Surviving a natural disaster as a semiotic reformation of the self and worldview

Theoretically, this study is framed within the semiotic tradition of communication theory, which theorizes communication as the intersubjective mediation by signs. Methodologically, this study is guided by Peirce’s semiotic ideas, especially his writing about the commens and commind, or the sign and the object, and the power of a community (constitutive of the self as researcher and the self as one with participants) as the final interpretant performing the process of sensemaking. Results showed how the survivors of a natural calamity symbolically interacted with such calamity, and how this led to a reformation of the way they view themselves and the world. The survivors’ symbolic images captured in narratives, in sketches and drawings, and in poetry helped them to reframe their sense of self and their worldview by believing in common sense and intuition, and by valuing the power of courage, initiative, preparedness, hope, and resilience. An unfortunate irony emerged in their symbolic interaction with the disaster such that their sinning and self-inflicted blame made them think they were worthy of punishment. Nonetheless, this unfortunate irony will change if the survivors continue to reflect on their civic roles, interrogate their environmental and political contexts, and expand their awareness and social consciousness. As these unfold, the survivors will be able to accomplish empowerment, emancipation, and an independent mind.

Use of Solar Panel in Design of Footpath

Solar footpath is a series of solar panel interlink to each other The outer layer of solar panel is covered with mild steel(MS). The tempered glass is attached to mild steel fabrication. Glass is tempered is such a way that it can bear up to 1 ton of load, various test are taken on glass like 1) ball drop test, 2) fragmentation test 3) light transmission test. Lithium battery is used to store the energy produce form the solar panel. The plus point of this design is that even if few panels get damage due to natural calamity other panel will still continue producing energy. Keywords: Photovoltaic cell, Tempered glass, Solar footpath

From an anthropological point of view, the ritual and faith shown by the Purananuru

Human life is a circular ritual of birth, flower and death associated with the flow of time. The rituals of Tamils depend on socio-economic, religious, political and artistic platforms. Rituals vary by presenting the time, place, environment, need and purpose of which they are performed. Man performed rituals to protect himself from a natural calamity. This article seeks to explain the rituals from birth to death of man on the basis of cultural anthropology.

Bureaucratic Leadership at Ground Level: A Case Study of Block Development Officers in West Bengal (India)

Max Weber coined the term ‘bureaucratic leadership’ to define leadership in government organisations based on a set of predetermined regulations, strict functions and fixed roles under a static hierarchy. Almost all government organisations adhere to these principles including the civil services, but, at the ground level of administration, a rational and workable form has been developed by the civil servants to suit their roles. The post of a Block Development Officer (BDO) in the civil services is assigned to play multiple roles to govern the block effectively. From being a leader who would motivate and facilitate a team of officials in development as well as general administration, a diplomat who would set the right chord with the political functionaries at various levels to settle upon a consensus in every issue, a crisis manager who would rush forward, with limited resources, to face any natural calamity or a serious law and order issue, a strict disciplinarian who would ensure transparency in fiscal matters, an entrepreneur who would motivate the people to become self-reliant with the help of government schemes, a BDO is indeed ‘the cutting edge of administration’. The entire administration depends upon a Block Development Officer to deliver the much needed “public service” to the residents of the Block at all times and under all circumstances. This article is intended to study the practical forms of ‘bureaucratic leadership’ performed by BDOs while discharging their duties efficiently both during crises and in normal circumstances.

Life versus Capital: The COVID-19 pandemic and the politics of life

Like all ostensibly “natural” disasters, the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic unceasingly reveals the depths of social inequality and political myopia or governmental recklessness that predictably exacerbate the effects of a more strictly natural calamity. The pandemic thereby exposes the grotesque disparities in how illness, death, and suffering are unevenly distributed. As the COVID-19 public health crisis has summarily provoked a global economic crisis, furthermore, it is simply unthinkable to comprehend the real ramifications of the pandemic outside of the sociopolitical relations of labor and capital, more generally. Furthermore, the global public health crisis commands that we reflect anew on the relations between human life and state power. Both for those who have historically and enduringly been subjected to expulsion from gainful employment, as for those whose labor-power is a commodity of choice for capital, exceedingly selected for hyper-exploitation, the coronavirus pandemic is a toxic matter of both class and race. These dire and increasingly desperate circumstances, however, reveal not only what is most barbaric about capitalist social relations but also the opportunity latent within this crisis.

Artificial Intelligence Snake Robot (AISR)

This study was conducted to design, develop and initially implement the Artificial Intelligence Snake Robot (AISR). Specifically, it identified the problems encountered in conducting manual rescuing people from natural calamity; the appropriate features of the tool that can be developed to address the problems encountered, and the respondents’ level of acceptance of the user toward the developed tool in terms of performance, portability, operability, and efficacy. The research used the qualitative-quantitative research method that utilized a researcher-made questionnaire and interview questions. The respondents of the study were fifty (50) Life Rescuers, 25 (25) Red Cross Staff and 25 (25) Random People from different places. The problems encountered in manual rescuing people from natural calamity; hard time finding people lost during disaster, lack of new technologies and equipment, lack of K-9 dogs and burden of working on disaster area. The appropriate features of the tool that can be developed to address the problems encountered were: sensors can make the process of rescuing people faster and easier. The respondents’ ratings for Artificial Intelligence Snake Robot (AISR) were extremely receivable in terms of performance (4.60); portability (4.54); operability (4.51); and efficacy (4.56). The government or other authorities will orient the proper use of the propose robot to avoid having a problem in rescuing people.

Knowledge and Attitude of Cancer Patients Towards COVID-19 Pandemic

Objectives: This study is done to determine knowledge and attitude of cancer patients towards COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The study was conducted at Oncology Department, Mayo Hospital Lahore during August-October 2020. A questionnaire was used to determine knowledge and attitude of cancer patients towards COVID-19 pandemic. Data was analyzed using Spss version.23. Descriptive variables like gender, marital status, residence and disease characteristics were reported as means and frequencies. Intergroup analysis was done using Chi square test with p<0.05 taken as significant. Results: Of 269 enrolled patients, majority had advanced/metastatic disease (82.4%) and were being treated on outdoor basis (71.6%). Almost all (99.6%) were aware of COVID, electronic/print media being commonest source of information (62.7%). Though having different views, 81.5% considered it a natural calamity. During first wave,22.4% had delayed their investigations while 34.7% faced treatment interruptions with average duration of delay being 55±27 days. Traveling difficulties due to lock down was common reason of delay (54.8%). During this period 62.4% either noted worsening of symptoms or new symptoms. Despite all chaos, 89.9% selected for treatment continuation if provided with a chance and appropriate facilities. Correlation of delay in therapy with high level of education (p=0.013) and perception about COVID-19 a natural calamity (p=0.041) was found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: Patients' perspective is important and should be taken into account in special circumstances like COVID. It will help in future in making efficient management planning of disease during unusual situations. Key Words: COVID-19, cancer patients, Knowledge How to cite: Yaqub S., Jamil Z., Butt. B.N., Zafar A., Lodhi R.F., Khokhar A.M. Knowledge and attitude of cancer patients towards COVID-19 pandemic. Esculapio 2021;17(01):26-29

Human-flood systems: Why “pluralistic floods research” is a conceptual breakthrough?

&lt;p align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;Floods are concurrently natural and social phenomena. Though generally represented as &amp;#8220;natural calamity&amp;#8221; and described as &amp;#8216;phenomena of an atmospheric, hydrological or oceanographic nature&amp;#8217;&lt;!-- I know it is a citation but EGU abstracts usually have no references (or one/two if really needed). I would keep the Evers et al. (2017) since it&amp;#8217;s related to the main take home message --&gt;, floods are strongly dependant on territorial as well as historicized dynamics and negotiations. Moreover, as floods offer aggravated threats in the Anthropocene, marked by unpredictable climatic perturbations, impacting marginalized communities inhabiting vulnerable landscapes, it is imperative to collectively understand human-flood systems to craft sustained solutions. Socio&lt;span&gt;-&lt;/span&gt;hydrological contribution on human-floods system, building upon &amp;#8216;complex web of interactions and feedback mechanisms between hydrological and social processes in settled floodplains&amp;#8217;, can be considered a significant advancement from hardcore flood hydrology confined to risk analysis through geomorphological accounting of river systems. With the hydrological science as a background, while the methods of socio&lt;span&gt;-&lt;/span&gt;hydrology often rely on quantitative or mathematical modeling approaches to represent the human-floods systems, hydro&lt;span&gt;-&lt;/span&gt;social analysis, emanating from political ecology, explores power equations&lt;!-- As hydrlogist I understand equations of the type &amp;#8220;y = a*x^b&amp;#8221; but I guess you mean something else right? --&gt; in water-society relationship. Though the hydro&lt;span&gt;-&lt;/span&gt;social literature mainly dealt with political and social injustices around utilities in urban landscapes for a long time, recently, the thrust has shifted to study stakeholders&amp;#8217; controversies in river basin (co)management and governance. &lt;!-- I&amp;#8217;ve removed the part which seemed to me a bit too focused (but feel free to disagree) and added a sentence on the chapter writing. Can this be an experiment of pluralistic research? I guess I am oversimplifying things... so please correct me if I am wrong. --&gt;&lt;span&gt;We are in the process of establishing a team of experts from the physical and social sciences who &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;are asked&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span&gt; to provide a synthesis of the existing&lt;/span&gt; methodological frameworks on coupled human-flood systems,&lt;span&gt; within the Panta Rhei IAHS initiative. Our work&lt;/span&gt; identifies and lays out converging possibilities along multiple paradigms&lt;!-- This sentence is not clear to me... --&gt;, finally proposing a strong case for &amp;#8220;pluralistic floods research&lt;!-- Can you add a sentence on what is ment by pluralistic? Is it multidisciplinary? I guess more than that --&gt;&amp;#8221; (see Evers et al., 2017&lt;span&gt;, https://doi.org/10.3390/w9120933&lt;/span&gt;). We argue that a robust understanding of the human-flood systems imbibing &amp;#8220;pluralistic floods research&amp;#8221; can meaningfully contribute to ongoing debates on flood risk governance, facilitating spatially-informed and historically-contingent interventions, beyond purely technical approaches.&lt;/p&gt;

Agribusiness in South Asia

Agribusiness plays a key role in the sustainable economic development of rural poor by fulfilling daily needs. In South Asia, all the countries have a similar pattern of societies, resources, climates, practices, and people located close to each other. Crop cultivation, dairy production, fishery, and forestry are the main agribusiness sectors for trading agricultural produce in markets. In contrast, factors (i.e., global warming due to climate change, natural calamity, environmental pollution, unsafe foodstuff, labor unavailability, marketing limitations, and financial crisis) are responsible for a serious fatal to agribusiness activities. Unless we uproot challenges, agribusiness cannot contribute effectively to the economy of developing nations in South Asia. Thus, future strategies may be standing on contemporary scientific research approaches on crop science, restoring resources, controlling food quality, introducing modern types of machinery, best marketing practices, and inclusive financing.

Effective Location of Shear Wall and Bracings for Multistoried Asymmetrical Building.

Earthquake happens all around the globe and it is a natural calamity and can occur across the world. It affects the structure by producing tough ground signals. To overwhelmed the Earthquake there is establishment of Shear wall and Bracing to increase the crosswise stiffness, ductility of the structure. To plan a building storey drift and crosswise displacement are crucial. The building is analyzed by Linear static and Linear dynamic method by E-tab software. In present paper G+25 multistoried building is analyzed by insertion of Shear wall and bracing at Corners, End and central core of the structure. The responses like Displacement, Storey drift, Time period and Base shear is calculated and equated.