Connected Histories of the BBC: Opening up the BBC Oral History Archive to the Digital Domain

This article describes the computational and data-related challenges of the “Connected Histories of the BBC” project, an interdisciplinary project aiming to bring into the public realm some of the hidden treasures of the BBC's own Oral History Archive through the creation of an openly accessible, fully searchable and interconnected digital catalogue of this archive. This project stands as an interesting case study on the tensions between “computational” and “archival”, by critically designing and employing computational approaches for an historical, complex Oral History collection of scattered analogue records of various forms with an archival pre-history. From data acquisition, modeling, structuring and enhancement, metadata, data analysis procedures, to web design and legal issues, this paper discusses the various computational challenges, processes and decisions made during this project, while showcasing the principles of (re)usability, accessibility, and collaboration throughout its course.

The Impact of COVID-19 on the GCC Construction Industry

The Coronavirus pandemic has badly affected everyone on the earth. Apart from losing thousands of lives, businesses and individuals are going to be affected by the long-lasting financial effects due to an expected global recession. The impact of the financial crises can, however, be reduced if proper measured are put in place. This article aims to investigate the impact of Coronavirus on the construction industry in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries and provide recommendations to help the industry to sustain during this period of crisis. A qualitative research method involving face-to-face online interviews held with the construction industry professionals was adopted to achieve the aims and objectives of the research. Four main aspects of the impact on the construction industry are derived from analysis of interviews: 1) delays, 2) workforce management, 3) health and safety, and 4) legal issues. Recommendations are provided so that construction organizations in the GCC region can reduce the impact of Coronavirus on its businesses.

The Philosophical Vision of Legal Punishment

The concept of punishment represents one of the most difficult legal issues that are related to the concept of human freedom and responsibility. Since Antiquity, the brilliant minds of humanity contemplated about the sense of punishment and the function of this institution. Each epoch analyses this concept from different aspects and some of them are reflected in the actual legislation. The most important principles of contemporary criminal law were expounded by the Ancient, Modern and Contemporary philosophers. The field of research of this article is the philosophy of punishment of criminal law. In this study, we have applied the method of historical research of the proposed topic, which gives us the opportunity to analyze the development of criminal punishment and its goals from a historical perspective. In this paper, we aimed to determine the philosophical base of the legal punishment that legitimizes the application of sanctions to the person who committed the crime. We established the importance of the theories developed by brilliant thinkers for the contemporary concept of penal retribution and legal regulation of this institution. This theme generates several discussions that are formed in the process of comparison and debating of the ideas of influential philosophers regarding the purpose of criminal punishment. Therefore, we consider that the analysis of the theories of great thinkers gives us the possibility to understand the complexity of the phenomenon of criminal punishment, and leads to the more effective application of state constraint towards the offender.

Legal Review of the Government's Responsibility in Compensating for the Damage Caused by the COVID-19 Crisis

The onset and spread of COVID-19-related disease and the measures taken by the government to combat it have given rise to several legal issues. The most important of these issues can be considered the government's legal framework in the fight against this disease and the responsibility for compensation. Examining the first issue through Iran's current laws and regulations, it became clear that choosing the appropriate legal framework in the fight against this disease could be more than the basic and ordinary regulations. Instead of creating a national headquarters to fight COVID-19 under council approvals, the Supreme National Security Service shall use the capacities of the crisis management organization and the relevant law and the provisions of Article 79 of the Iranian constitution.

Leveraging Blockchain in Medical Tourism Value Chain

There are significant challenges facing the medical tourism industry: privacy and transparency concerns, lack of access to centralized medical records, fraudulent practices, opportunistic behavior of intermediaries, foreign currency risks, and contractual/legal issues. While blockchain technology has immense potential to address the industry’s inherent challenges and inefficiencies, the current understanding of blockchain application in medical tourism is fragmented. Through a pragmatic review of the literature, this study explores the blockchain applications and benefits for medical tourists across the stages of the medical tourism value chain, and in the process, proposes a meaningful and managerially relevant blockchain framework for medical tourism. The findings and the proposed novel framework to guide policy interventions and support mechanisms to take advantage of the full opportunities of blockchain in medical tourism.

Protection of orphans and children left without parental care from violence and abuse: legal grounds and psychological assistance

The paper deals with the problem of abuse and violence against minors, among which the authors distinguish a special category: orphans and children left without parental care. Approaches to the definition and forms of violence and ill-treatment of minors are described. The psychological causes and consequences of violence and ill-treatment are analyzed. Technologies for providing psychological assistance to child victims of violence and abuse are offered. A significant part of the work is devoted to the consideration of the features of interdepartmental interaction on prevention and timely detection of signs and consequences of abuse and violence against children. The result of such an analysis was the development of a model regulation describing the procedural and legal issues of coordinating such interaction between specialists from different departments in order to protect the interests of minors. The work is addressed to psychologists, teachers, specialists of organizations for children.

Why One Should Learn Ethical Hacking

This chapter presents the importance of learning hacking techniques by each and every person dealing with cyber operations. The chapter explains various basic terminologies used in the ethical hacking domain and also provides step-by-step instructions for setting up an ethical hacking lab. The chapter also reveals the legal issues with the ethical hacking domain by providing details of existing cyber laws, acts, and regulations framed by various countries in order to deal with the harmful hacking activities and cybercrimes.