.
In the last couple of years, developments in Syria have added an extra layer to the already complicated relationship between the EU and Turkey. Cooperation and discord have mainly been on two key issues: the refugee crisis and the threat of terrorism which is associated with the phenomenon of European foreign fighters. Accordingly, most of the current academic and non-academic research output has been on the problems, opportunities and policy proposals concerning these two priorities. Turkey’s repositioning in Syria, its military action in the northern part of this country and its stance on the future of Syria are not clearly understood in the West. This precludes the formation of an accurate view on the potential challenges associated with further refugee flows to the European countries. Moreover, it also hinders the development of a coherent Turkey policy within the EU.
This paper aims at identifying opportunities and constraints for EU-Turkey cooperation in Syria focusing on the Turkish sphere of influence in northern Syria. Here, a distinction will be made between the Turkish policies regarding the West of the Euphrates (the Idlib region and the Turkish controlled areas between Jarablus, Azaz and Al Bab) and the East of the Euphrates which Turkey conducted its latest offensive in October 2019. The goal is:
To examine Turkey’s foreign policy objectives in both areas,
To explore potential future scenarios based on the developments on the ground,
To evaluate Turkish administrative structure that is present in several Syrian border towns,
To assess Turkish plans and ambitions to resettle Syrian refugees in northern Syria,
To reflect on the position of other key stakeholders such as the Syrian Kurds and the Syrian regime,
And to identify policy alternatives for the EU.
Initial findings indicate that Turkey seeks long-term presence in northern Syria without any concrete plan in the resettlement of Syrian refugees. Weaponization of refugees by the Turkish government will likely continue as last witnessed before the outbreak of the Corona pandemic in early 2020. The EU will likely remain to be stuck “between a rock and a hard place” which necessitates a better grasp of Turkish policy objectives in its 822 km. long Syrian border.
13:30-14:00 Petr Cerny, Assistant Professor, Jan Evangelista Purkyně University, Czech Republic. Title: The Right of Assembly in the Central Europe.
The right of assembly is one of the most important political rights. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), seated in Strasbourg, protects compliance for the European Convention on Human Rights (Convention) and assesses, inter alia, whether the member states violated the right of free assembly which is settled down in article no. 11 Convention. The contribution deals with the ECHR’s approach to this issue as well as the concept of right of assembly according to the Germany, the Czech Republic, the Austria and the Slovak Republic. The contribution shows the differences among the aforementioned states, including ECHR, at particular in the definition of the notion assembly and solving the question when an assembly may take place on private property. These comparisons reveal that the one of the most important questions in the future is using private property such as shopping mall, airport, railway station or private land for an assembly and ECHR holds the view which is different from aforementioned states.
14:00-14:30 Lela Khachidze, Associate Professor, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University & Head, Department of the Georgian Language and Literature, Tbilisi Theological Academy and Seminary, Georgia. Title: Byzantine and Georgian Hymnographical Heritage (Lenten Triodion under George the Athonite’s Redaction).
Byzantine hymnography is one of the most important elements of Christian culture. This is evidenced by numerous scholarly works. However, many issues and problems require further study. Byzantine hymns are excellent examples of spirituality, writing and music, created by prominent representatives of the Christian church. The Georgian translation of the Byzantine hymnographic specimens began in the 6th century. The first Georgian translations of Byzantine hymnography are preserved in old Georgian liturgical-hymnographic collections. A special place in the history of Georgian Christian culture is occupied by the Athos theological and literary school, which was founded in the 80s of the 10th century. George the Athonite (1009-1065) is an outstanding representative of this school and Georgian Christian culture, who was canonized by the Georgian and Greek Orthodox churches. He was thoroughly acquainted with the Byzantine and Georgian theological writings. The main principle of his epochal activity was maximum approach of the earlier Georgian translations to the Greek originals. In compiling various liturgical collections, George the Athonite collected material in accordance with the most important traditions of the Christian East of that time. In collections translated from Greek, he tried to show the modern Byzantine liturgical practice in full. The testimony of George the Athonite himself confirms the used sources, the principles, style and methodology of his translation work. The same principle is used in ”Lenten Triodion” under his redaction. This is one of the most important liturgical–hymnographic books in Christian church, containing numerous hymns for Great Lent. It has passed the different phases of development in the Eastern Christian traditions. “Lenten Triodion” under George the Athonite’s redaction is much more extensive than its contemporary Greek analogues. The significance of this collection for the study of Byzantine hymnography is determined by the work done by George the Athonite for identification of the authors of the hymns preserved in it. In the collection compiled by him, the authors are indicated not only by specific hymns but separate sections of the compiled hymns. This was possible to him because of perfect knowledge of the old Georgian translations and modern Greek sources. This collection preserves translations of the hymns of 14 Byzantine poet-melodists of the 5th – 10th centuries. Most of them are well known in scholarly literature, but a significant part of the hymns of the same authors whose originals are not present in the famous scholarly literature are preserved in this collection. The text of the “Lenten Triodion” under George the Athonite’s redaction has not been published yet. The academic edition of this collection according to the nine ancient Georgian manuscripts is prepared by the group of Georgian scholars and its electronic version will be placed on the Internet at the end of 2020.
14:30-15:00 Lunch
15:00-15:30 Paula Quadros-Flores, Assistant Professor, Escola Superior de Educação, Politécnico do Porto, Portugal. Vânia Graça, PhD Student, Institute of Education, University of Minho, Portugal. Altina Ramos, Assistant Professor, Institute of Education, University of Minho, Portugal. Title: The Integration of the Digital Platform Educaplay in Interdisciplinary Paths in the 1st and 2nd CEB.
The dialogue between knowledge, pedagogies and didactic resources gives meaning to learning. This learning when integrated in a transdisciplinary environment enhances the holistic development of the child. This study is part of the Master’s Degree in Education of the 1st Cycle of Basic Education and of Portuguese and Portuguese History and Geography in the 2nd Cycle of Basic Education, integrated in the IFITIC Project “Innovate with ICT in Initial Teacher Training to Promote Methodological Renewal in Pre-school Education and in the 1st Cycle of Basic Education”. This project is part of the IFITIC Project “Innovate with ICT in Initial Teacher Training to Promote Methodological Renewal in Pre-school Education and in the 1st and 2nd Cycles of Basic Education. The purpose of this research is to verify the potential of the digital educational platform Educaplay in the 1st CEB and 2nd CEB. In this sense, the qualitative methodology was used, of an interpretative and comprehensive nature, since the aim is to analyze the social, valuing the meaning of action and the role of the subjects in the social construction of reality. The data were collected by the participating observation practice and field notes, since they allow access to facts, situations and behaviors, difficult to be captured through the survey or interview. In the first stage the educational practice was understood through the integration of digital resources and in the second stage the facts and their impacts were analyzed and interpreted. The sample involved 73 children, 21 children attending 3rd grade and 52 children from two classes attending 6th grade at a school in the Porto region. The results show that this platform has promoted: a) the appropriation of contents in a transversal and interdisciplinary way and b) the development of skills, values and attitudes inherent to the profile of the XXI century student. Thus, the article presents the educational practices that have integrated tools of educplay by the voice of the narrator. It is hoped that this research can provide pointers for teachers and educators seeking to renew their educational practices of vertical and horizontal articulation.
15:30-16:00 David Doncel, Assistant Professor, University of Salamanca, Spain. Title: Study of the Social Well-Being’s Chinese Girls Adopted in the Spanish School System.
In a social context like the current one where the problems of social armony in a globalized world where both ethnic, gender and youth factors are envolved. This article aims to provide knowledge to create more inclusive societies. In this sense, Spain has a unique and representative social group, which shares three elements: ethnicity, gender and youth. We refer to the adopted Chinese children, called the “Mei Ming Generation” or “Nameless Generation”. At the end of the 20th century, Spain became the second country in the world in adoptions. By geographical origin, East Asia, and in particular China, was established as a priority destination for adoptive parents. The first Chinese adopted girls began arriving in 1995, reaching an approximate number of some 18,000 girls a decade later. The presence of this social group has contributed to increasing the diversity of the Spanish population, and particularly, in schools. The specific objective is to analyze the wellbeing of Chinese adopted girls in Spanish schools. For this, we analyze factors such as their school experience, their social identity, and their satisfaction with life or if they would be able victims of bullying. The methodological process will be applied semi-structured interviews n = 10 and a short questionnaire n = 240, applied to Castilla León (Autonomous Community of the Spanish State). The expected results will allow us to know more about the adoption and social wellbeing of this group in the education system and to provide knowledge of how unique groups are integrated into increasingly heterogeneous societies.
16:00-16:30 Marcos Cesar Danhoni Neves, Associate Professor, State University of Maringá, Brazil. Title: Images for Science Education: A STS Approach.
In Brazil, at the beginning of the 21st century, there were still few studies on Science, Technology and Society – STS, although the topic was widely discussed in different countries during the 20th century (CEREZO et al, 2003). We understand that studies, research and projects with a focus on STS are necessary for science education and this could contribute to the approximation of school contents with the daily lives of students. Based on this understanding, we will present discussions on the possibility of developing the STS approach through images. The proposal to use images with this focus is justified by the importance they have in contemporary times and the need of teachers in training and acting have regarding their use and analysis. Despite the constant use of images in science, it is common for teachers to have difficulties in their use. This difficulty occurs largely because science teachers (Biology, Chemistry and Physics) do not have adequate training to work with images, especially those related to STS. From this scenario presented, we ask: is it possible to provide subsidy (theoretical-methodological) for researchers and teachers in order to expand the imaginary universe of natural sciences under STS approach? Starting to discuss this question we present as objective of this research: to provide subsidies (theoretical-methodological) on image analysis. Thus, we will present a proposal of image analysis that can be used for the teaching of Science (Biology, Chemistry and Physics). As an Epistemological basis we adopted Feyerabend (1974), especially when he argues that scientific research should include different disciplinary communities, methods and so on. Thus we point out that we will adopt Feyerabend’s anarchist position, since for our discussions we will adopt, also, theoretical references from different knowledge areas. Regarding STS, we will adopt Aikenhead (1988, 1994), Bazzo (1998); regarding image analysis: Dondis 2003); Gombrich (2010); Ostrower (2008); Panofsky (2007); Barbosa (2005); Bredekamp (2015). These references will allow discussions about different educational theories and methodologies that can contribute to the construction of an approximation between STS studies and image studies. A proposal for image analysis has already been drafted and called Interdisciplinary Image Analysis (LI2), but our focus here will be images linked with STS approach.
16:30-17:00 Alius Avčininkas, PhD Candidate, Vilnius University, Lithuania. Title: Communicating Post-colonial Thinking – Political Myths in the Curriculum
Anti-colonial or post-colonial states have a need not so much to engage with the past in order to meet certain needs of the present as to rebuild and adapt or exploit it, often justifying one or another political decision, aspiration, etc. The traumatic experience of loss of roots or origin left to colonial politics is felt and constantly emphasized. However, it is often tempted to romanticize that former pre-colonial period as a counterweight. Hence the threat that Spivak warns of: there is always a risk of romanticizing a former colonial entity, which in the context of collective experience is often prone to sacralization; bypassing the individual aspect of identity, creating a homogeneous (imaginary) community that should (implicitly) assume a collective trauma (preferably) identity. In this way, a secularized version of the myth is created, which acquires the status of the concept of natural culture in Lithuania, when the search for the sources lost in the nationalist process of secularization acquires the aspect of holiness. Especially since the restitutional ideology of education still prevails in Lithuania, it is necessary to restore the ideals and tradition of the past, thus eliminating the Soviet occupation and ensuring the continuation of the idea of statehood when the curriculum represents those moral authorities that have long since disappeared. Closely related to the communication of nostalgia would be R. Girardet’s reflections on political myths, their origins and functioning in society at a given time. By distinguishing four groups of political myths, the scholar argues that “the longing for the past golden ages often turns into a state of hopeful waiting when they are expected and prophesied when they return. It is very rare for revolutionary messianism not to attribute to its vision of the future images and references inherited from the past.” The construct of the national narrative is also used as the image inherited from the past. Alongside it, there are reflections on the concept of natural culture, its place in the life of man and the nation. The assertion of the concept of “natural man” is related to the discourse of protest. According to Mr. Girardet (similarly to Mr. Ellul), ‘… no manipulative ambition can achieve its objectives unless there is a certain favorable situation, a certain receptivity, in the area of public opinion which it encroaches on. First, a subject-subject relationship is created between the person being manipulated to bring about a certain transformation of the state, what Girardet calls receptivity and Ellul into sensitization. In the first case, the aim is to transform the state so that the subject wants to act; therefore, it should be thought of as a subject of the state; in the second case, an actor emerges whose state is so intense that he is already seeking / acting
17:00-17:30 Paulette Hebert, Professor, Oklahoma State University, USA. Maral Esmaeili, Graduate Student, Oklahoma State University, USA. Title: Keeping Hospitality Students and Patrons in a Southern Midwest U.S. Restaurant Laboratory Course Safe During Pandemic: An Examination of Post-Covid Artifacts and Procedures.
Laboratory courses offer “hands-on” physical laboratories or simulated experiences for students in hospitality management programs (Baker, Cattet & Riley, 1995; Paulson, Baltzer & Cole, 1989). Working in any type of physical laboratory is not without risk and persons within the laboratory should utilize protective personal equipment to reduce risk (Dukie et al., 2015). A Southern Midwest United States University offers a laboratory course to teach hospitality students about all aspects of restaurant businesses at their on-campus facilities and it is important that University programs prepare hospitality students for real-world Covid 19 issues while serving current on-campus restaurant patrons (Jáuregui, 2020). In September, 2020, CNN reported on a Center for Disease Control study that indicated “Adults with Covid-19 about ‘twice as likely’ to say they have dined at a restaurant…” Therefore, managing Covid 19 is currently an important consideration for all restaurants, especially for those that are also teaching laboratories. As of October, 2020, in the Southern Midwestern United States, Covid 19 was still taking a toll (Boyce, 2020). Researchers in the current study examined and documented new restaurant lab artifacts and lab course-required procedures aimed to keep laboratory students and their restaurant patrons safe in the Fall semester 2020 restaurant teaching laboratory course. Artifacts included lab course syllabus, restaurant signage, and photographs taken with same view of the restaurant taken every 5 minutes during a typical two hour lunchtime period. Researchers observed and documented new lab course-required procedures included the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), social distancing, altered food and beverage delivery methods, and disinfectant procedures. Findings from 77 artifacts included that the syllabus required lab course students to be aware of disinfection procedures for Covid 19; new floor decals encouraged social distancing; new seating-mounted signage discouraged density on built-in bench seating; new table-top signage discouraged patrons’ rearrangement of tables and chairs; new wall-mounted posters encouraged handwashing and social distancing; new stanchion-mounted posters encouraged mask-wearing (while not actively eating or drinking) and social distancing. Photography revealed mask-wearing and social distancing behaviors amongst restaurant lab students. However, photography revealed that signage was not always effective in encouraging social distancing and mask wearing; signage was not always effective in discouraging rearrangement of furniture among patrons. Procedural findings included that post-Covid, self-service stations for beverages, condiments; and food equipment were incapacitated to allow only sealed beverage service distribution in the restaurant laboratory. Lab course students were observed disinfecting tables per syllabus requirements. The findings from this study may inform the lab course syllabus and other artifacts and procedures for the Spring 2021 semester. This study may contribute to keeping laboratory students and their patrons safe from Covid 19 at this American University as well as at other domestic and international restaurants.
17:30-18:00 Lucille B. Mazo, Associate Professor, MacEwan University Canada. Title: Reflection and Its Influence on Teaching and Learning: A Case Study of Applying Reflective Practices During an Internship Learning Environment.
Ongoing research regarding reflection and its influence on teaching and learning requires continual and constant understanding, as well as closer examination with respect to how the act of reflection is applied in adult learning situations. Such investigation and observation can provide details about the actual expression of reflective practices within higher education. What does the form and substance of reflection look like when applied to the learning activities of a university student? How does the practice of reflective journaling affect how an adult student contemplates, reflects, and experiments on acquired knowledge and learned experiences? Jarvis’ (Jarvis, et al., 1998) model defined the adult learning process by articulating its boundaries and parameters, which were organized into nine functions: 1) the person, 2) situation, 3) experience, 4) the person reinforced but relatively unchanged, 5) practice experimentation, 6) memorization, 7) reasoning and reflecting, 8) evaluation, and 9) the person changed and more experienced (p. 55). According to Jarvis, learners were the starting point of this process. They then had the option to follow a chosen route, depending on their intended learning goal. It is this choice that allowed the learners to approach their adult learning in their own unique way. As learners advanced, they became engaged in recognizing, selecting, and applying these functions. Those students who chose Function 7, reasoning and reflecting, provided them with the opportunity to encounter a transformational experience. Within Function 7, Jarvis identified three types of reflection that were used by learners: 1) contemplation, 2) reflective skills learning, and 3) experimental (p. 55). But, how does Jarvis’ model fit into a real life situation where reflective learning is occurring? This study included a case study where Jarvis’ three types of reflection were applied by either the professor and/or the student in a university learning situation. This case study is presented through the lens of a professor/advisor and a fourth-year undergraduate communication internship student. It was partially enacted during one of their weekly progress meetings, and was used as a forum where various approaches to reflection were applied by both professor and student. To establish a frame-of-reference for this case study, descriptions of the program, the professor, and the student are detailed and explained; as well, a description of a dialogue session between the professor/advisor and the student is presented followed by a critical analysis of the dialogue. This case study took place during an eight-month internship where the student was expected to apply their communication and writing skills. In this specific case, the student proposed to research, develop, and write a draft of a novel that he had begun when completing a major assignment in his script writing class during his third year of studies. The proposal was accepted and a weekly meeting schedule was established which ran between January-August 2011. During these two-hour weekly discussions, reflective practices were used and were applied in assignment activities. In conclusion, reflection is both individual and collaborative, which provides a framework for deeper thought experiments that create enduring and salient learning experiences. This case study discovered that when a professor enabled a university student to express and reflect on their thoughts in relation to the writing of a novel, that the student learned how to voice their ideas through this medium of storytelling that can be used as a platform to present social concerns and issues. As well, when the professor reflected on the student’s ideas and provided constructive feedback, they acted as a role model for active learning that includes reflective practices. When a higher education institution recognizes the crucial role that reflection plays in developing a critical foundation for students to reflect on significant social issues such as sustainability, etc., it provides a crucial stage in learning that advances students in their thinking and comprehension of these concerns. As such, one of the key roles of the university’s administration and faculty is to provide learning opportunities for students to experience transformative reflection. When given the opportunity, it is precisely these acts of deep and thoughtful discussion and reflection that support comprehensive and complex learning within higher education for the student and the professor.
20:30-22:30 Greek Night (The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)
Saturday 19 December 2020
08:00-11:00 Urban Walk (The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)
11:30-12:00 Samar Amer, Scientific Consultant in Public Health Agency, Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia & Associate Professor, Zagazig University, Egypt. Title: Effect of The National Health Education Program among Saudi Patients in Kingdom Saudi Arabia Primary Health Care Centers, 2019.
Background: Globally, the consideration for health services monitoring are increasing, and the health education (HE) quality evaluation is an important obstacle to better interventions, and wider acknowledgment of the importance of HE in improving public health. So this study Aimed; To improve the quality of the health education services through providing a contemporaneous perspective on current evidence on the effect of HE national program in primary health care centers (PHCCs), through the following Objectives; To describe the PHCCs patients/visitors (demographic, cause and frequency of visit, and expectations), To calculate the HE coverage rate per PHCCs and frequency of receiving HE, Measure patient satisfaction about the provided HE service, and Measuring chronic patient self-control.
Methodology; An analytical cross section study, targeted randomly selected 1590 Saudi PHCCs visitors from randomly selected country from the main five regions in KSA. the data collected from records, and by trained qualified data collectors through exit interview using a pretested, well-structured questionnaire composed of four parts.
Results; the majority of participants were females (73.5%), married (69.1), aged30-<45y old, 64.9% had chronic diseases, 60.0% reviews the PHCCs sometimes (when necessary), for an Emergency disease (40.9%), and expected high level of service s48.9%). the median HE coverage rate per month 8.5% (5-16), the frequency of receiving HE (51.1%). The health educated patients significantly had a better self-chronic disease control and improvement in the life styles. The HECs shows a significant self-patient control of chronic diseases and patient satisfaction than HE services.
Conclusions: HE interventions are effective in improve patients’ clinical outcomes through the increase and maintenance of healthy behaviors. HE efforts to be effective must be multidimensional.
12:00-12:30 Mengting Li, Postgraduate Student, Children’s Hospital, Zhejiang University, China Title: Establishment of a Database of New-Born Pain Expression Video Information.
In view of the fact that there is no open database of newborn pain expression video information in China, It is proposed to establish a representative Chinese newborn facial pain expression video information database, which includes population data of different gender, gestational age, and other information, as well as possible pain-causing operation types in various neonatal wards. The data collection objects are newborns admitted to the neonatal ward of a children’s hospital in zhejiang province, China during the data collection stage. The collected data will be labeled and grouped according to multi-dimensional information. The collected population data include gender, gestational age, birth weight, mode of delivery, age of day, operation type, etc.The collected pain operation scenarios are as follows:①blood collection operation: venous blood collection, arterial blood collection, heel blood collection, fingertip blood collection;②injection operation: intramuscular injection, subcutaneous injection, intradermal injection, intravenous injection;③catheter operation: venous catheterization, peripheral central venous catheterization, deep venous catheterization, arterial puncture Tube, gastric tube placement;④other operations: lumbar puncture, endotracheal intubation, suction, retention enema, tape removal, wound dressing. During the acquisition process, the video capture device is fixed by the bracket, and the continuous video with the facial expression as the main picture is taken. The video recording time is 60s from the start of operation to the end of the operation. The pain rating assessment was performed by two groups of four professionally trained and painful assessment researchers using the Neonatal Facial Coding System and Neonatal Infant Pain Scale: one group member scored the pain at the site of the operation. Another group of members scored the pain by watching a video recording. The pain scores were independently performed by two scoring staff in each group. When the two scores were dissenting, the two men agreed on the final result; the average of the scores of the two observers was taken as the pain label of the video. The database can be for the study of different population such as gender, gestational age, the information degree of pain perception between the newborn and neonatal wards of the level of pain caused by a variety of operating in providing data source, but also study different kinds of operation in different gestational age, gender, neonatal groups such as the pain level range distribution, thus for clinical medical staff in the neonatal pain prior to clinical operations necessary to take intervention measures to provide reliable reference and advice in advance. With the rapid development of face recognition and artificial intelligence, neonatal pain expression recognition technology is expected to realize automatic evaluation of pain. This technology automatically extracts expression features, automatic feature classification and outputs pain assessment results using intelligent terminals such as computers. Among them, the establishment of the database of neonatal pain expressions is the basis, and the database established in this study can be used as a training and test data set for the automatic recognition model of neonatal pain expression.
12:30-13:00 Break
13:00-13:30 Andra Zvirbule, Professor, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Latvia. Title: Urban and Peri-Urban Agricultural Entrepreneurship Development.
According to UN statistical data and projections, at present 55% of the world’s population live in cities, yet the proportion is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. On the one hand, such an increase makes the problems of ensuring urban sustainability and environmental security more difficult to tackle, yet on the other hand it raises a number of vague questions about the future development and challenges of the agricultural industry and agriculture entrepreneurship in this urbanised environment. Most of the European countries and Latvia are more focused on exploring agricultural production processes and linking them to the principles of a bioeconomy or circular economy, while problems in urban and peri-urban agriculture remain unexplored. The research aim – to investigate the factors affecting the agriculture entrepreneurship development of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Latvia. The specific research tasks are set as follows: (1) to identify the factors affecting the agriculture business development of urban and peri-urban environment; (2) to classify factors affecting agricultural business development in urban and peri-urban environment and find out best practice examples. To do the research and identify the factors, the research used the following methods: monographic, data grouping and statistical analysis. The results of the research show urban agriculture could primarily play an economic role: employment, income generation and less expenditure on food, yet in the areas where urban agriculture is not economically motivated, it could be more focused on environmental aspects and the social dimension. A number of research studies and strategic policy documents highlight the role of urban agriculture not only in theoretical but also in practical terms – in building a community, interest education and popularizing “green” lifestyles. Territorial processes and agricultural intensification could generally serve as a driving force for those who had been employed in agriculture to apply their skills in establishing specialized urban or peri-urban agricultural enterprises.
13:30-14:00 Juan Jose Morillas-Guerrero, Assistant Professor, Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain. Title: Global Impact of Digital Transformation on Entrepreneurship: Present Position in Spain.
The application of new ICTs is a daily element in our current reality. However, these technologies are coming to produce changes of great importance in society and companies. It is widely agreed that we’re facing a process of digital transformation that moves the productive sectors and social groups towards what we might call a new technological order. But how this situation impacts or affects one of the levers of that same digital transformation, the entrepreneurial ecosystem? Spain seems to be in a privileged position in terms of the main dimensions of digital competitiveness, at least within the EU, and, above all, concerning digital public services. However, entrepreneurship reality in our country doesn’t quite take off despite the high rate of youth unemployment we support. We still have a weak high-standard entrepreneurial activity that mainly tends towards innovation and disruptive changes. We neither manage to arouse interest in the massive creation of high-tech startups that could create a complementary framework to medium and large companies. There have been many steps towards a deep digital transformation in our country. Although it remains to be seen if this circumstance transcends the mere quantitative indicators and manages to reach the situation of entrepreneurial ecosystem. This article aims to discover the relationships between digital transformation, the world of entrepreneurship and the creation of companies related to Spain, in order to establish the possible incidents that both perspectives would accumulate reciprocally and also to clear up if we are facing singularities that would identify the processes being produced, such as ‘startuprization’, enabling companies to grow with the consequent economic development.
14:00-14:30 Jarosław Kubiak, Professor, Poznan University of Business and Economics, Poland. Joanna Lizińska, Professor, Poznan University of Business and Economics, Poland. Leszek Czapiewski, Assistant Professor, Poznan University of Business and Economics, Poland. Title: Accrual-Based Informativeness of Earnings in Europe Around Ipos – Searching for an Empirical Explanation.
Many previous studies report that companies try to manipulate earnings to provoke appropriate investors’ reactions on the market. Earnings management can be important especially around important company events, such as initial public offerings (IPOs). In the case of IPOs, we deal with companies without a history specific to public companies, and therefore the information asymmetry can be particularly intensified. For this reason, it is practically justified and academically interesting to examine whether profits are being manipulated around going public. Our research covered companies listed on European markets and going public in the years 2005 – 2017. We decided to investigate European markets because of European earnings manipulation practices during the IPO period are relatively rarely investigated as compared to American or Asian markets. The choice of the research period was not accidental. Europe has been severely affected by the 2008–2009 financial crisis. Financial distress is one of the important reasons for increasing earnings artificially. Besides, the choice of research period allows hold financial reporting factors constant as companies listed in European Union must comply with IFRS since 2005. We test accrual-based earnings quality. Discretionary accruals proxy for earnings management as it cannot be observed directly. Normal accruals are derived from cross-sectional regressions specified with the modified Jones model, the Kothari-Leone-Wasley model and the McNichols model. The first hypothesis considers whether companies manipulated earnings in the year of going public. We report that initial public offerings listed in Europe manipulate profits upwards around going public both in emerging and developed European markets. Competing managerial incentives in the IPO context have been raised so far. The literature challenges different motivations for earnings management, most often classified into market- and agency-based. Following this, we deepen the analysis and provide empirical evidence on the explanation for the informativeness of earnings around IPOs in Europe.
14:30-15:00 Lunch
15:00-15:30 Leszek Czapiewski, Assistant Professor, Poznan University of Business and Economics, Poland. Joanna Lizińska, Professor, Poznan University of Business and Economics, Poland. Title: Financial Reporting Quality in Public Companies – New International Insights based on Real-Based Operations.
Real earnings management has not been as widely studied as accrual based earnings management. The issue of reporting quality in public companies is a broad and extensively discussed area of financial management and accounting. This problem is also raised by practitioners as low-quality financial reports may misled some groups of stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to examine real-based earnings quality in non-financial companies in a cross-country setting. Opportunities and possibilities to manage earnings may differ across company characteristics and countries so we investigate the problem with a broad international sample of European public companies. Reporting quality cannot be observed directly and some proxies are usually used to asses if earnings were biased and estimate the level and direction of earnings manipulation. The higher the estimated level of earnings management, the lower the quality of financial statements. A number of studies have discussed the possibility of intervention in the reporting process via accruals. Accrual-based earnings management may be examined by discretionary accruals estimated with cross-sectional regressions. However, reporting quality may also be influenced through real operations. Earnings management via real activities has received little attention so far. Thus, a challenging and contributing possibility is focusing on the effect of real operations approximated by abnormal levels of production costs, cash flows from operations, and discretionary expenses. We empirically model a firm’s use real earnings management using three metrics. The research focuses on earnings manipulation methods incorporating variables such as: acceleration of sales timing, reporting of lower cost of goods sold through increased production and decreases in aggregate discretionary research and development, advertising, and SG&A expenses. We hypothesize that firms in some circumstances may simultaneously use accrual-based and real earnings management. The analysis of the trade-off between real and accrual-based earnings management is an important practical issue. It evokes the question about the substitutionary or complementary role of two earnings management methods.
15:30-16:00
Yuan Zhai, PhD Research Student, University of Sunderland, UK. Title: Unity Is Strength. A Case Study on the Business Model Innovations of Regional Business Organization in China during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 directly affected the revenue of retail stores, and commercial facilities were closed in China. Although traditional supermarkets and convenience stores are still operating to meet the needs of the people’s livelihood. However, due to the serious reduction of customers, the cash flow turnover pressure of businesses is large, and the operating profit is greatly reduced, which directly challenges the survival of enterprises. In the first quarter of 2020, China’s economy fell by 6.8% year-on-year. In the second quarter, although it increased by 3.2%, it was still significantly lower than the previous year’s 6-7% growth (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2020). In this study, 10 semi-structured interviews and two focus groups were used for the chamber of Commerce of small and medium-sized enterprises in Inner Mongolia. With the chamber of Commerce as the leading force, the merchants exchanged goods with each other with the similar value, in order to establish the mode of making full use of resources of different industries is discussed. The results show that how to integrate the commercial resources of member enterprises by regional business association. As a platform for resource integration and information sharing, the association uses innovative business models to help enterprises solve the problems of overstock of commodities and insufficient cash flow.
16:00-16:30 Hari Luitel, Associate Professor, Algoma University, Canada. Gerry Mahar, Associate Professor Algoma University Canada. Title: Testing for Unit Roots in Autoregressive-Moving Average Models of Unknown Order: Critical Comments.
Statistical theory relating to the first order autoregressive unit root process where the autoregressive parameter is equal to one (unstable process) and greater than one (explosive process) dates back to early writings of Mann and Wald (1943), Rubin (1950), Anderson (1959), White (1958, 1959), and Rao (1961). However, Maddala and Kim (1998, p. 3) together with Banerjee et. all (1993, p. 1), Phillips (1995) and Patterson (2011) leave one with the impression that the seminal work of Nelson and Plosser (1982) marked a paradigm shift in the macroeconomics literature in the 1980s. In the 1960s and 1970s, conventional practice in time series analysis was to work with data that were differenced a sufficient number of times to render them stationary. This practice was based on informal diagnostics rather than formal statistical tests and Nelson and Plosser (1982) replaced the practice with formal Dickey-Fuller (DF) tests for unit roots (Stock 1994, p. 2741). For a positive review of history of unit root tests, see Fuller (1984), Stock (1994) and Patterson (2011, 2012). For surveys on specialized topics in unit roots such as changing the mean or available methods to choose for a length of time lag etc., see Diebold and Nerlove (1990), Perron (1990), Campbell and Perron (1991), and Ng and Perron (2001). A further review of the literature on unit root in conjunction with structural breaks can be found in Stock (1994) and in Perron and Zhu (2005). The implications of unit root in economic theory, policy and econometric procedures, were discussed in Chinn (1991) and Libanio (2005). The literature on unit roots remains controversial because many tests results of unit root rest on a razor’s edge. Although the literature is extensive and often studies failed to reject the hypothesis ρ=1, many also failed to reject the hypothesis ρ≥0.95 at 95 percent, or even 99 percent, confidence interval level (Greene 2000, p. 781). An early critique by Cochrane (1991), Maddala (1992, p.582-588), Harvey (1997), Maddala and Kim (1998), Phillips (2003) and a recent critique by Moosa (2011, 2017a, 2017b), Luitel and Mahar (2015a, 2015b, 2016), Reed (2015) and Luitel et. al. (2018) further highlight the continuing controversy surrounding the unit root test in the literature. Our focus in this paper will be on the Dickey-Fuller (DF) and the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) tests of unit root. These tests are used routinely to decide whether a time series would be stationary or nonstationary. Because these tests predate all tests for nonstationarity in a time series, we argue that these tests likely led to an early widespread use resulting in publication bias. We also acknowledge that unit root tests are now a standard diagnostic tool in applied time series analysis. However, we find it very curious that leading econometrics textbooks such as Hamilton (1994), Greene (2000), Hayashi (2000), Davidson and Mackinnon (2004), and Patterson (2011, 2012) among others do not contain explicit warnings against the dangers of the use of unit root tests. It is possible that earlier warnings may have faded away or may have been weakly stated because they appeared infrequently in the form of journal articles. Since the well-respected applied works still make frequent use of unit root tests, it is timely for a critical review of this method. We have two objectives in this paper: First, we reexamine the reliability of unit root findings in the study by Said and Dickey (1984). We can reaffirm the internal validity of their research design. Second, we show new results not included in that study and explain why the new results cast doubt on the usefulness of the ADF test to determine a unit root in a time series.
16:30-17:00 Timothy M. Young, Director, Center for Data Science (CDS) & Professor and Graduate Director, The University of Tennessee, USA. Title: How the Evolution of Data Science is Changing Academic Programs.
Data science jobs are in high demand that pay high salaries. Academic programs struggle to keep up with the demand for data scientists, especially as data science expands from a historically computer science curriculum to encompass almost all disciplines including engineering, medicine, aerospace, agriculture, etc. Data science is transforming manufacturing systems as employers seek graduates with skill sets in analytics, statistics, Total quality Data Management (TqDM), etc. The lack of supply of qualified students for data science positions with companies and government are challenging universities and colleges to rethink traditional curricula outside of computer science. Traditional disciplines are challenged to rapidly adopt curricula that include courses in analytics, statistics, data management, machine learning, and fundamental computer programming. An immediate solution is to add minors in data science to traditional degree programs. The challenge for universities and colleges is to build a consensus on the fundamental principles, expertise, and skills required for academic disciplines that meet the market needs for adequately trained data scientists. This paper outlines core analytical competencies and programming skills that are necessary for organizing and extracting value from messy, complex, and large datasets. Core competencies are discussed and outlined for three data science tracks: data engineer, data analyst, and machine learning analyst.
20:00-21:30 Dinner (The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)
Sunday 20 December 2020Delphi Tour
(The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)
Monday 21 December 2020Educational Islands Cruise
(The event did not take place due to the limited number of attendance. Those who paid and were not able to attend will be offered a free voucher according to our policy: https://www.atiner.gr/coronavirus)
Scientific and Organizing Committee
Gregory T. Papanikos, President, ATINER.
Dr. Sharon Claire Bolton, Vice President of Research, ATINER & Emeritus Professor, The Management School, University of Stirling, Scotland.
Peter Koveos, Head, Finance Unit, ATINER & Professor of Finance, Syracuse University, USA.
Dr. Henry Thompson, Head, Economics Unit, ATINER & Emeritus Professor, Auburn University, USA.
Dr. John Pavlik, Head, Mass Media and Communication Unit, ATINER & Professor, Rutgers University, USA.
Panagiotis Petratos, Vice President of Administration and ICT, ATINER, Fellow, Institution of Engineering and Technology & Professor, Department of Computer Information Systems, California State University, Stanislaus, USA.
George V. Priovolos, Academic Member, ATINER & Retired Professor, USA.
Theodore Trafalis, Director, Engineering & Architecture Division, ATINER, Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering and Director, Optimization & Intelligent Systems Laboratory, The University of Oklahoma, USA.
Cleopatra Veloutsou, Head, Marketing Unit, ATINER & Professor in Marketing, University of Glasgow, UK.
Dr. David Philip Wick, Director, Arts, Humanities and Education Division, ATINER & Retired Professor of History, Gordon College, USA.
Dr. Carol Anne Chamley, Head, Nursing Unit & Associate Professor, School of Health and Social Care, London South Bank University UK.
Paul Contoyannis, Head, Health Economics & Management Unit, ATINER & Associate Professor, McMaster University, Canada.
Dr. Chris Sakellariou, Vice President of Finance, ATINER & Associate Professor of Economics, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Dr. Yannis Stivachtis, Director, Center for European & Mediterranean Affairs (CEMA) and Professor, Jean Monnet Chair, Director of International Studies Program & Director, Diplomacy Lab Program, Virginia Tech – Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, USA.
Dr. Vickie Hughes, Director, Health & Medical Sciences Division, ATINER & Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, Johns Hopkins University, USA.
Dr. Zoi Apostolia Philippakos, Co-Editor, Athens Journal of Education, ATINER & Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA.
Dr. Andriana Margariti, Head, Medicine Unit, ATINER & Professor, Queen’s University Belfast, U.K.
Valia Kasimati, Head, Tourism Unit, ATINER & Researcher, Department of Economic Analysis & Research, Central Bank of Greece, Greece.
Dr. Georgios Zouridakis, Lecturer, University of Essex, UK.
Thomas G. Papanikos, President, Institute of Local Development (ΙΤΑΘΑΠ), Sardinia, Akarnania, Greece.
Mr. Vangelis Kritikos, ex-President of Asteras Tripolis Football Club and President of Panhellenic Association of Sports Economics and Managers (PASEM).
