The barriers to effective access to justice encountered by litigants in person in private family matters post-LASPO

In February 2019, some six years after the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) removed legal aid from a wide range of civil and family matters, the Government released its Post Implementation Review of the impact of LASPO and accompanying action plan. Publication is at a time when governmental policy extolling the virtues of mediation and online dispute resolution has the potential to have a profound effect on family law process. Against this background and having regard to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the family justice system, this paper discusses the findings of the author's qualitative study on the experiences of litigants in person in civil and family courts. It suggests a typology of litigants in person, explains how and where litigants in person in child arrangements proceedings seek advice and the significant access to justice barriers arising from the compulsory requirement to attend a MIAM before commencing proceedings and attending the fact-finding stage without representation. Ultimately, the paper offers fresh evidence of the harsh realities of litigating without representation in the family court, which despite espousing an inquisitorial process, remains adversarial in character.

Lessons Learned from Digital-Only Experiences

Digitisation includes technical systems that communicate with each other but can only communicate the characters for which input and output interfaces are available. That is a fraction of what human communication is all about. The resulting lack of contact bothers us and we find it inadequate. In times of Covid-19 we have learned that the longer the phases of exclusively digitally executed workflows and processes last, the more we realise that we lack activities that do not require digital technology, as it was a matter of course before Corona. This leads us to ask what it means when we become avatars or robots of ourselves. The following demonstrations of an exclusively digitally organised summer festival and a fully digitised library can give us insights into the purely digital perspective.

Mathematics Education in Africa: The Fourth Industrial Revolution

This book is about mathematics teaching and learning in Africa during the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has evolved to utilize new technologies in the teaching and learning of Mathematics. It is characterized by the fusion of the biological, physical and digital worlds and embodies a new era of innovation in mathematics education, leading to the rapid emergence of new technologies for mathematics teaching and learning. Because 4IR in mathematics education is happening differently in various parts of Africa, the authors of the various chapters in this volume have positioned their work in their respective local contexts. The chapters address a wide variety of interests, concerns, and implications regarding 4IR and Mathematics Education in Africa. Additionally, a number of chapters address teaching mathematics in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the world. Other chapters discuss the implications of inequalities in Africa that effect mathematics education during 4IR. Chapters also incorporate arguments, observations, and suggestions to, improve and transform the teaching and learning of mathematics in Africa during the 4IR. This book highlights a new era of innovation in mathematics education in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, leading to the rapid emergence of new technologies in mathematics teaching and learning. It is a valuable resource for graduate students, people with research interests in the fourth industrial revolution and mathematics educators at any level, including all mathematics teachers;mathematics education curriculum designers and policymakers. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

D-insta: A Decentralized Image Sharing Platform

Due to the covid-19 pandemic, people have moved toward digitization and using digital technologies in their daily life. For instance, photographers and artists use social media platforms or stock photo websites to showcase their art to people to get recognition and credit. Since social media platforms attract people more than stock photo websites, we consider incorporating the stock photo website features into the social media platforms. Currently, such platforms are running in a centralized fashion where their proprietary algorithms mask most of the content to which some users and advertisement posts are given more priority. Due to the centralization, such hidden algorithms create trust issues among the users along with other issues such as single point of failure, identity theft, etc. This causes genuine artists and photographers to lose their interest and motivation. Providing due credit to the authors and deserved recognition are significant concerns for photographers who share images on stock photo websites or social media platforms. In this paper, we propose a decentralized image-sharing platform/application utilizing blockchain and a distributed file storage system to address all these issues. The proposed platform leverages Ethereum-based smart contracts to maintain trust as deployed smart contracts are immutable, and the logic written in them is publicly available. We leverage a distributed file storage system to solve the blockchain scalability issue in terms of storage. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

2000 Eyes: Spherical View of La Fenice di Venezia: A Large-Format Equirectangular Drawing with a Gigapixel Resolution

"2000 eyes” is an artwork made for the Gran Teatro La Fenice di Venezia. It is a handmade spherical perspective drawn from observation in equirectangular projection, on the occasion of the special setup "Chiglia” (keel) designed during the Covid-19 Pandemic. This experimental project aims at testing practices and techniques to create gigapixel hand-drawn panoramic views of complex environments from observation and showing how the use of 360° drawings may enhance the perception of artworks and spaces, adding value to the visitor's experience. The original panoramic drawing and its interactive 360° version are currently exhibited in one of the halls of the Theater. The permanent installation presents one possible way to experience an artwork focusing on the intersection of digital and physical worlds. © 2023, ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.

Reflection on the Impact of the New Normal on the Management of Human Resources

This chapter concludes this book volume by providing a synopsis of the key contributions and recommendations for managing human resources in the new normal context through the research and practices highlighted in each chapter. This chapter sets a future research agenda for managing human resources in the new normal. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

How Videoconferencing and its Affordances Transformed Teaching in Schools During COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about major changes in digitization in many areas of life and professions. New areas were digitized almost overnight, the school system in Germany was no exception leading to a demand for videoconferencing tools and communication platforms. These technologies have many different functionalities that need to be discovered, explored, and exploited by the user. Given the disruptive events that the COVID pandemic brought to us, this paper aims to shed light on how the dynamics of discovery, exploration, and exploitation unfolds. We use a functional affordance theory perspective to analyze and understand how user learn to use new technologies. To do this, we conducted an exploratory case-study-based research design including interviews with teachers from various schools to analyze how they appropriate new technologies to develop an explanatory theoretical model. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Lessons Learned from Digital-Only Experiences

Digitisation includes technical systems that communicate with each other but can only communicate the characters for which input and output interfaces are available. That is a fraction of what human communication is all about. The resulting lack of contact bothers us and we find it inadequate. In times of Covid-19 we have learned that the longer the phases of exclusively digitally executed workflows and processes last, the more we realise that we lack activities that do not require digital technology, as it was a matter of course before Corona. This leads us to ask what it means when we become avatars or robots of ourselves. The following demonstrations of an exclusively digitally organised summer festival and a fully digitised library can give us insights into the purely digital perspective. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] Zusammenfassung: Die Digitalisierung umfasst technische Systeme, die zwar miteinander kommunizieren, aber nur die Zeichen kommunizieren können, für die Ein- und Ausgabeschnittstellen vorhanden sind. Das ist ein Bruchteil dessen, was menschliche Kommunikation ausmacht. Die daraus resultierende Kontaktlosigkeit stört uns und wir empfinden sie als mangelhaft. In Zeiten von Covid-19 haben wir gelernt, je länger die Phasen ausschließlich digital ausgeführter Arbeitsabläufe und Prozesse andauern, desto mehr erkennen wir, dass uns Tätigkeiten fehlen, die keine digitale Technik benötigen, wie es vor Corona selbstverständlich war. Das führt uns zu der Frage, was es bedeutet, wenn wir zu Avataren oder Robotern unserer selbst werden. Die folgenden Demonstrationen eines ausschließlich digital organisierten Sommerfestes und einer vollständig digitalisierten Bibliothek können uns einige Einblicke in die Perspektive des rein Digitalen geben. (German) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Bibliothek Forschung und Praxis is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Digitisation and Sharing of Collections: Museum Practices and Copyright During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This article concerns the conflict between copyright and museums' digitisation and online sharing of collections. This issue has recently become particularly important in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors outline the concept of a virtual museum and present the most important copyright provisions in EU law that may create obstacles for cultural institutions in realising virtual counterparts. To perceive copyright as the main obstacle in the process of digitisation and online sharing of collections is not unusual. Hence, the article briefly presents legal framework of the European copyright applicable to such situations. The authors argue that although copyright offers a range of possibilities for museums interested in digitising their collections, at the same time it is responsible for a chilling effect, resulting in fear of potential infringement and liability. The authors conclude that the EU's development of new legislation, coinciding with the need for digitisation and online sharing of cultural heritage caused by the pandemic, has favoured public interest at the expense of creators' rights, but still lacks satisfactory legal tools for effectively allowing cultural institutions to digitise and share their collections.

Implementation of Data Analytics and Machine Learning in Thailand Education Sector

Since the global epidemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) over the past few years, Thailand education sector has been affected by the requisites for a digitization system and distance education. This sudden change has affected the quality of learning and statistical evaluations in the long term. Consequently, data analysis and categorization in learning quality assessment are critical for predicting the number of future students and learning performance after the COVID-19 outbreak. However, vast data analytics might be applied to the education sector in many aspects. In addition, machine learning can influence the categorization of students that are useful for analyzing the performance of different educational systems. Therefore, this study reviews the perspective and usability of data analytics and machine learning that influences current situations in Thailand education sector © 2023, International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning.All Rights Reserved.

From Digital Economy to Global Economy—A Cybernetics Approach

The Digital Economy is a new form of economy that has grown rapidly in recent years, becoming a real oxymoron for more and more specialists. In this research, we aimed to make a systematic review of the existing literature in the field, to present the differences between digitization, digitalization and digital transformation and to define the Global Economy as a Cybernetic System in the Digital Age. Moreover, we will investigate what the role of the COVID-19 pandemic was in accelerating the digitalization of the Digital Economy and what the future post-COVID-19 actions of digital transformation could be. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Understanding Marketing Communications Strategies During and Post Covid 19: A South African Perspective

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a shift in consumer behaviour, as there was an increase of first-time E and M-commerce shoppers. This resulted in South African marketers adjusting to digitisation by creating clear communication and marketing strategies. The research objectives of this study were to understand how South African brand and marketing managers adapted to the COVID pandemic and to comprehend how marketing communication strategies in general have changed since. A qualitative methodology of structured interviews was conducted. A convenience sampling method was used to select the participants. The research findings indicate that the eight managers interviewed relied on face-to-face interaction with the customer through in store promotions and events before COVID-19. Several interviewees stated that communication on product benefits and features relied heavily on in-store activations. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, all marketers who participated in the study revealed that they invested in digital communications. As more brands and businesses used digital platforms and social media to drive their products, marketers had to work on communicating in order to convert into sales, but they also increased customer engagement. The study highlights how innovative marketing communication strategies in the post COVID environment leads to an agile enterprise having a competitive advantage. The study also highlights the importance of understanding income and demographics of the South African customer in different regions of the country, as that influences the marketing strategies used.

Ethics in medicine: Challenges in the 21st century

The article provides an overview of important topics in contemporary medical ethics. Methodologically, it is a literature review. The article addresses only a limited selection of the problematic areas, which are, however, related to each other: digitisation of medicine, genome editing, personalised medicine as well as ethical problems and dilemmas of allocation in healthcare. The global COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a focus and trigger. Reflections on human rights and justice in medicine are fundamental not only on the individual and social level but also on a global scale. The fundamental question is how society as a whole can be involved in the complex biopolitical and bioethical debate. The social and cultural consequences of life increasingly being understood as a technical product rather than a gift are serious. Contribution: The article also reflects on the specific contribution that Christian theology, and in particular the reformed heritage, can make to bioethical debates in modern society. The distinction between instrumental knowledge [ Verfügungswissen ] and orientational knowledge [ Orientierungswissen ] is helpful for its better understanding. A crucial result of this article is that medical treatment is repeatedly faced with ethical dilemmas. Moreover, medical progress not only creates new and better solutions to medical problems, it also raises new ethical questions that did not exist before. The purpose of medical ethics lies in identifying such dilemmas and developing ethical decision-making processes that help us to deal with such dilemmas to some extent.

Optimized Layout: A Genetic Algorithm for Industrial and Business Application

Covid-19 epidemic has harmed the global economy. Particularly, the restaurant sector has been severely impacted by the rapid spread of the virus. The use of digital technology (DT) has been utilized to execute risk-reduction methods as service innovation tools. In this work, a genetic algorithm optimization is used to cope with the problems caused by the restrictions due to Covid-19 to optimize the management of the spaces in commercial and industrial structures. The approach through the GA involves the selection of the best members of a population that change genome based on the epochs. The digitization of a commercial or industrial environment becomes an optimal methodology for carrying out virtual design of work environments. Digitization thus becomes a strategy for the reduction of both monetary and time cost. Focusing on the case study, satisfactory results emerge supported by tests that reveal an appreciable robustness and open new scenarios for different applications of the methodology developed in this work, always in the context of optimal management of industrial and commercial spaces. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Automate the process of creating and conducting lessons on the Project-based method through a Web-based platform

The modern development of education is associated with its digitization and the search for our learning approaches to suit new generations and their peculiarities. During the COVID-19 crisis and the transition of learning in a remote form, the search for a new approach has become mandatory. The project-based approach has been identified as suitable for the new conditions. Learning in an electronic environment is a new way of teaching, which poses a number of challenges for teachers in creating, managing and evaluating projects. In this paper, the specific functionalities of a web-based platform for preparing and conducting projects according to the project-based method are presented. These functionalities include guided creation of projects, automated connections of project theme and educational materials and methods for the evaluation process. Detailed are the steps that the platform provides when creating a project. These steps are implemented in the form of a guide so as to facilitate as much as possible the work of teachers. Such a platform will help motivate a greater number of teachers to choose and teach by this method. © 2022 IEEE.

Digital Maturity Level in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Panama

In recent years, the economic, technological, and sociocultural environments have been in constant change. Customers are more demanding and aware of market trends. Companies innovate their processes through the implementation of technologies that allow them to optimize operations and facilitate business-client interaction. However, many companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, face difficulties in adapting to new business models. There are even companies that are not willing to change the traditional way they carry out their daily business operations, which can present more challenges in today's market. The digital transformation has caused companies to restructure their business models in recent years. Currently, with the arrival of COVID-19, many businesses have been affected due to the lack of digitization in the processes. Small and medium-sized companies were forced to embark on E-Commerce in order to reach their customers and survive the competition. Still, not all companies have managed to properly implement a digital transformation strategy to redesign their structures and operations. In Panama there are still no studies focused on the degree of digitalization of small and medium-sized companies. This research aims to describe the degree of digitalization of local companies in the province of Chiriqui-Panama © 2022 IEEE.

Shifting towards Antifragile Critical Infrastructure Systems

Antifragility, which is an evolutionary understanding of resilience, has become a predominant concept in academic and industrial fields as the criticality of vital infrastructures (like healthcare and transportation) has become more flexible and varying due the impact of digitization and adverse circumstances, such as changing the prioritization of industrial services while accelerating IoT (Internet of Things) deployment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The crucial role of antifragility is to enable critical infrastructures to gain from disorder to foster their adaptability to real unexpected environmental changes. Thus, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive survey on the antifragility concept while clarifying the difference with the resilience concept. Moreover, it highlights how the COVID-19 crisis has revealed the fragility of critical infrastructures and unintentionally promoted the antifragility concept. To showcase the main concepts, we adopt the blockchain as an example of an antifragile system. Copyright © 2022 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved.

Maritime Disruption Impact Evaluation Using Simulation and Big Data Analytics

Disruptions in maritime networks may cause significant financial burden and damage to business. Recently, some international ports have been experiencing unprecedented congestions due to the COVID19 pandemic and other disruptions. It is paramount for the maritime industry to further enhance the capability to assess and predict impacts of disruptions. With more data available from industrial digitization and more advanced technologies developed for big data analytics and simulation, it is possible to build up such capability. In this study, we developed a discrete event simulation model backed with big data analytics for realistic and valid inputs to assess impacts of the Suez Canal blockage to the Port of Singapore. The simulation results reveal an interesting finding that, the blockage occurred in the Suez Canal can hardly cause significant congestion in the Port of Singapore. The work can be extended to evaluate impacts of other types of disruptions, even occurring concurrently. © 2022 IEEE.

Application of artificial intelligence for resilient and sustainable healthcare system: systematic literature review and future research directions

Recent years have witnessed increased pressure across the global healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic shattered existing healthcare operations and taught us the importance of a resilient and sustainable healthcare system. Digitisation, specifically adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has positively contributed to developing a resilient healthcare system in recent past. To understand how AI contributes to building a resilient and sustainable healthcare system, this study based on systematic literature review of 89 articles extracted from Scopus and Web of Science databases is conducted. The study is organised around several key themes such as applications, benefits, and challenges of using AI technology in healthcare sector. It is observed that AI has wide applications in radiology, surgery, medical, research, and development of healthcare sector. Based on the analysis, a research framework is proposed using an extended Antecedents, Practices, and Outcomes (APO) framework. This framework comprises AI applications' antecedents, practices, and outcomes for building a resilient and sustainable healthcare system. Consequently, three propositions are drawn in this study. Furthermore, our study has adopted the theory, context and methodology (TCM) framework to provide future research directions, which can be used as a reference point for future studies. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Designing Fog Device Network for Digitization of University Campus

With the evolving digitization, services of Cloud and Fog make things easier which is offered in form of storage, computing, networking etc. The importance of digitalization has been realized severely with the home isolation due to COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers have suggested on planning and designing the network of Fog devices to offer services nearby the edge devices. In this work, Fog device network design is proposed for a university campus by formulating a mathematical model. This formulation is used to find the optimal location for the Fog device placement and interconnection between Fog devices and the Cloud (Centralized Information Storage). The proposed model minimizes the deployment cost and the network traffic towards Cloud. The IBM CPLEX optimization tool is used to evaluate the proposed multi-objective optimization problem. Classical multi-objective optimization method, i.e., Weighted Sum approach is used for the purpose. The experimental results exhibit optimal placement of Fog devices with minimum deployment cost. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.