Perceptions of women’s roles and leadership in urban governance vary from country to country and culture to culture. While women are represented and participate fully in political decision-making in some countries, in Togo women’s participation in local governance is still limited. The aim of this research is to analyse perceptions of women’s leadership in urban governance in the communes of greater Lomé. Specifically, the study of the influence of general perceptions of the role of women on the development of their leadership in the urban governance of greater Lomé (i) and the implications of these perceptions on the participation of women in the urban governance of greater Lomé (ii). Semi-structured interviews were conducted in all the town halls of the thirteen greater Lomé autonomous district communes with 222 women and 162 men, i.e., a total of 384 people. The corpus created from the interviews, which were transcribed in their entirety, was analyzed using the theory of social dominance developed by Sidanius and Pratto to explain power relations and inequalities between social groups. The results show that perceptions of women’s participation in urban governance vary and are generally associated with several significant implications. The general perception is that women are not as competent or legitimate as men in political and administrative leadership roles. However, there is a growing recognition of the value of gender diversity in urban governance, with a growing awareness of the importance of including women in decision-making processes. From the point of view of the significant implications of perceptions, positive perceptions favor increased representation of women, innovation, and creativity, strengthening legitimacy, reducing inequalities, and presenting women as positive role models in urban governance.
Water physico-chemical parameters, such as pH and salinity, play an important role in the larval development of Aedes aegypti, the primary vector of dengue fever. although the role of these two factors is known, the interaction between pH and salinity in various aquatic habitats is still not fully understood, especially in the context of endemic areas. this study explored how the interaction between pH and salinity affects the development of Aedes aegypti larvae in dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) endemic areas. this study used a pure experimental design with a posttest-only control group approach. Aedes aegypti instar iv larvae were obtained from eggs collected in north kolaka regency, a dhf endemic area. the independent variables tested were pH (6 and 8) and salinity (0.4 gr/L and 0.6 gr/L), with the control group using pH 7 and no salinity. a two-way anova test was used to evaluate the interaction between pH and salinity, followed by tukey’s hsd post-hoc test to compare treatment groups. the results showed that, independently, pH and salinity had no significant effect on larval survival. however, the interaction between the two variables had a significant effect (p < 0.001). the combination of pH 8 and salinity 0.4 gr/L resulted in the highest survival rate, while pH 6 and salinity 0.6 gr/L caused a significant decrease in larval survival. the combination of alkaline pH (pH 8) and low salinity (0.4 gr/L) is the optimal condition for Aedes aegypti larval survival. the results of this study highlight the importance of considering the interaction between pH and salinity in environmental-based vector control strategies in endemic areas. further research is needed to explore other factors, such as aquatic microbiota and environmental variations, that may affect mosquito larval development.
The National Fitness Program Plan (2021–2025) (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) proposes to perfect the public service system for sports and fitness by 2025, make national sports and fitness more convenient, and advocate providing intelligent services for national fitness campaign. With the development of the Internet era, modern information technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence have been introduced into sports affairs, providing technical support for the optimization of the public service system for sports and fitness. Therefore, in the context of a national fitness campaign, intelligent sports service is an important link for promoting national fitness in various regions. Relevant workers should attach importance to promoting “physical fitness” with “intelligence” in the process of advancing national fitness program, and actively creating intelligent public services for national fitness. Focusing on the integration of modern information technology and sports affairs, with the implementation of the Plan as the research background, the construction of intelligent sports parks as the starting point, this article outlines the construction plan of intelligent sports parks based on the connotation summary of national fitness program and intelligent sports. At the same time, it analyzes the issues that intelligent sports parks need to pay attention to in providing public services for national fitness, and proposes countermeasures for the high-quality development of national fitness services in intelligent sports parks.
This study investigated the relationship between telecommunications development, trade openness and economic growth in South Africa. It determined explicitly if telecommunications development and trade openness directly impact economic growth or whether telecommunications strengthen or weaken the link between trade openness and economic growth using the ARDL bounds test methodology. The findings reveal that both telecommunications development indicators and trade openness significantly and positively impact South Africa’s GDP in the short and long terms. The study also found that control variables like internet usage and gross fixed capital formation significantly and positively influence GDP. Conversely, inflation was found to consistently affect GDP negatively and significantly. The findings from the ARDL cointegration analysis affirm a long-run economic relationship between the independent variables and GDP. The study also established that telecommunications development slightly distorts trade in the foreign trade-GDP nexus in South Africa. Despite this, the negative interaction effect is not substantial enough to overshadow the positive impact of trade openness on economic growth. From a policy perspective, the study recommends that South African policymakers prioritise enhancing local goods’ competitiveness in global markets and reducing trade barriers. It also advocates for improving the accessibility and affordability of telecommunications technologies to foster economic development.
Real estate appraisal standards provide guidelines for the preparation of reliable valuations. These standards emphasize the central role of market data collection in market-oriented valuation methodologies such as the Market Comparison Approach (MCA), which is the most commonly used. The objective of this study is to highlight the difficulties in data finding, as well as the gap between the standards and the actual appraisal practices in Italy. Thus, a detailed comparison was made between the real estate data considered necessary by the standards and those ones reasonably detectable by appraisers, showing that some important market information is not reachable due to legal, technical and economic factors. Finally, a case study is presented in which the actual appraisal of a residential property is schematically described to support what is claimed with the research question and thus the degree of uncertainty around an estimate judgment.
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