Utilizing Technology to Enhance Human Resource Practices

HR management departments are constantly evolving as a result of new technological advancements. For family HR firms, this technological evolution is vital in ensuring that they remain innovative and current with their competitors. Technology has impacted how companies recruit, retain, and evaluate employees. However, in order to ensure that technology is effectively and accurately adopted and integrated, companies need to understand how they can employ technology to enhance their daily operations and implement tools that provide an adequate return on investment for the technology they select. In family firms, a vast majority of employees are able to ensure that funds are invested in appropriate technology-enhanced projects and that they develop a family-like culture with their stakeholders. This chapter will seek to explore these emerging trends in order to present opportunity for family owned firms to function most efficiently and effectively in the modern, technology enhanced workplace.

Vocal tract physiology and its MRI evaluation

Introduction. The rapid technological evolution in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has recently offered a great opportunity for the analysis of voice production. Objectives. This article is aimed to describe main physiological principles at the base of voice production (in particular of vocal tract), and an overview about literature on MRI of the vocal tract. This is presented in order to analyze both present results and future perspectives. Method. A narrative review was performed by searching the MeSH terms “vocal tract” and “MRI” in PubMed database. Then, the obtained studies were subsequently selected by relevancy. Results. Main fields described in literature concern technical feasibility and optimization of MRI sequences, modifications of vocal tract in vowel or articulatory phonetics, modifications of vocal tract in singing, 3D reproduction of vocal tract and segmentation, and describing vocal tract in pathological conditions. Conclusions. MRI is potentially the best method to study the vocal tract physiology during voice production. Most recent studies have achieved good results in representation of changes in the vocal tract during emission of vowels and singing. Further developments in MR technique are necessary to allow an equally detailed study of faster movements that participate in the articulation of speaking, which will allow fascinating perspectives in clinical use.

The Cyber Threat Landscape in South Africa: A 10-Year Review

The world is witnessing a rise in cyber-related incidents. As information technology improves and the reliance on technology increases, the frequency and severity of cyber incidents escalate. The impact is felt globally, and South Africa is not immune to the effects. The country’s fast-paced technological evolution continues to increase the attack surface within the cyber domain. The increased attack surface is confirmed by recent cyberattacks affecting well-known and established South African organisations. This article reviews findings from an evaluation of South Africa’s cyber threat landscape that analysed 74 cyber incidents identified as occurring between 2010 and 2020. The 74 incidents are categorised according to incident type, affected sector, perpetrator type, and motivation. It is found that the most common incident type is data exposure, the most-affected sector is the public sector, the most prevalent perpetrators are hackers, and the most common motivation is criminal. The article makes recommendations about how South Africa can reduce the risk factors in its cyber threat landscape.

Ensino de Biotecnologia para Estudantes no Ensino Fundamental em uma Escola Pública no Sul do Amazonas

ResumoA Biotecnologia é considerada uma ciência multidisciplinar, e usa seres vivos a partir da aplicação de técnicas, ferramentas ou procedimento com auxílio de novas tecnologias para fabricação de bens de consumo ou serviços. Objetivou-se propor instrumento metodológico para abordar a Biotecnologia e elucidar um campo de discursão teórico/prático desta ciência, considerando a percepção dos estudantes. Esta pesquisa foi desenvolvida em uma escola pública na cidade de Humaitá- AM. Foram selecionadas, de forma aleatória, duas turmas do Ensino Fundamental. Utilizou-se pesquisa de caráter bibliográfico, pesquisa ação com abordagem qualitativa e quantitativa com referência ao método Materialismo Histórico e Dialético, as técnicas de coletas de dados utilizadas foram: diagramas de fluxo do pensamento pré e pós-atividades da pesquisa e construção de atividade didática. Os resultados apontam que os diagramas expressaram a verdade pelos sujeitos, em um paralelo inicial e final da abordagem sobre Biotecnologia. Além disso, por meio da abordagem de conteúdo, os estudantes puderam se apropriar de informações sobre o processo de produção, as vantagens, as desvantagens, as curiosidades e as demais informações pertinentes sobre Biotecnologia. Por este motivo, esta pesquisa demonstrou que é possível propor metodologia de simples execução para ensinar Biotecnologia dentro das possibilidades do professor e aluno, no cenário atual de evolução tecnológica, e uso de organismos biológicos para melhorar a condição da vida do homem. Portanto, espera-se que outros agentes de conhecimento adotem métodos similares para aproximar o estudante da Biotecnologia, em uma perspectiva positiva de mundo, considerada a ciência do século. Palavras-chave: Tecnologia. Organismos Biológicos. Abordagem. AbstractBiotechnology is considered a multidisciplinary science, and uses living beings from the application of techniques, tools or procedures with the aid of new technologies for the manufacture of consumer goods or services. The objective was to propose a methodological instrument to approach Biotechnology and to elucidate a field of theoretical / practical discourse on this science considering the students' perception. This research was developed in a public school in the city of Humaitá-AM. Two classes of elementary school were selected at random. Bibliographic research was used, action research with a qualitative and quantitative approach with reference to the Historical and Dialectical Materialism method, the data collection techniques used were: Pre- and post-thought flow research diagrams and didactic activity construction . The results show that the diagrams expressed the truth by the subjects in an initial and final parallel of the approach on Biotechnology. In addition, through the content approach, the students were able to appropriate information about the production process, the advantages, disadvantages, curiosities and other pertinent information about Biotechnology. For this reason, this research has shown that it is possible to propose a simple execution methodology to teach Biotechnology within the possibilities of the teacher and student in the current scenario of technological evolution and use of biological organisms to improve the man's life condition. Therefore, it is expected that other knowledge agents adopt similar methods to bring the student closer to Biotechnology, in a positive perspective of the world, considered the science of the century. Keywords: Technology. Biological Organisms. Approach.

Interpopulational variation in human brain size: implications for hominin cognitive phylogeny

Throughout the hominin lineage brain size is believed to have increased threefold – increase which, it is argued by some researchers, results in the enhanced brain power that distinguishes humans from any other living being. However, as we demonstrate in this article this supposed increase is the result of comparing the species mean of contemporary humans with other great apes and fossil hominins. This method obscures both interpopulational variation among modern humans, and the fact that the putative increases in the mean are the result of an increase in the upper limit in some populations, which has the result of obscuring the relative stasis in the lower limit over the last 600k years. For example, populations such as Aboriginal Australians have a range that is more different from Danes than it is from that of Asian H. erectus over the last 600ka. Yet Aboriginal Australians, whose unique anatomy seems to be related to the climatic conditions of Australia, possess all of the socio-cognitive traits characteristic of all other modern-day populations – yet they seemed not to have undergone increase in brain size to the degree that many other populations have. In this instance brain size seems to be unrelated to cognition. In this article we present a statistical analysis of interpopulational variation in contemporary humans and why such an analysis is crucial for our understanding of hominin cognitive, social and technological evolution. We also suggest how such variation may add to our understanding of hominin ontogeny or life history. Additionally, we develop a model based on humanity’s unique form of embodied social cognition that results from our upright bipedal posture and hand morphology. This model is then used to explain the results of our statistical analysis and the possible factors underpinning the human emergence.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: a visionary in controversy

Teilhard de Chardin developed an evolutionary vision of our planetary future, currently developing from a sphere of life, or biosphere towards a sphere of mind, or noosphere. As a visionary, Teilhard was not only on the brink of formulating the internet, but he also anticipated current academic efforts to understand globalization, as well as human, cultural and technological evolution. However, his ideas are sources of enduring controversies in both scientific and theological circles. Here I uncover some of the core reasons why his ways of thinking and writing are often problematic, and propose a way forward. This note aims to introduce Teilhard’s central article about the noosphere (The Formation of the Noosphere, 1947), but can also be read as an independent introduction to Teilhard’s system of thought. A detailed exegesis of Teilhard’s article is available as a supplementary document.

Global Innovation Trends for Plant-Based Vaccines Production: A Patent Analysis

The use of plants as biofactories for the production of medical products and vaccines has a long history, but the recent COVID-19 pandemic has caused this set of technologies, for their potential to contribute to the development of innovative solutions for tackling pandemic spread worldwide, to rise in prominence. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the global innovation scenario of plant-based vaccine production. Methods: Patent search using a specific set of technical classification codes and keywords was performed using the Questel-Orbit database, with a final output of 180 patent families, corresponding to 1397 single patents. Results: Plant-based vaccines production is an innovation sector with positive development especially in the last five-year period (30% growth). Fifty percent of the patents were registered in the United States, standing out as the most attractive patent system worldwide. The inventive activity was led by private firms owning the 49% of the patent families, and the key-players group includes the companies that successfully developed plant-based COVID-19 vaccine candidates, indicating a strong connection between the expertise in innovation production and the capacity to adapt inventions to the current pandemic vaccine demand. Virus-like particles technology has increased in importance over the past few years. Conclusion: Patent data confirm their relevant role as indicators of innovation and technological evolution. Plant-based vaccines are expected to acquire an increasing role over the next few years as the current pandemic acts as an innovation catalyst.