Salar Jung Museum Library in the Heritage City of Hyderabad

This is an analytical review of engagement and outreach of Salar Jung Museum Library's collection (MSS, printed, and digital). The chapter aims to visualize the benefits of being located in a heritage city, viz., Hyderabad, in India. The method adopted is first to trace impressions of researchers and scholars and second to gather data of its presence in libraries across the world. Tracing such variety and distinctness will open doors for further exploring the impact factors. The original collector, viz., Salar Jung, had open doors for diversity and open mind to welcome all cultural depictions of the world. Its diversity is evident in artifacts and resources that represent samples from East and West. So also is its inclusiveness – the entire collection is without bias of gender, race, or religion. The data analysis shows the engagement in heritage building is reciprocal. A study in the post-COVID era with a larger variety of data (viz., survey, virtual visits, digital impression) will reveal the full picture of reciprocity and will also highlight the actual needs and demands.

E-Marketing in Islamic Banks: A Theoretical Study in the Exploitation of Social Media in Islamic Banking Services

There was a need to study some efforts and marketing strategies to build a wide awareness of e-marketing in Islamic banks. E-marketing can be adopted as a marketing approach in promoting Islamic banking products and services. Based on this, this research aims to identify the electronic banking services provided by Islamic banks, to identify the extent of the spread of these services, and to know the obstacles to adopting electronic marketing in Islamic banks. To achieve the objectives of the current study, the research methodology will depend on the following: Theoretical aspect: In this study, the descriptive analytical method was used to study the obstacles to adopting e-marketing in Islamic banks, where it was relied on books, periodicals, literature, pamphlets, references, previous studies, and other published researches related to the topic studying. The results revealed that in order to increase literacy and inclusion and expand the market share of Islamic banking products and services, digital marketing plays a role in building public trust, supporting traditional marketing, developing digital campaigns, and mapping target markets. The research recommends that banks should continue to improve their electronic banking services and ensure that these services are free and easy to use to suit all customers' requirements, and that the banking service provider monitors developments in the world of technology, and that the full picture of electronic banking services is improved by banks.

Getting the Full Picture in English and Spanish?

Drawing on the mental model theory of fictional characters (Schneider, 2001) applied to audio description (Fresno, 2016), this paper examines the audio description (AD) of characters in English and Spanish for the Netflix series Élite. The study is based on the premise that semantic descriptions of characters, rather than merely visual descriptions of physical traits, contribute to a better understanding of the narrative complexities of a film, favour AD users’ memory, and reduce cognitive effort (Fresno et al., 2016). This contrastive analysis shows how pertinent description of action movements and appearances together with lexical accuracy can trigger helpful semantic meanings that reveal characters’ psychological features. Because Élite is a thriller in which the majority of the characters are murder suspects, accessing all types of information about them is essential to fully understand the plot. In addition, this analysis indicates that the English AD emphasizes certain character attributes which are absent from the Spanish AD, a distinction that influences the semantic domains, filmic cohesion and coherence of the narrative. This finding underscores the fact that cross-linguistic and cultural differences actually affect the reception of a fictional character by AD users (Orero, 2008; Mazur & Chmiel, 2012) and consequently, their appreciation and enjoyment of the program in question. Lay summary This paper examines the audio description (AD) of characters in English and Spanish for the Netflix series Élite. Based on previous studies (Fresno, 2014; Fresno, 2016), this analysis shows that not only physical traits, but also the description of action movements and looks can trigger helpful semantic inferences that reveal crucial characters’ psychological features. Because Élite is a thriller in which most of the characters are murder suspects, grasping all types of information about them is essential to fully understand the plot. In addition, this paper indicates that the English AD emphasizes certain character attributes which are absent in the Spanish AD. This finding underscores the fact that cross-linguistic and cultural differences actually affect the reception of a fictional character by AD users (Orero, 2008; Mazur & Chmiel, 2012) and consequently, their appreciation and enjoyment of the show in question.

Naturalist Methods in the Sociology of Creation: The Case Against Reductionism

The Sociology of Culture has much to say when it comes to the ever-changing general consensus on what constitutes legitimate culture and definitions of creativity. The naturalistic studieson cognition in social and cognitive sciences show this empirically (Bourdieu, 1979: Becker, 1982, 2002; Sennett, 2012; Author, 2014). Creative cognition is part of an institutional context. However, the influential culturalist branch of cognitive sociology (CCS) reduces creativity toa cognitivist psychological level (Lizardo and Strand, 2010). We start from the conjecture that the Sociology of Culture can draw on the naturalistic paradigm of cognition to explain creativity without falling into reductionist or atomist positions. The authors take the diversityof theoretical-empirical proposals into account in identifying the starting points for focusing the debate at both the macro and micro levels. The body of the article comprises a literature review which, while not exhaustive, offers a full picture of the pragmatic and integrated models of creativity. The studies analysed present inter-subjective processes of creationand the transmission of variable legitimate criteria concerning cultural consumption such as categorisations, evaluations and aesthetic judgments. The sociological perspective offers scope for strengthening critical tools for examining creativity.

Searching of the Source of Educational Inequality

Various approaches to investigating the sources of inequality in education are discussed in the paper. It is noted that data on the representation of students from families with various parental status at levels of education do not give a full picture of what is happening. Full-fledged interpretation requires to turn to a much larger amount of information, primarily because an influence of the family and the environment during the period of primary socialization is of decisive importance for the formation of chances in the educational sphere. The social experience of the family, the models of social behavior based on it, the developed cultural patterns, strategies, and tactics are important. At the same time, the orientations towards education are not fixed once and for all; they can be transformed if the general situation changes (for example, economic) or a directed influence is made (for example, pedagogical). The formed orientations are, as it were, a starting position and later sets the direction and speed of possible reflection on certain influences. The pandemic and the resulting intensification of distance learning have sharply increased the importance of motivation and other students’ qualities, formed during the period of primary socialization: they are critical for academic success. The accompanying growth of inequality in education has actualized the search for its sources to find means to overcome or at least reduce it. Equalization of opportunities for young people from all social groups is especially important for the growth of human potential.

Toward dialogue through a holistic measuring framework – the impact of social media on risk communication in the COVID-19

PurposeDespite the huge potential of social media, its functionality and impact for enhanced risk communication remain unclear. Drawing on dialogic theory by integrating both “speak from power” and “speak to power” measurements, the article aims to propose a systematic framework to address this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe impact of social media on risk communication is measured by the correlation between “speak from power” and “speak to power” levels, where the former primarily spoke to two facets of the risk communication process – rapidness and attentiveness, and the latter was benchmarked against popularity and commitment. The framework was empirically validated with data relating to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) risk communication in 25,024 selected posts on 17 official provincial Weibo accounts in China.FindingsThe analysis results suggest the relationship between the “speak from power” and “speak to power” is mixed rather than causality, which confirms that neither the outcome-centric nor the process-centric method alone can render a full picture of government–public interconnectivity. Besides, the proposed interconnectivity matrix reveals that two provinces have evidenced the formation of government–public mutuality, which provides empirical evidence that dialogic relationships could exist in social media during risk communication.Originality/valueThe authors' study proposed a prototype framework that underlines the need that the impact of social media on risk communication should and must be assessed through a combination of process and outcome or interconnectivity. The authors further divide the impact of social media on risk communication into dialogue enabler, “speak from power” booster, “speak to power” channel and mass media alternative.

Bringing the Full Picture into Focus: A Consideration of the Internal and External Validity of Charter School Effects

The authors of this chapter describe an institutional arrangement for education in the United States: the provision of education through “charter schools,” an experiment in liberalization and decentralization begun in the early 1990s. They address whether charter schools raise student achievement on average compared to students in traditional public schools. They report that the authors of small-scale randomized studies report quite positive effects, but that as the sample of schools increases, the reported effects decline in size and significance, from which they conclude that while charter schools do not generally harm student achievement, they do not have significantly positive effects for the average student. They do, however, more positively affect poor and minority students and students in some urban centers. This underlines the importance of examining school effects across different geographies and social groups and the key role external validity plays in drawing policy implications from educational research.

Predictive utility of mortality by aging measures at different hierarchical levels and the response to modifiable lifestyle factors:Implications for geroprotective programs

Background: Aging, as a multi-dimensional process, can be measured at different hierarchical levels including biological, phenotypic, and functional levels. The aims of this study were to: 1) compare the predictive utility of mortality by three aging measures at three hierarchical levels; 2) develop a composite aging measure that integrated aging measures at different hierarchical levels; and 3) evaluate the response of these aging measures to modifiable lifestyle factors. Methods: Data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2002 were used. Three aging measures included telomere length (TL, biological level), Phenotypic Age (PA, phenotypic level), and frailty index (FI, functional level). Mortality information was collected until Dec. 2015. Cox proportional hazards regression and multiple linear regression models were performed. Results: A total of 3249 participants (20-84 years) were included. Both accelerations (accounting for chronological age) of PA and FI were significantly associated with mortality, with HRs of 1.67 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.41-1.98) and 1.59 (95% CI = 1.35-1.87), respectively, while that of TL showed nonsignificant associations. We thus developed a new composite aging measure (named PC1) integrating the accelerations of PA and FI, and demonstrated its better predictive utility relative to each single aging measure. PC1, as well as the accelerations of PA and FI, were responsive to several lifestyle factors. Conclusion: The findings, for the first time, provide a full picture of the predictive utility of mortality by three aging measures at three hierarchical levels and the response to modifiable lifestyle factors, with important implications for geroprotective programs.