Empowering single mothers in Iran : Applying a problem-solving model in learning groups to develop participants' capacities to improve their lives

Since 2000, a problem-solving model has been taught to the Society for Protecting the Rights of the Child, and teachers and  students of social work in two universities in Iran. Since 2006, with the initiation of UNICEF, social workers, psychologists  and even some psychiatrists in Iran have been learning this model. In 2008, a group of researchers created an empowerment-oriented  psycho-social group and private intervention project to assess whether a group of Iranian single mothers could use this model, which was traditionally used by professionals only, to effectively and independently meet challenges in their own lives. Our results show that all women used the model effectively and, consequently, made more deliberate decisions to improve their life situations. Some of the women succeeded in finding a job and many improved their family relationships. This study suggests that empowerment-oriented social work can help many clients to achieve their goals, and that this psycho-social intervention project can be a useful model for social work in Iran and many other societies.

Do psychological factors play a crucial role in sport performance?: research on personality and psychological variables of athletes in Hungary

Contemporary research aims to investigate background factors that contribute to successful sport performance. Of these factors the psychological well-being and mental health status should be underlined that have gained a significant role, particularly in the frames of sport psychological counseling. The aim of the present study is to seek for interrelations of psychological variables and sport performance of young athletes, and to reveal what advantages might be utilized in younger ages to strengthen sport performance. No gender differences were found in sport performance; while age showed significant difference. The findings indicated differences of the investigated psychological variables by age and gender. Regression analyses were employed to test how psychological factors predict successful sport performance. The analyses strengthened the role of age and gender specific factors that should be considered during sport psychological counseling. The benefits should be highlighted in young age in order to ensure more successful performance in adulthood.

Current findings from research on professional librarian skills development and needs in Brazil

This paper presents reflections on the outcome of a research project conducted at the School of Communications and Arts of the University of São Paulo, regarding librarian training, their field of expertise and the need for continued education. The methodological design compiled in the research project involved planning-presenting project, and developing the questionnaire for data collection. The electronic form was applied to an intentionally random, stratified sample of 18,374 active librarians throughout Brazil, totalling 3,320 responses that were statistically treated and compiled. Once the data was collected using the electronic forms, we analysed the collected information and the literature, cleansed the information and standardized the bibliographic records and statistical processing of data that formed the results presented in this research project. As the world gets more sophisticated and diversified, the competence required of the professional librarian, which in a first stage is highly technical – remembering that it is impossible to dispose of or move forward without it being well established – grows and includes other important responsibilities in the new organizational environment. We must work towards a holistic qualification, valuing management, methodological, cultural, multidisciplinary and systemic skills – all highlighted in the economy of knowledge.

From social action to business action - A qualitative research on the professionalization process of a blogger: Case P.s. I Love Fashion -blog

Blogging is one of the most common forms of social media today. Blogs have become a powerful media and bloggers are settled stakeholders to marketers. Commercialization of the blogosphere has enabled an increasing number of bloggers professionalize and blog as a full-time occupation. The purpose of this study is to understand the professionalization process of a blogger from an amateur blogger to a professional actor. The following sub-questions were used to further elaborate the topic: What have been the meaningful events and developments fostering professionalization? What are the prerequisites for popularity in blogging? Are there any key success factors to acknowledge in order being able to make business out of your blog? The theoretical framework of this study was formed based on the two chosen focus areas for professionalization; social drivers and business drivers. The theoretical framework is based on literature from fields of marketing and social sciences, as well as previous research on social media, blogging and professionalization. The study is a qualitative case-study and the research data was collected in a semi-structured interview. The case chosen to this study is a lifestyle-blog. The writer of the case blog has been able to develop her blog to become a full-time professional blogger. Based on the results, the professionalization process of a blogger is not a defined process, but instead comprised of coincidental events as well as considered advancements. Success in blogging is based on the bloggers own motivation and passion for writing and expressing oneself in the form of a blog, instead of a systematic construction of a successful career in blogging. Networking with other bloggers as well as affiliates was seen as an important success factor. Popularity in the blogosphere and a high number of followers enable professionalization, as marketers actively seek to collaborate with popular bloggers with strong personal brands. Bloggers with strong personal brands are especially attractive due to their opinion leadership in their reference group. A blogger can act professionally either as entrepreneur or blogging for a commercial webpage. According to the results of this study, it is beneficial for the blogger’s professional development as well as career progress, to act on different operating models

Value chain transformation: Taking stock of WorldFish research on value chains and markets

The goal of WorldFish’s research on markets and value chains is to increase the benefits to resource-poor people from fisheries and aquaculture value chains by researching (1) key barriers to resource-poor men, women and other marginalized groups gaining greater benefits from participation in value chains, including barriers related to the availability, affordability and quality of nutrient-rich fish for resource-poor consumers; (2) interventions to overcome those barriers; and (3) mechanisms that are most effective for scaling up of value chain interventions. This paper aims to promote and document learning across WorldFish’s value chain research efforts in Asia and Africa. It has three main objectives: (1) to take stock of WorldFish’s past and ongoing research on value chains; (2) to draw out commonalities and differences between these projects; and (3) to provide a synthesis of some learning that can guide future work.

The Return of Institutions. On the Latest Change in the Research on Social and Economic Development

The paper describes the latest change in the research on social and economic development of states. This change is characterized mainly by a strong emphasis put on the role of institutions as key instruments of reducing the development gap between countries. It is argued that in the years after 1989 institutions have disappeared from mainstream academia and major intellectual debates because of: (1) the widespread belief in global convergence of capitalism and (2) the modernization theory which prevailed in the social science in the 1990s. The article indicates that institutions were once again brought into focus as a result of (1) a wider debate about the institutional sources of growth and development sparked by Acemoglu and Robinson’s Why Nations Fail, (2) the beginning of the global economic crisis of 2008 triggered by the fall of American investment bank Lehman Brothers (3) diversified consequences of the economic crisis seen all over Europe and the USA which illustrate (4) the institutional varieties of capitalism.

Commentary on: Are we overpathologizing everyday life? A tenable blueprint for behavioral addiction research: On functional and compulsive aspects of reinforcement pathologies

Background: This paper is a commentary to a debate article entitled: "Are we overpathologizing everyday life? A tenable blueprint for behavioral addiction research", by Billieux et al. (2015). Methods and aim: This brief response focused on the necessity to better characterize psychological and related neurocognitive determinants of persistent deleterious actions associated or not with substance utilization. Results: A majority of addicted people could be driven by psychological functional reasons to keep using drugs, gambling or buying despite the growing number of related negative consequences. In addition, a non-negligible proportion of them would need assistance to restore profound disturbances in basic learning processes involved in compulsive actions. Conclusions: The distinction between psychological functionality and compulsive aspects of addictive behaviors should represent a big step towards more efficient treatments.

Research on the BEIC Curriculum: Unveiling What Lies Under the Tip of the Iceberg

Es un detenido análisis de la investigación The Value of Curricular lntrospection, en que se incorpora la realimentación dada por diversos participantes nacionales y extranjeros en el CILAP 2007, a quienes se les expuso los resultados iniciales de esta investigación. El estudio surgió de la disparidad de criterios entre diversos actores del BEIC, de la ELCL, respecto a la pertinencia que para la enseñanza del inglés a niños en Costa Rica tienen los principios comunicativos denominados interacción, inmersión parcial y aprendizaje por experiencia. Así, mientras diseñadores de currículo y profesores del BEIC consideraban estos principios altamente eficaces, buena parte del estudiantado que realizaba la práctica docente pensaba lo contrario.A detailed analysis is provided here of the research project titled The Value of Curricular Introspection. It also includes the feedback given by the national and foreign participants in CILAP 2007, to whom this study was presented. The investigation emerged from the diverse opinions existing among BEIC-ELCL actors regarding the pertinence of interaction, partial immersion and experiential learning communicative principies for the teaching of English to children in Costa Rica. Thus, whereas BEIC curriculum designers and professors considered these principies to be highly effective, many student-teachers in that program believe just the opposite.

Research on the First Musique Concrète: The Case of Xenakis’s First Electroacoustic Pieces

Xenakis’s first electroacoustic pieces (Diamorphoses, 1957; Concret PH, 1958; Analogique B, 1959; Orient-Occident, 1960; and Bohor, 1962) can be called musique concrète. Indeed, these works use the concrète musique tape techniques. But their spirit and aesthetic is very different from those set forth in Pierre Schaeffer’s theories. In fact, these works are quite particular in their whole conception. The two authors of this article are researching this period of Xenakis’s electroacoustic music. In this article, they offer a brief survey of the issues these works raised. To illustrate some of these issues, they use Diamorphoses and Bohor as examples.

RICORDACI: Research on the Conservation, Restoration and Diagnosis of Cinematographic Films

This thesis is the result of the RICORDACI project, a three-year European-funded initiative involving the collaboration between the University of Bologna and the restoration laboratory of the Cineteca di Bologna, L'immagine Ritrovata, which aimed to develop innovative solutions and technologies for the preservation of cinematographic film heritage. In particular, this thesis presents new analytical methodologies to exploit two types of portable miniaturized Near Infrared spectrometers working in Diffuse Reflectance over the Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) range, to study the near infrared (NIR) spectral behavior of film base materials for an accurate, non-invasive and fast characterization of the polymer type; and for films with cellulose acetate supports, they can be employed as a diagnostic tool for monitoring the Degree of substitution (DS) affected by the loss of acetyl groups. The proposed methods offer non-invasive, fast, inexpensive and simple alternatives for the characterization and diagnosis of film bases to help the strategic planning and decision-making regarding storage, digitalization and intervention of film collections. Secondly, the thesis includes the evaluation of new green cleaning systems and solvents for the effective, fast and innocuous removal of undesired substances from degraded cinematographic films bases; these tests compared the efficiency of traditional systems and solvents against the new proposals. Firstly, the use of Deep Eutectic Solvent formulations for removing softened gelatin residues from cellulose nitrate bases; and secondly, the employment of green volatile solvents with different application methods, including the use of new electrospun nylon mats, for avoiding the dangerous use of friction for the removal of Triphenyl Phosphate blooms from the surface of cellulose acetate bases. The results obtained will help improving the efficiency of the interventions needed before the digitalization of historical cinematographic films and will pave the way for further investigation on the use of green solvents for cleaning polymeric heritage objects.

Os faróis da sociedade de informação: uma análise crítica sobre a situação da competência em informação no Brasil

This paper presents and reviews the recommendations done by experts during the specialists meeting held in the city of Alexandria, Egypt, in the end of 2005 and, according to this information, the Brazilian situation is analyzed. Internationalization and institutionalization of information literacy and lifelong learning as essential factors to the development of the nations are also explored. Beacons of the Information Society translate the vision and concepts involved. In Brazil, the actions around information literacy are not a consensus. The challenges to be faced include: to discover forms to foster and to appropriately disseminate national and local knowledge, to advance discussions and deepen the subject, to discover adequate alternatives for disseminating information practices that encompass distinct professional groups and populations, to overcome structural development gaps. As a matter that permeates each and every process of learning, research, development, problem-solving and decision-making, information literacy went beyond the boundaries of librarianship and transformed itself into a world transdiciplinary movement, even under the aegis of different denominations and emphasis.