What Kind of Freedom is Academic Freedom?

In this essay, I argue for a definition of academic freedom that does not confuse it with what is considered to be a human right—the individual right to free speech. This is a freedom granted in principle by the state to scholars (usually within educational institutions: schools, colleges, and universities) because their critical activity has been considered vital to the public good, and because it is a self-regulated activity committed to processes of relentless questioning that require disciplined forms of reading and reasoning. Neoliberal practices have undermined the basis for this classic definition of academic freedom. The essay explores the alternatives to state-ensured academic freedom that have emerged both within and outside the university, focusing particular attention on Turkey’s Solidarity Academies. It concludes by insisting that the critical function of producing knowledge for the common good must be protected by non-state actors if the state has broken the covenant upon which academic freedom once rested.

Impact of Metal-Based Nanoparticles on Cambisol Microbial Functionality, Enzyme Activity, and Plant Growth

An increase in the penetration of metal-based nanoparticles (NPs) into the environment requires an assessment of their ecotoxicity as they impair the critical activity of plants, animals, bacteria, and enzymes. Therefore, the study aimed to observe the effects of metal-based NPs, including copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn), on the Cambisols, which cover a significant part of the earth's soil and play an important role in the biosphere. Metal-based NPs were introduced into the soil at concentrations of 100, 1,000, and 10,000 mg/kg. The biological properties of the soil are being investigated as the most sensitive to external contamination. The highest ecotoxicity of the studied pollutants introduced into the soil at the same concentrations was shown by Cu (up to 34%) and Zn (up to 30%) NPs, while Ni NPs showed less (up to 22%). Microbiological (total number of bacteria, Azotobacter sp. abundance) and phytotoxic properties (radish seed germination and length of roots) of Cambisols were more sensitive (22–53%) to pollution by NPs of Cu, Zn, and Ni, while enzymatic activity (catalase and dehydrogenases) showed less sensitivity (14–32%). The present results could be useful for biomonitoring the state of contaminated soils, especially by NPs.

A systematic approach in remanufacturing for high efficiency and low cost: The selective parallel disassembly sequence planning

With the growth of environmental awareness, remanufacturing and sustainable manufacturing have become hot issues. Disassembly is the first step and critical activity in remanufacturing. Traditional disassembly sequence planning (DSP) focusses on sequential disassembly. However, it is inefficient for complicated products because only one manipulator is employed to execute disassembly operations. Thus, this work focusses on parallel DSP (PDSP) and proposes a selective parallel disassembly sequence planning (SPDSP) methodology, which performs disassembly compared to sequential DSP and PDSP. In this paper, a mathematical model is used to describe the constraint and precedence relationships, and a parallel sequence model is designed for parallel disassembly. A novel hybrid genetic algorithm (NHGA) based-multi-objective model of SPDSP is proposed for optimisation. In this model, two indicators are integrated: disassembly time (including basic disassembly time, tool exchange time and direction change time) and disassembly costs. A transmission box is used as an instance, and a comparison with conventional genetic algorithm (GA), simulated annealing (SA) and tabu search (TS) is made to validate the practicality of the proposed methodology.

Prioritization and transparency in software development: An action research in public administration

The prioritization of requirements is a critical activity in quality assurance. However, in public institutions, prioritization faces conflicts with financial constraints. Problem: Increasing the complexity of requirements. Objective: Proposition of a Kanban method to improve the transparency of activities and facilitate prioritization. Method: An action research carried out in two cycles at the Attorney General's Office of the State of Pernambuco, involving the development team and public managers. Result: The presentation of the method's effectiveness as a mechanism facilitating transparency and as a support to management in prioritization.

Pakistan - United States of America Relations: Impediments and way forward

During the past seven decades, the relations among America and Pakistan have seen such a significant number of ups and downs. Hindered by different commitment, solid and particular irritation, both of states have attempted to impact each other, but have been unsuccessful at significant number of stages. Pakistan once saw, as the most associated partner when fits to United States of America interests in 50s, twisted hooked on utmost endorsed companion of America in 90s. The centralization of relations fluctuated from one perilous to that of totally overlooking the different as in 1971, to that of critical activity as was seen following the intrusion of Afghanistan by the Soviets in December 1979 and during the war on psychological warfare after 9/11 assaults, which totally changed the image of the relations. Meanwhile the occasions of 9/11, Pakistan devours embraced a proactive and realistic methodology in its isolated relations that helped nation to organize a discretionary rebound at provincial and all-inclusive echelons. Pakistan had option towards successfully modification post-9/11 difficulties hooked on situations and thus become cutting edge worldwide actions against psychological combat. Global network properly recognized commitment in contradiction of anxiety mongering; activities make stable local complaint by preliminary procedures towards improved relations by way of India and Afghanistan. Following finish of the Taliban system in Afghanistan and an adjustment in Pakistan’s Afghan approach, a significant prevention in improving relations with Russia and the Central Asian states has been evacuated and there are solid indications of progress in respective relations.

Fuzzy-AHP MOORA approach for vendor selection applications

Vendor selection is a critical activity in order to support the achievement of company success and competitiveness. Significantly, the company has some specific standards in the selection. Therefore, an evaluation is needed to see which vendors match the company's criteria. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and select the proposed vendor in a web-based decision support system (DSS) by using the fuzzy-AHP MOORA approach. The fuzzy-AHP method is used to determine the importance level of the criteria, while the MOORA method is used for alternative ranking. The results showed that vendor 4 has the highest score than other alternatives with a value of 0.2536. Sensitivity analysis showed that the proposed DSS fuzzy-AHP MOORA concept was already solid and suitable for this problem, with a low rate of change.

Design and Validation of a Novel Turbogenerator’s Robotized Inspection System

The inspection of power generators is a critical activity that will grow in importance during the next decades as operators are seeking solutions to continuously reduce outage duration and improve availability and reliability of the equipment. Automatic and systematic data collection on the status of health of the generator enables the possibility to implement predictive diagnostic/maintenance strategies and reduce the downtime due to repair activities. In this context robotic inspections play a crucial role since they allow a quick and efficient method to acquire data on the status of the generator. This paper describes an innovative robotic system that, thanks to a novel multi-sensor analysis method, is able to inspect and evaluate the overall status of power generators. The detection system, which is located on board a crawler robot, consists of inspection cameras, a micro-hammering system that is able to detect the acoustic response of fixing components of the generator bars and an Electromagnetic Core Imperfection Detection (EL-CID) sensor, which aims to detect insulation failures. Additionally, there is a description of how the robot has been designed to be adaptable to a wide range of different generators, and how it was tested and validated in the field.

Implementation of isoniazid preventive therapy in southern Lima, Peru: an analysis of health center characteristics

Background Tuberculosis (TB) prevention through the use of preventive treatment is a critical activity in the elimination of TB. In multiple settings, limited staffing has been identified as a barrier to managing preventive treatment for TB contacts. This study aims to determine how health center staffing, service type, and TB caseload affects implementation of isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) for TB contacts in southern Lima. Methods We conducted an ecological study in 2019 in southern Lima, Peru. Through the review of medical records, we identified contacts of TB patients who initiated IPT during 2016–2018, and who were 0–19 years old, the age group eligible for IPT according to Peruvian guidelines. We assessed bivariate associations between health center characteristics (numbers of physicians and nurses, types of services available, annual TB caseload) and IPT initiation and completion using binomial logistic regression. Results Among 977 contacts, 69% took more than a week to start IPT and 41% did not complete IPT. For those who successfully completed IPT, 58% did not complete full medical follow-up. There was no significant difference in IPT completion or adherence based on whether health centers had more physicians and nurses, more comprehensive services, or higher TB caseloads. Among contacts, female sex was associated with delay in initiating IPT (P = 0.005), age 5–19 years old was associated with completion of IPT (P = 0.025) and age < 5 years old was associated with completion of clinical evaluations (P = 0.041). Conclusions There are significant gaps in IPT implementation in health centers of southern Lima, Peru, but insufficient staffing of health centers may not be responsible. Further research is needed to identify how IPT implementation can be improved, potentially through improving staff training or monitoring and supervision. Graphic abstract

The main stages of Masud Aliyoglu's critical activity

The stages of development of Azerbaijani literary criticism in the twentieth century coincided with the period of political and ideological principles. It is substantial influence on aesthetic approaches is confirmed by existing research. In this sense, the study of the individual facts of criticism and the scientific and theoretical heritage of individual critics in stages creates a favorable basis for concrete conclusions. A step-by-step study of Masud Alieglu's 25-year career as a critic reveals interesting scientific and theoretical truths. The main priority goal of the article is to study the general activities of the critic and the directions of research in a unified way. Based on articles and opinions written in a short period of time from the late 1940s to the 1950s, he chose Masud Aliyoglu as a leading field for his literary criticism. In the later stages of development, the literary-aesthetic factors that led to the continuation and development of research on the creative problems of poetry, prose, drama and literary criticism in the 50s and 60 s and 70s were focused on the analysis of facts. Key words: critical individuality, literary process, scientific-theoretical generalization, criterion of modernity, aesthetic evaluation, critical thinking, new trends