This study documented the experiences of persons with disabilities in the ten (10) cities/municipalities of Albay who have community- based organizing initiatives in order to provide a clearer picture of their present situation. Similarly, the study presented the cases and stories of the different disabled person’s organizations (DPOs) by looking into their experiences, challenges encountered, as well as strategies employed. By telling the stories, this research undertaking attempted to underline some fundamental strategies that can begin to chip away at the conditions and structures that exacerbate the issue.

The paper interprets Gabriel Garcia Marquez's seminal novel One Hundred Years of Solitude through the lens of Ecocriticism, and argues how Marquez disguises Macondo as an island to present the village as a world within itself and represents the world's ecosystem through it.

Gender differences, in social studies and science achievement, in a technology-enhanced learning environment were examined from a group of 474 (males=237 and females=237) first-time 8th grade test takers from one primary school district. Unequal variance independent samples t-tests were used to test the magnitude of gender differences. Female students received significantly greater social studies achievement than males, but there were not significant differences in science achievement scores. Achievement assessments for students with assigned laptops showed significant gender differences in social studies, but not in science.

China’s “double carbon” strategic goal is an inevitable choice in response to the world’s green and low-carbon development trend, and is also an inherent requirement for sustainable development. This paper analyzes the policy text of Jilin Province in 2022 to achieve peak carbon neutrality, and uses the root theory and NVivo12 plus qualitative analysis software to analyze the policy content at three levels, and constructs a theoretical model of policy process including policy dynamics, policy tools and policy synergy. It is found that the policy motivation of Jilin Province’s carbon neutral policy is insufficient, the frequency and combination of policy tools are unevenly distributed, and the participation of social actors is insufficient. The effectiveness of the “dual carbon” policy should be improved by strengthening the government’s awareness of responsibility and function in the dual carbon policy, optimizing the reasonable combination and application of various policy tools, and constructing a collaborative governance pattern of multiple subjects led by carbon peak.

Death is a universal concept which influences all human beings. Through generations, the process of grieving and mourning which accompany death, has evolved from traditional to digital, aligned with the changes of time. In varying age groups, this grieving process is expressed in diverse ways, and existing literature shows a lack of this exploration, especially in the Filipino context. This phenomenological research aims to describe the participants’ digitalized mourning by utilizing social media platforms to process their grief. The participants will be from the Millennials or ages 24-42 years old, from Legazpi City, the capital of Albay. Using an interview guide, this study seeks to answer: “How do millennials give meaning to their social media mourning?” The narratives will be analyzed through thematic analysis via a repertory grid. This research hopes to contribute to the growing Filipino research literature on death and dying, specific in age groups, which is most beneficial in gerontological psychology, developmental psychology, and clinical psychology. The study resulted in the formulation of the H.E.R.O. model of social media mourning, representing the following themes: Helping and Hurting, Enriching and Encroaching, Relieving and Reliving, and Obtaining and Obscuring; categorizing the various forms of mourning demonstrated by Filipino millennials online. These findings have important implications for individuals, families, and communities as they navigate the challenges of grief and loss in the digital age. This study sheds light on previously unexplored aspects of bereavement by examining the ways in which Filipino millennials use social media to cope with loss.

Despite claims that social networks lack theoretical foundations, this paper is part of a larger movement in relational sociology that aims to move beyond structuralist explanations of social networks and develop a more sound and theoretically supported understanding of what networks actually are. It connects various bodies of literature ranging from sociological theory to research on interpersonal relationships and social network analysis. It places the relational approach to analysing communication within the larger field of organizational communication, and seeks its fit with organisational and organisational communication theories. The paper majorly reviews works of sociologists like George Simmel, Harrison White, Pierre Bourdieu and Niklas Luhmann, along with research by active or visible contemporary relational sociologists like Fuhse, Crossley, P. Donati, Charles Tilly, and Liang and Liu to explain the impact of relational sociology on thoughts of structure and social network in organization. Key words: Relationalism, structuration, organization, organisational communication, Theory in Social Network Analysis 

Promoting educational equity, crucial for boosting achievement among diverse students and reducing inequality, remains a persistent issue despite longstanding efforts. This study analyzes Twitter data from 2016 to 2022, exploring changes in public perceptions of educational equity. Tweet frequency concerning key topics first rose, peaked in 2019, and then dwindled by 2022. Despite an overall neutral public sentiment indicating an ambivalent stance, a subjective shift occurred over time. These findings offer meaningful implications and suggestions for stakeholders, including educators, policymakers, and social leaders, underscoring the need for a renewed focus on enhancing educational equity.

This article examines narratives of environmental injustice through representations of settler colonialism and resource exploitation in the digital game Chrono Cross, as a case study to demonstrate how narratives of environmental crisis can be mobilized by developers to raise awareness on how resource exploitation can be harmful in a manifold of ways, from species extinction to violation of Indigenous peoples. Additionally, this study explores how game mechanics – specifically those related to inter-species conflicts and resource gathering – mobilize readings that are inconsistent with the environmental narrative intended by the game.

Teams will inevitably experience negative affects when performing innovative tasks. Negative group affect would not necessarily lead to negative team outcomes. Drawing on theories of mood-as-information and mindfulness, we propose that team mindfulness will nonlinearly moderate the relationship between negative group affective tone and team innovation through the mechanism of external knowledge acquisition. We collected data from 76 research and development teams to test our hypotheses. Results indicated that 1) NGAT is positively related to external knowledge acquisition when team mindfulness is at the medium level, 2) external knowledge acquisition is positively related to team innovation, and 3) NGAT is beneficial for team innovation via external knowledge acquisition when team mindfulness is at the medium level, rather than low or high level. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Data is derived from 353 individual narratives from Australian Finance Sector Union members’ stories. Ten ren workers’ narratives constitute a convenience sample within the population of FSU members, with a reference to ‘suicide’,  either attempted suicide and suicidal ideation. All the narratives respond to one question: to shine a light on the toxic systemic practices they experienced in their work environment.  If the ten FSU workers had not freely volunteered their stories to their union, their vulnerability to suicide due to their toxic work environment would have likely remained invisible. The study examines the social history of factors in work health and safety and workers compensation that contribute to the invisibility of work factors in suicide.

A major current in recent scholarship has drawn on Machiavelli’s writings to articulate a non-sovereigntist conception of popular power. However, such interpretations have not generally offered a rigorous analysis of conceptions of sovereignty that were available in Machiavelli’s own time. In this paper, I focus on Machiavelli’s discussion of a historical episode which played a central role in classical and humanist discussions of sovereign power: the Decemvirate of 451-450 BC, an extraordinary commission created for the drafting and enactment of Rome’s legal code. Through a close reading of the Discourses on Livy, I argue that Machiavelli’s chapters on the Decemvirate comprise a miniature “treatise” on the perils of “absolute authority.” I also show that Machiavelli’s account of the decemvirs’ election contains a web of allusions to the lex regia, the “royal law” by which the Roman people was thought to have transferred all its imperium and potestas to the emperors. By illustrating the destructive consequences of the decemvirs’ grant of authority, Machiavelli poses a challenge to absolutist juridical theories built on the lex regia; moreover, he illustrates that electoral institutional arrangements can readily give rise to tyrannical power.

Today, gender-based social issues, such as sexual harassment, assaults, bullying, etc., are prevalent in both advanced and developing nations. The transit system has been identified as a hotspot of sexual harassment in many literary works. Today’s mobility depends heavily on public transportation, particularly for individuals who lack the finances for a private vehicle or who are unable to drive. However, modern women are also venturing forth into the city and towns on their own for a variety of reasons, such as education, employment, and recreational activities. Although they use public transportation regularly, they are frequently targeted for sexual harassment. This article deals with understanding the prevalence of harassment among women travelers, their reactions, and their coping mechanisms.

To cope successfully with the pressures imposed by a devastating pandemic, social inequities and climate change, companies and policy makers need to take a hard look at how they conceptualize, define, measure, and operationalize “value”.  Our intent in this paper is to support this conversation.  We make the case that “value” is an ill-defined and complex construct, the conceptualization of which has perplexed intellectuals from the beginning of Western civilization to now, arguing that the construct meets none of the characteristics of conceptual clarity outlined by Suddaby (2010).  We present a historical overview of how the value construct has been conceptualized over time, demonstrating that its history is one of tension and debate with conceptualizations swinging between objective (i.e., the value of something exists independent of the observers) and subjective (value depends on the personal response of the observer to what is being considered) views over time.  With this context in mind, we outline the implications to researchers of value’s low construct clarity, offering suggestions designed to exploit rather than ignore the duality of the value construct.  Instead of thinking of the value construct as being either subjective or objective, we recommend that scholars consider value’s objectivity and subjectivity to be interrelated and complementary and make use of both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in studies of this construct. The more nuanced understanding of value provided in this paper should assist those who are interested in examining the worth of investments that have observable expenses but less quantifiable outputs.

This study aimed to evaluate the learning responsiveness of art students with disabilities when using learning technologies such as the web-based Canva platform. This study used mixed methods, with the data collected through questionnaires and observations. The case study on a graphic design course examined the outcomes of using Canva as a technological tool. A total of 15 students with speech disorders from an all-female academic institution in Saudi Arabia participated in the graphic design course in 2022. Data were collected from various sources, including focus groups, observations, and questionnaires. The students’ behaviors during the learning process were observed in terms of their skills in communication, technology, time management, self-direction, and regulation of emotions and behavior. Recommendations for building blended or online classrooms that promote the engagement and interactions of students with disabilities using technology tools were derived accordingly.

Purpose: This study assesses sleep quality by measuring daytime sleepiness and related factors among healthcare professionals in a large university hospital. Method: This was a cross-sectional study conducted using the Arabic version of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and the study was performed based on the STROBE guidelines. Results: The majority of the participants were aged between 30 to 34 years 35.7%, most of the participants worked from 1 to 5 years 52.0 % in this hospital, also the majority of them were working from 30 to 40 hours per week 64.7%. The majority of medical personnel reported normal sleep; however, 25.4% reported that they may be excessively sleepy depending on the situation, and 2.8% reported that they are excessively sleepy and should consider seeking medical attention. There was a statistically significant association between sleepiness and sex using multivariate analysis (p value= 0.032). Conclusions: Approximately one-third of participants reported excessive daytime sleepiness, which could indicate the need for medical attention. Daytime sleepiness could affect sleep quality and thus staff performance. It is essential to look for interventions to improve the work environment for healthcare staff to enhance their sleep quality and job performance. Staff may require effective lifestyle changes to improve their sleep quality.

Preprint: ChatGPT’s Gospel Preaching Process: A Grounded Theory Study This article has been revised and accepted for publication in Theology and Science, published by Taylor & Francis. Abstract: Recent strides in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have made using AI to automate the process of sermon preparation a possibility. However, AI’s process of preaching is still poorly understood. This paper contributes by evaluating 27 evangelistic sermons generated by ChatGPT using Grounded Theory to study its process of preaching the gospel. The study revealed ChatGPT’s use of sharing personal testimony, delivering the gospel as found in the Bible, and appealing to unbelievers to preach the gospel. The necessity of the transformative power of the gospel was identified as the core category. Theological comprehensiveness and orthodoxy of the sermons were also evaluated.

The paper, Narcotizing Dysfunction of the Social Media in Nigeria by Anyanwu & Ejem (2016), explains that social media are capable of lulling Nigerian users into passivity, giving them the impression that just by commenting on social media platforms, they have helped to solve Nigeria’s social or political problems without taking any practical action. However, during the 2023 general elections in Nigeria, social media seemed to demonstrate the capability to spur Nigerians into political participation, and helped them to match their online energy with the willingness to contribute to providing solutions to Nigeria’s social or political problems, leading one to wonder if social media activism is beginning to translate to social and political participation in the real world.

The older adult population has been a growing concern in the global context calling for attention to aging processes, supportive measures and health care policies. In the Philippines, the population of older people is accumulating swiftly with a faster growth compared to the total population of the country. Thus, this calls for a closer attention on the overall wellness and the mental health of older adults that are more crucial in comparison to other ages in one’s lifetime. Generating a database search strategy for the last 10 years focused on the mental health of older adults, retrieved articles from APA PsycNet, ProQuest, SAGE, EBSCOHost and PubMed Central electronic databases were synthesized guided by the set inclusion and exclusion criteria and utilizing the PRISMA flowchart of the record selection process. This narrative synthesis rendered the Mental Health Orientations of Older Adults to illustrate an integrated framework to understand mental health and older adults. The findings of this research synthesized a portrait on how older adults give credence to their mental health in various concerns and needs which they directly and indirectly experience. These will be valuable in considering age-specific mental health needs aligned with the three orientations that will support Philippine law provisions on mental health (RA11036 or the Mental Health Act) and on senior citizens (RA9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizen Act) with the continuing aim of providing access for mental health services and integrated strategies for the promotion of mental health.