KESEJAHTERAAN PSIKOLOGI MANGSA BENCANA DI PENEMPATAN SEMULA KOMUNITI MANGSA BENCANA BANJIR

Disasters have had an impact on the psychological well-being of victims for a long period of time. Past research related to the psychological well-being of disaster victims shows the negative and positive psychological well-being experienced by victims even though actions have been taken by certain parties in helping disaster victims. Flooding is a natural disaster that often occurs in Malaysia. Major floods that occurred in 2014 in several states in Malaysia, especially on the east coast, have resulted in certain parties taking action to move disaster victims to new resettlement to avoid repeated tragedies. Thus, the present study was conducted to identify the level of psychological well-being of disaster victims in the relocation area. The study was conducted using a qualitative design where data collection was done through interview methods. A total of 23 informants were interviewed using an interview protocol formed based on previous theories and studies. Data is analyzed using thematic analysis. The results found that stress, sadness and anxiety are elements of negative psychological well-being that informants feel when recalling these events. This negative element is balanced with the positive element of gratitude, acceptance and social support received. This study contributes to the theories of psychological well-being by the addition of acceptance and grateful as a new dimension. The results of this study also contributed to strengthen policies in relation to the importance of intervention from the psychological aspect provided to disaster victims. Keywords: Psychological effects, Natural disaster, Floods, Relocation of flood victims, Qualitative research Abstrak: Bencana mendatangkan kesan terhadap kesejahteraan psikologi mangsa untuk satu tempoh masa yang agak panjang. Penelitian berkaitan kesejahteraan psikologi mangsa bencana menunjukkan kesejahteraan psikologi secara negatif dan positif dialami oleh mangsa meskipun tindakan telah diambil oleh pihak tertentu dalam membantu mangsa bencana. Banjir adalah merupakan bencana alam yang seringkali terjadi di Malaysia. Banjir besar yang dialami pada tahun 2014 di beberapa buah negeri di Malaysia terutama di pantai timur telah mengakibatkan pihak-pihak tertentu mengambil tindakan untuk memindahkan mangsa bencana ke penempatan semula bagi mengelak tragedi ini berulang. Lantaran itu, kajian ini dilakukan bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti tahap kesejahteraan psikologi mangsa bencana di kawasan penempatan semula. Kajian ini dilakukan menggunakan reka bentuk kualitatif iaitu pengumpulan data melalui kaedah temubual. Sejumlah 23 orang informan telah ditemubual menggunakan protokol temubual yang dibentuk berdasarkan teori dan kajian lepas. Data dianalisis menggunakan analisis tematik. Hasil kajian mendapati tekanan, kesedihan dan kebimbangan adalah merupakan elemen kesejahteraan psikologi negatif yang dirasai oleh informan ketika mengenangkan peristiwa berkenaan. Elemen negatif ini diseimbangkan dengan elemen positif iaitu syukur, redha dan sokongan sosial yang diterima. Kajian ini menyumbang kepada teori psikologi iaitu Teori Kesejahteraan Psikologi, Teori Penentuan Diri dan Teori Modal Insan dengan menyumbang kepada penambahan redha dan bersyukur sebagai dimensi baru. Hasil kajian ini turut menyumbang kepada pengukuhan polisi berkaitan dengan kepentingan intervensi dari aspek psikologi diberikan kepada mangsa bencana. Kata kunci: Kesan psikologikal, Bencana alam, Penempatan mangsa banjir, Kajian kualitatif

Universal Politics

This book claims that there is a negativity at the core of all social articulations that provides the basis for a universal politics. Drawing principally on the work of Slavoj Žižek, the book suggests that the social is punctured by an impossibility—an incompletion—that, rather than serving as a barrier to politics, lays a foundation for shared struggle. The book thus argues for a negative universality, rooted not in a positive element (e.g., identity-based politics) but a discordant one, so that under our current global capitalist system, solidarity is to be forged on the basis of social antagonism (i.e., shared experiences of exploitation and marginalization). Such a conception of shared struggle avoids the trap of both a neocolonial universalism (e.g., the rights of white men parading as universal rights) and the narrow particularism of identity-based politics. Most importantly, it foregrounds the struggles of the systematically dispossessed and excluded (the permanently unemployed, migrants, refugees, sweatshop laborers, etc.), who stand as symptom of our global capitalist order. The book compares “negative universality” with four competing contemporary versions of universalism—conservative, liberal, postcolonial, and Marxist. It also brings “negative universality” into dialogue with present-day critics of universalism—postmodernists, post-Marxists, queer theorists, decolonial pluriversalists, and new materialists. Finally, it examines what a universal politics might look like today in the context of such key global sites of struggle as climate change, the refugee crisis, the Palestinian question, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, political Islam, workers’ struggles, the Bolivian state under Morales, the European Union, and Covid-19.

“THE PERIPHERY – THE PLACE THAT REVEALS THE FUTURE” (BETWEEN THE EAST AND THE WEST – BOUNDARIES AND IDENTITIES)

The study was inspired by several key ideas essential to the contemporary literary situation – times of testing literary studies, when outside the debate on the sustainability and content of the established forms of literary research, the constant subordination of culture in its entirety to the market laws is associated with the perpetual encroachment on the humanities and with the implicitly declining importance of literature as a cultural phenomenon. We share the idea that the cultures that stay isolated wither away, the cultures that remain confined within themselves deform, and only those cultures that maintain the balance of borrowing and lending tend to be healthy and thriving; hence the insistence on the interaction between the different cultures on the basis of equality and mutual respect. The discussed literary works pose the questions whether multiculturalism is a positive element of modern cosmopolitanism, whether it unites races and cultures in the idea of the hybrid man or it s simply a social propaganda that reinforces the stereotypes about otherness and perpetuates racism, etc. Probably what also unites the characters here is the feeling of loss, as well as the shared grief. Addressing the personal heartache, they talk about things that are universal and continue to move people. The common thing to the two types of culture and the studied works is derived from Homi Bhabha’s idea that both the stories created in the Balkans and the narratives of the cross-cultural writers are part of that model of cultures capable of turning their own marginality into a kind of center.

Participation in Governance: Challenges and Achievements of Representative Democracy in Albania

The system of representative democracy has its origins in England. Participation in governance is an important element of representative democracy because the people exercise their power through representatives. This paper aims to analyze the challenges and achievement of representative democracy in Albania after the fall of communism regime. Since 1990, Albania entered into a period of transition where participation in governance was seen as positive element to approach western values. This paper seeks to address the following question: Does the development of representative democracy help participation in governance? Whom does the power belong to, and how should this power be exercised? Can the people, participate in governance, and control the representatives, if they do not properly represent it? How can power be returned to the people? Main methodology used in this paper is doctrinal research. The paper is structured in three sections. After the introduction (section 1), the paper discusses theoretical framework of representative governance and the importance of participation in governance. The third section analyzes the challenges of representative democracy in the context of Albania. Keywords: Democracy; Governance; Participation

TUALA WANITA SEBAGAI INOVASI SOSIAL TERHADAP KEPERCAYAAN AMALAN TRADISI KETIKA DATANG BULAN DI KALANGAN MASYARAKAT DI PEDALAMAN INDIA: PADMAN (2018)

Fokus kajian adalah berkenaan fungsi tuala wanita yang dicipta oleh Lakshmi sebagai mekanisme inovasi sosial di kalangan wanita dan masyarakat pedalaman di India dalam filem PadMan (2018). Penciptaan tuala wanita oleh Lakshmi, suami kepada Gayatri adalah sebagai langkah penyelesaian masalah dan untuk menggubah persepsi masyarakat setempat khususnya kaum wanita dalam aspek penjagaan kebersihan dan kesihatan ketika haid. Kajian ini menggunakan kaedah kualitatif yang bersifat analisis tekstual naratif filem (PadMan 2018) melalui pendekatan inovasi sosial. Melalui hasil kajian, inovasi sosial ciptaan Lakshmi ini bersifat sebagai agen penolakan dan menyumbang kepada unsur negatif. Inovasi sosial ini bertindak sebagai unsur penentangan dari objektif utama fungsi inovasi sosial yang dikatakan oleh para sarjana Justeru, ia berfungsi sebagai elemen penentangan terhadap amalan dan kepercayaan tradisi dan agama di situ. Produk ini mengaibkan dan menjatuhkan maruah keluarga Lakshmi sendiri. Inovasi sosial ini turut dianggap sebagai unsur kejahatan yang mencabar agama, adat dan kepercayaan tradisi yang sudah lama diamalkan. Ironinya, pada masyarakat luar: daerah perkampungan lain dan bandar, inovasi sosial ini mencapai objektif yang dikehendaki. The discussion offers in this paper draws on the innovation of female pad by Lakshmi, as an element of social innovation mechanism among the rural women dan society in India, in PadMan (2018). The invention of a female towel by Laksmi, a husband of Gayatri function as the innovation of solution and the element of change to his society and especially to the women community in his village. However, this perception serves as an element of opposition to their traditional practice and also the religious belief of the society. This study uses the textual analysis approach through the concept of social innovation. Findings of the study shows that Lakshmi’s social innovation fails to achieved its function defined bythe scholar. Yet it serves as negative elements to his family and his communinity. The action brought shame upon his family and he is labelled as a bad energy to the society. Ironically, to the others: those in the city and urban areas, his innovation serves as a positive element. Thus, it is an innovation that could lead society to a better life andhygiene. Hence, he is considering as a saviour or a hero.

Quasi-experiment in the educational reality

Aim. The main aim of the study is a presentation of the results of a quasi-experiment related to using a serious game in the preparation phase of supervised teaching practice as well as during its completion. Methods. The main method of the study is a quasi-experiment with the factor rotation technique. The method comprised two phases with two unequal groups of surveyed university students. In the first phase, the experimental influence was investigated in the first group and the second group served as the control group (to compare the results). In the second phase, the groups were switched around in the quasi-experiment; the control group became the experimental group and vice versa. Results. The presented study has a theoretical-empirical character. In the theoretical part, the characteristics of quasi-experiment and its use are briefly discussed. In the empirical part, the quasi-experiment is applied to the educational reality of future teachers. Supervised practice teaching is an important part of the university education of future teachers. Using a serious game therein is a positive element also when it comes to the development of students’ approach towards supervised teaching practice. Conclusion. Quasi-experiment is used as an experimental method for verification of examined reality. In the educational reality, its realisation is more difficult because it is a more demanding environment than a laboratory one. By realising the quasi-experiment, the theoretical supposition about the positive influence of serious games on the development of a university student’s personality can be confirmed.

A Global Search for novel Transcription Factors impacting the Neurospora crassa Circadian Clock

Eukaryotic circadian oscillators share a common circuit architecture, a negative feedback loop in which a positive element activates the transcription of a negative one that then represses the action of the former, inhibiting its own expression. While studies in mammals and insects have revealed additional transcriptional inputs modulating the expression of core clock components, this has been less characterized in the model Neurospora crassa, where the participation of other transcriptional components impacting circadian clock dynamics remains rather unexplored. Thus, we sought to identify additional transcriptional regulators modulating the N. crassa clock, following a reverse genetic screen based on luminescent circadian reporters and a collection of transcription factors knockouts, successfully covering close to 60% of them. Besides the canonical core clock components WC-1 and WC-2, none of the tested transcriptional regulators proved to be essential for rhythmicity. Nevertheless, we identified a set of 23 transcription factors that when absent lead to discrete, but significant, changes in circadian period. While the current level of analysis does not provide mechanistic information about how these new players modulate circadian parameters, the results of this screen reveal that an important number of light and clock-regulated transcription factors, involved in a plethora of processes, are capable of modulating the clockworks. This partial reverse genetic clock screen also exemplifies how the N. crassa knockout collection continues to serve as an expedite platform to address broad biological questions.

Growing Up Under Constant Light: A Challenge to the Endocrine Function of the Leydig Cells

The factors influencing Leydig cell maturity and the acquisition of functional capacity are incompletely defined. Here we analyzed the constant light (LL) influence on Leydig cells’ endocrine function during reproductive maturation. Rats were exposed to LL from P21 to P90. Data were collected at juvenile (P35), peri/pubertal (P42, P49), and adult (P90) stages of life. The results proved the effect of LL on rats’ physiology by changing of bimodal voluntary activity pattern into free-running. Additionally, the peripheral clock in Leydig cells changed in LL condition, indicating disturbed rhythm: the positive element (Bmal1) increased in pre-/pubertal but decreased in the adult period, while negative elements (Per2 and Reverba) were increased. The effects of LL were most prominent in puberty: pituitary genes encoding gonadotropic hormones (Cga, Lhb, Fshb) decreased; serum corticosterone increased, while serum androgens and mass of testicular and sex accessory organs reduced; markers of Leydig cells maturity/differentiation (Insl3, Lhcgr) and steroidogenesis-related genes (Scarb1, Star, Cyp11a1, Cyp17a1) decreased; the steroidogenic and energetic capacity of the Leydig cell mitochondria decreased; the mtDNA copy number reduced, and mitochondrial dynamics markers changed: fusion decreased (Opa1 and Mfn2), and mitophagy increased (Pink1). In adults, the negative effect of LL on mitochondrial function and steroidogenic capacity persists in adult Leydig cells while other parameters reached control values. Altogether, the results indicate that LL slows down Leydig cells’ maturation by reducing the endocrine and energy capacity of cells leading to the delay of reproductive development.