Hopes and Fears of First-Year Freshman College Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic made the experience of being a first-year freshman college student unique. This study aims to analyze the hopes and fears of these students concerning their current life and future goals. Participating students completed the Hopes & Fears questionnaire. Results showed that students’ hopes and fears were mainly connected with domains of education and the global/collective dimension, followed by personal and family members’ health. Two new categories emerged, self-fulfillment and solidarity, reflecting the importance of the contextual dimension that these students were navigating. The findings of the current study contribute to the research of college students’ hopes and fears towards their future and accounts for the analyses of this topic as we progress to a post-pandemic phase.

TESS Eclipsing Binary Stars. I. Short-cadence Observations of 4584 Eclipsing Binaries in Sectors 1–26

In this paper we present a catalog of 4584 eclipsing binaries observed during the first two years (26 sectors) of the TESS survey. We discuss selection criteria for eclipsing binary candidates, detection of hitherto unknown eclipsing systems, determination of the ephemerides, the validation and triage process, and the derivation of heuristic estimates for the ephemerides. Instead of keeping to the widely used discrete classes, we propose a binary star morphology classification based on a dimensionality reduction algorithm. Finally, we present statistical properties of the sample, we qualitatively estimate completeness, and we discuss the results. The work presented here is organized and performed within the TESS Eclipsing Binary Working Group, an open group of professional and citizen scientists; we conclude by describing ongoing work and future goals for the group. The catalog is available from http://tessEBs.villanova.edu and from MAST.

Employment and Labor Union Laws in Japan between the 1889 and 1946 Constitutions: A Comparative Study

This research is based on the descriptive and analytical methodology. The importance of studying labor laws and labor unions in Japan between 1889 and 1946 constitutions is because Japan was out of a feudal phase, and had no idea about the factory system and industrialization in their modern sense before the Meiji era. Generally, its labor system used to be mostly familial, and the economic system was based on agriculture. This called for the enactment of legislations and laws appropriate for the coming phase in Meiji era. Thus, this paper examines the role of Meiji government in enacting labor legislations and laws when he came to power in 1896, and his new constitution in 1889 and the civil code of 1896. It further examines the way Meiji government and the following Japanese governments until the end of World War II did not abide by Meiji laws and stipulations of the constitution with their abusive actions in ending the workers’ strikes and disputes, with the inequality between genders in labor and wages, and the use of child labor in factories in an inhuman way. The paper clarifies the role of the American occupation of Japan (1945-1952) after dissolving Meiji constitution and legislations and the government measures that followed them to enact new legislations, laws and constitution for Japan on November 3, 1946, which was active in May 3, 1947. The paper has concluded that the American occupation policy of Japan was able to avoid the dissidence of millions of Japanese workers, whose level of livelihood was deteriorating after their country lost the war, and convert them from a dissident group against the occupation to a peaceful group which did not target the occupation in their future goals.

Origin of a Risk-Based Security System

In general, from a long-term perspective, we implement various systems aimed to improve our lives. The exception, however, is war, which — by definition — assumes achieving certain benefits through losses. Therefore, in the case of armed conflicts, it is impossible to ensure stabilisation and balance of social relations, as every military conflict, while serving future goals, simultaneously ruins the present ones. After all, war is the manifestation of risks undertaken in the name of uncertain objectives and a tragedy experienced both by losers and winners. War always entails losses, suffering and widespread crime, as well as blurs the concept of moral good. From this point of view, war appears to be foolish and dangerous to life and health. Nevertheless, militarisation has been the most pronounced trend underlining the dynamics of history, driving technological progress and civilisational development, even at the cost of abandoning transcendental hope for the better. War, although an unquestionable evil, does not deter people, but rather entices them, as exemplified by various dangerous behaviours in common risk-taking at various levels.

Fundamentals of business planning of agricultural enterprises

In world practice, a business plan has long become a generally accepted way of providing commercial information and the basis for business negotiations. With the development of market relations and the expansion of international economic relations, business planning becomes one of the important elements of ensuring the competitiveness and successful production and financial activities of an enterprise. On the basis of the business plan, the calculation of the economic efficiency of business ideas and investment decisions, the assessment of the commercial feasibility of investing in their implementation is carried out. A well thought out business plan can be a key step in building a successful and sustainable agricultural enterprise. Business plans, as objects that reflect the characteristics of the field of activity, must be developed not in a template, but based, first of all, on the intended purpose. In this case, the number of sections is regulated. It is one thing when a business plan is developed with the aim of introducing a highly effective innovation, and quite another when it is created for the financial recovery of an organization. A business plan is a document that defines the future goals of a business and a strategy for achieving them. Description can take two forms: narrative and financial. A business plan includes the following documents: resume, business introduction, market analysis, competitor analysis, products and services, marketing and sales strategies, organizational structure, and financial projections. Thus, a business plan is an invaluable tool that helps a grower to be on track to achieve the goals of an agricultural business. Regardless of whether you are a cattle farmer, raising products or processing, it is an agricultural business.

The Dynamic Digital Twin: diagnosis, treatment, prediction and prevention of disease during the life course (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED A Digital Twin (DT), which is defined originally as a virtual representation of a physical asset, system or process, is a new concept in healthcare. DT in healthcare cannot be a single technology, but a domain adapted multi-modal modelling approach, which incorporates the acquisition, management, analysis, prediction, and interpretation of the data, aiming to improve medical decision making. However, there are many challenges and barriers that has to be overcome before a DT can be used in healthcare. In this viewpoint paper, we address these challenges, and envision a dynamic DT in healthcare for optimizing individual patient health care journeys. We describe how we can commit multiple domains to developing this DT. With our cross-domain definition of the DT, we aim to define future goals, trade-offs, and methods, which guide the development of the dynamic DT and the implementation strategies in healthcare.

Empowering Women in Finance through Developing Girls’ Financial Literacy Skills in the United States

This study examines the effectiveness of a financial literacy program, Invest in Girls (IIG), in promoting financial capability among high school girls. Using a quasi-experimental separate-samples pretest-posttest design and a longitudinal qualitative study, the study aims to assess the program efficacy and investigate the perspectives of the female students on its impact on their knowledge, behavior, and future goals and aspirations. The results indicated that the participants had significantly higher confidence for engaging in financial literacy after the program. The findings from the longitudinal study also suggested that that the program was influencing the students in positive ways, increasing their financial capability and leading them to consider wide occupational pathways available in finance. Given the lack of female leaders in the world of finance, the IIG program aims to address gender disparity in financial knowledge and highlight the importance of building financial literacy skills among girls.

What works and what doesn’t: Gerontology focused PhD/ DSW graduates speak out

Lin et al. (2015) projected there would be a shortage of approximately 195,000 social workers in the United States by 2030. In the next twenty years, it is estimated that Americans over the age of 65 will actually outnumber children under the age of 18 (US Census, 2018). With a longstanding reputation for being less “glamorous”, social work with older adults will continue to experience deficits in the amount of those who commit to this field of practice unless more lasting change occurs (Cummings et al., p. 645, 2005). We must take a closer look at what takes place in the classroom at schools of social work to understand why social workers are not interested in working with older adults (Scharlach et al., 2000). Berkman et al. (2016) described in their work that a critical shortage of gerontology-focused social work faculty exists in schools of social work. Thus, we cannot expect more social workers to work with older adults unless they are exposed to this work in their educational programs. The purpose of this study is to report on the academic experience, research agenda, professional experiences (practice and teaching), and future goals of social work PhD/ DSW graduates. Ten social work doctoral graduates were interviewed in order to understand the impact their academic programs had on their commitment to older adults in their field and to learn their recommendations for schools of social work in an effort to sustain and grow the gerontological workforce.