Search results for: social work teaching methods

Authors: Giles Balbinotti, Lucas Balbinotti, Paula Hembecker

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The management of the productive process project activities, for the conception of future work and for the financial health of the companies, is an important condition in an organizational model that corroborates the management of the human aspects and their variabilities existing in the work. It is important to seek, at all levels of the organization, understanding and consequent cultural change, and so that factors associated with human aspects are considered and prioritized in the projects. In this scenario, the central question of research for this study is placed from the context of the work, in which the managers and project coordinators are inserted, as follows: How is the top management convinced, in the design stages, to take The ‘Ergonomics’ as strategy for the performance and sustainability of the business? In this perspective, this research has as general objective to analyze how the application of the management of the human aspects in a real project of productive process in the automotive industry, including the activity of the manager and coordinator of the project beyond the strategies of convincing to act in the ergonomics of design. For this, the socio-technical and ergonomic approach is adopted, given its anthropocentric premise in the sense of acting on the social system simultaneously to the technical system, besides the support of the Modapts system that measures the non-value-added times and the correlation with the Critical positions. The methodological approach adopted in this study is based on a review of the literature and the analysis of the activity of the project coordinators of an industry, including the management of human aspects in the context of work variability and the strategies applied in project activities. It was observed in the study that the loss of performance of the serial production lines reaches the important number of the order of 30%, which can make the operation with not value-added, and this loss has as one of the causes, the ergonomic problems present in the professional activity.

Keywords: human aspects in production process project, ergonomics in design, sociotechnical project management, sociotechnical, ergonomic principles, sustainability

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Authors: Hector G. Perez-Gonzalez, Miriam Vazquez-Escalante, Sandra E. Nava-Muñoz, 
 Francisco E. Martinez-Perez, Alberto S. Nunez-Varela

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The software engineering teaching process has been the subject of many studies. To improve this process, researchers have proposed merely illustrative techniques in the classroom, such as topic presentations and dynamics between students on one side or attempts to involve students in real projects with companies and institutions to bring them to a real software development problem on the other hand. Simulators and serious games have been used as auxiliary tools to introduce students to topics that are too abstract when these are presented in the traditional way. Most of these tools cover a limited area of the huge software engineering scope. To address this problem, we have developed D6tions, an educational serious game that simulates the software engineering process and is designed to experiment the different stages a software engineer (playing roles as project leader or as a developer or designer) goes through, while participating in a software project. We describe previous approaches to this problem, how D6tions was designed, its rules, directions, and the results we obtained of the use of this game involving undergraduate students playing the game.

Keywords: serious games, software engineering, software engineering education, software engineering teaching process

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Authors: Abdullah Mukhtar, Shehroz Mukhtar, Amina Mukhtar, Choudhry Shahid, Hafiz Raza Razzaq, Saif Ur Rahman

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The aim of this study is to find out the negative and positive impacts of social media platforms on the attitude of learning and educational environment of student’s community. Social Media platforms have become a source of collaboration with one another throughout the globe making it a small world. This study performs focalized investigation of the adverse and constructive factors that have a strong impact not only on the psychological adjustments but also on the academic performance of peers. This study is a quantitative research adopting random sampling method in which the participants were the students of university. Researcher distributed 1000 questionnaires among the university students from different departments and asked them to fill the data on Lickert Scale. The participants are from the age group of 18-24 years. Study applies user and gratification theory in order to examine behavior of students practicing social media in their academic and personal life. Findings of the study reveal that the use of social media platforms in Pakistani context has less positive impact as compared to negative impacts on the behavior of students towards learning. The research suggests that usage of online social media platforms should be taught to students; awareness must the created among the users of social media by the means of seminars, workshops and by media itself to overcome the negative impacts of social media leading towards sustainable education in Pakistan.

Keywords: social media, positive impact, negative impact, learning behaviour

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Authors: Amir Farouk Ahmed Ali Hussin

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Social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Ex-Twitter have experienced exponential growth and a remarkable adoption rate in recent years. They give fantastic means of online social interactions and communications with family, friends, and colleagues from around the corner or across the globe, and they have become an important part of daily digital interactions for more than one and a half billion users around the world. The personal information sharing practices that social network providers encourage have led to their success as innovative social interaction platforms. Moreover, these practices have outcome in concerns with respect to privacy and security from different stakeholders. Guiding these privacy and security concerns in social networks is a must for these networks to be sustainable. Real security and privacy tools may not be enough to address existing concerns. Some points should be followed to protect users from the existing risks. In this research, we have checked the various privacy and security issues and concerns pertaining to social media. However, we have classified these privacy and security issues and presented a thorough discussion of the effects of these issues and concerns on the future of the social networks. In addition, we have presented a set of points as precaution measures that users can consider to address these issues.

Keywords: international legal, consultation mix, legal research, small and medium-sized enterprises, strategic International law, strategy alignment, house of laws, deployment, production strategy, legal strategy, business strategy

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Authors: Shima Nikanjam, Badiossadat Hassanpour, Adi Irfan Che Ani

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The design process in architecture education is based upon the Learning-by-Doing method, which leads students to understand how to design by practicing rather than studying. First-year design studios, as starting educational stage, provide integrated knowledge and skills of design for newly jointed architecture students. Within the basic design studio environment, students are guided to transfer their abstract thoughts into visual concrete decisions under the supervision of design educators for the first time. Therefore, introductory design studios have predominant impacts on students’ operational thinking and designing. Architectural design thinking is quite different from students’ educational backgrounds and learning habits. This educational challenge at basic design studios creates a severe need to study the reality of design education at foundation year and define appropriate educational methods with convenient project types with the intention of enhancing architecture education quality. Material for this study has been gathered through long-term direct observation at a first year second semester design studio at the faculty of architecture at EMU (known as FARC 102), fall and spring academic semester 2014-15. Distribution of a questionnaire among case study students and interviews with third and fourth design studio students who passed through the same methods of education in the past 2 years and conducting interviews with instructors are other methodologies used in this research. The results of this study reveal a risk of a mismatch between the implemented teaching method, project type and scale in this particular level and students’ learning styles. Although the existence of such risk due to varieties in students’ profiles could be expected to some extent, recommendations can support educators to reach maximum compatibility.

Keywords: architecture education, basic design studio, educational method, forms creation skill

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Authors: Hsiao-Wen Hsu

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It is generally believed that the teacher’s use of motivational strategies can enhance student motivation, especially in a place like Taiwan where teacher usually dominates student EFL learning. However, only little empirical studies support this claim. This study examined the connection between teachers’ use of motivational teaching practice and observed student motivated behavior in rural junior high schools in Taiwan. The use of motivational strategies by 12 teachers in five recognized rural junior high schools was investigated observed using a classroom observation instrument, the Motivation Orientation of Language Teaching. Meanwhile, post-lesson teacher evaluations accomplished by both the researcher and the teacher were functioning as part of the measure of teacher motivational practice. The data collected through observation scheme follows the real-time coding principle to examine observable teacher motivational practice and learner motivated behaviors. The results support the previous research findings that teachers’ use of motivational strategies is associated with the student motivated behaviors as well as the students’ level of motivation regarding English learning.

Keywords: English learning, motivational strategies, student motivation, teacher motivational practices

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Authors: Belayet Hossain, Laura Lamb

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The study investigates the importance of health and social capital in determining the labour force status of Canada’s Indigenous population using data from 2006 Aboriginal Peoples Survey. An instrumental variable ordered probit model has been specified and estimated. The study finds that health status and social capital are important in determining Indigenous peoples’ employment status along with other factors. The results of the study imply that human resource development initiatives of Indigenous Peoples need to be broadened by including health status and social capital. Poor health and low degree of inclusion of the Indigenous Peoples need to be addressed in order to improve employment status of Canada’s Indigenous Peoples.

Keywords: labour force, human capital, social capital, aboriginal people, Canada

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Authors: Syeda Shawana Mahasan, Muhammad Farooq Akhtar

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The objective of this study is to analyze the influence of the green marketing mix strategy and corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the performance of an organization, taking into account the mediating effect of corporate image. The impact of frugal innovation and corporate activism is being examined. The data was gathered from executives at various levels of management, including top, middle, and lower-level managers, from a total of 550 manufacturing enterprises of different sizes, ranging from small to medium to large. The collected replies are processed and analyzed using SMART PLS version 4.0.0.0. The application of PLS-SEM demonstrates that the green marketing mix strategy and corporate social responsibility have a significant impact on organizational performance. Therefore, it is imperative for organizations to effectively adopt environmentally sustainable and socially conscious methods within their operations. The results indicate that the corporate image has a key role in mediating the relationship between the green marketing mix strategy, corporate social responsibility, and organizational performance. This demonstrates the imperative for organizations to actively enhance their favorable reputation among stakeholders. The combination of frugal innovation and corporate activism enhances the connection between corporate image and organizational performance. The current study assists managers in recognizing the significance of these particular constructs in maintaining the long-term performance of the organization.

Keywords: green marketing mix strategy, CSR, corporate image, organizational performance, frugal innovation, corporate activism

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Authors: Hannah Rosenqvist, Fanny Guay

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Critical infrastructure protection has been an important topic for several years. Programmes such as the European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (EPCIP), Critical Infrastructure Warning Information Network (CIWIN) and the European Reference Network for Critical Infrastructure Protection (ENR-CIP) have been the pillars to the work done since 2006. However, measuring critical infrastructure resilience has not been an easy task. This has to do with the fact that the concept of resilience has several definitions and is applied in different domains such as engineering and social sciences. Since June 2015, the EU project IMPROVER has been focusing on developing a methodology for implementing a combination of societal, organizational and technological resilience concepts, in the hope to increase critical infrastructure resilience. For this paper, we performed research on how to include societal resilience as a form of measurement of the context of critical infrastructure resilience. Because one of the main purposes of critical infrastructure (CI) is to deliver services to the society, we believe that societal resilience is an important factor that should be considered when assessing the overall CI resilience. We found that existing methods for CI resilience assessment focus mainly on technical aspects and therefore that is was necessary to develop a resilience model that take social factors into account. The model developed within the project IMPROVER aims to include the community’s expectations of infrastructure operators as well as information sharing with the public and planning processes. By considering such aspects, the IMPROVER framework not only helps operators to increase the resilience of their infrastructures on the technical or organizational side, but aims to strengthen community resilience as a whole. This will further be achieved by taking interdependencies between critical infrastructures into consideration. The knowledge gained during this project will enrich current European policies and practices for improved disaster risk management. The framework for societal resilience analysis is based on three dimensions for societal resilience; coping capacity, adaptive capacity and transformative capacity which are capacities that have been recognized throughout a widespread literature review in the field. A set of indicators have been defined that describe a community’s maturity within these resilience dimensions. Further, the indicators are categorized into six community assets that need to be accessible and utilized in such a way that they allow responding to changes and unforeseen circumstances. We conclude that the societal resilience model developed within the project IMPROVER can give a good indication of the level of societal resilience to critical infrastructure operators.

Keywords: community resilience, critical infrastructure protection, critical infrastructure resilience, societal resilience

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Authors: Beatrice Eyram Afi Ziorklui, Norihisa Shima

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Community Driven Development (CDD) is now a widely recommended and accepted development strategy for informal communities across the continent. Centered on the utilization of social capital through community structures, different informal settlements have different structures and different levels of social capital, which affect the implementation and ability to overcome CDD challenges. Although known to be very successful, there are few perspectives on the implementation of CDD initiatives in different informal settlements. This study assesses the implementation of CDD initiatives in migrant and indigenous informal settlements and their ability to navigate challenges. The case study research design was adopted in this research, and respondents were chosen through simple random sampling. Using the Statistical Package for social scientists (SPSS) for data analysis, the study found that migrant informal settlements implement CDD projects through the network of hierarchical structures based on government systems, whereas indigenous informal settlements implement through the hierarchical social structure based on traditions and culture. The study also found that, with the exception of the challenge of land accessibility in migrant informal settlements, all other challenges, such as participation, resource mobilization, and maintenance, have a significant relationship with social capital, although indigenous informal settlements have higher levels of social capital than migrant informal settlements. The study recommends a framework that incorporates community characteristics and the underlying social capital to facilitate upgrading strategies in informal in Ghana.

Keywords: community driven development, informal settlements, social capital, upgrading

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Authors: Sisira Edirippulige

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Background: Digital health education and training (DHET) is imperative for preparing current and future clinicians to work competently in digitally enabled environments. Despite rapid integration of digital health in modern health services, systematic education and training opportunities for health workers is still lacking. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate healthcare professionals’ perspectives and expectations regarding the knowledge, skills and competency needs in digital health for current and future healthcare workforce. Methods: A qualitative study design with semi-structured individual interviews was employed. A purposive sample method was adopted to collect relevant information from the health workers. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse data. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research (COREQ) was followed when we reported this study. Results: Two themes emerged while analysing the data: (1) what to teach in DHET and (2) how to teach DHET. Overall, healthcare professionals agreed that DHET is important for preparing current and future clinicians for working competently in digitally enabled environments. Knowledge relating to what is digital health, types of digital health, use of technology and human factors in digital health were considered as important to be taught in DHET. Skills relating to digital health consultations, clinical information system management and remote monitoring were considered important to be taught. Blended learning which combined e-learning and classroom-based teaching, simulation sessions and clinical rotations were suggested by healthcare professionals as optimal approaches to deliver the above-mentioned content. Conclusions: This study is the first of its kind to investigate health professionals’ perspectives and expectations relating to the knowledge, skills and competency needs in digital health for current and future healthcare workforce. Healthcare workers are keen to acquire relevant knowledge, skills and competencies related to digital health. Different modes of education delivery is of interest to fit in with busy schedule of health workers.

Keywords: digital health, telehealth, telemedicine, education, curriculum

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Authors: Abdul Rashid Ahmadi, Samiullah Paracha, Hamidullah Sokout, Mohammad Hanif Gharana

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Conventional educational practices, do not offer all the required skills for teachers to successfully survive in today’s workplace. Due to poor professional training, a big gap exists across the curriculum plan and the teacher practices in the classroom. As such, raising the quality of teaching through ICT-enabled training and professional development of teachers should be an urgent priority. ‘Mobile Learning’, in that vein, is an increasingly growing field of educational research and practice across schools and work places. In this paper, we propose a novel Mobile learning system that allows the users to learn through an intelligent mobile learning in cooperatively every-time and every-where. The system will reduce the training cost and increase consistency, efficiency, and data reliability. To establish that our system will display neither functional nor performance failure, the evaluation strategy is based on formal observation of users interacting with system followed by questionnaires and structured interviews.

Keywords: computer assisted learning, intelligent tutoring system, learner centered design, mobile mediated learning and teacher education

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Authors: Armana Huq, Wahidur Rahman, Sanwar Kader

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Inland waterways in Bangladesh play an important role in providing comfortable and low-cost transportation. However, a maritime accident takes away many lives and creates unwanted hazards every year. This article deals with a comprehensive review of inland waterway accidents in Bangladesh. Additionally, it includes a comparative study between international and local inland research studies based on maritime accidents. Articles from inland waterway areas are analyzed in-depth to make a comprehensive overview of the nature of the academic work, accident and risk management process and different statistical analyses. It is found that empirical analysis based on the available statistical data dominates the research domain. For this study, major maritime accident-related works in the last four decades in Bangladesh (1981-2020) are being analyzed for preparing a bibliometric analysis. A study of maritime accidents of passenger's vessels during (1995-2005) indicates that the predominant causes of accidents in the inland waterways of Bangladesh are collision and adverse weather (77%), out of which collision due to human error alone stands (56%) of all accidents. Another study refers that the major causes of waterway accidents are the collision (60.3%) during 2005-2015. About 92% of this collision occurs due to direct contact with another vessel during this period. Rest 8% of the collision occurs by contact with permanent obstruction on waterway roots. The overall analysis of another study from the last 25 years (1995-2019) shows that one of the main types of accidents is collisions, with about 50.3% of accidents being caused by collisions. The other accident types are cyclone or storm (17%), overload (11.3%), physical failure (10.3%), excessive waves (5.1%), and others (6%). Very few notable works are available in testing or comparing the methods, proposing new methods for risk management, modeling, uncertainty treatment. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the evolution of marine accident-related research domain regarding inland waterway of Bangladesh and attempts to introduce new ideas and methods to abridge the gap between international and national inland maritime-related work domain which can be a catalyst for a safer and sustainable water transportation system in Bangladesh. Another fundamental objective of this paper is to navigate various national maritime authorities and international organizations to implement risk management processes for shipping accident prevention in waterway areas.

Keywords: inland waterways, safety, bibliometric analysis, risk management, accidents

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Authors: Rauno Pääkkönen, Fabriziomaria Gobba, Leena Korpinen

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The objective of the study is to assess the implementation of LED lighting into forest machine work in the dark. In addition, the paper includes a wide variety of important and relevant safety and health parameters. In modern, computerized work in the cab of forest machines, artificial illumination is a demanding task when performing duties, such as the visual inspections of wood and computer calculations. We interviewed entrepreneurs and gathered the following as the most pertinent themes: (1) safety, (2) practical problems, and (3) work with LED lighting. The most important comments were in regards to the practical problems of LED lighting. We found indications of technical problems in implementing LED lighting, like snow and dirt on the surfaces of lamps that dim the emission of light. Moreover, service work in the dark forest is dangerous and increases the risks of on-site accidents. We also concluded that the amount of blue light to the eyes should be assessed, especially, when the drivers are working in a semi-dark cab.

Keywords: forest machines, health, LED, safety

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Authors: Hamed Abshari, M. Reza Emami Azadi, Madjid Sadegh Azar

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For studying the overall instability of members of steel structures, there are several methods in which overall buckling and geometrical imperfection effects are considered in analysis. In first section, these methods are compared and ability of software to apply these methods is studied. Buckling loads determined from theoretical methods and software is compared for 2D one bay, one and two stories steel frames. To consider actual condition, buckling loads of three steel frames that have various dimensions are calculated and compared. Also, uncertainties that exist in loading and modeling of structures such as geometrical imperfection, yield stress, and modulus of elasticity in buckling load of 2D framed steel structures have been studied. By performing these uncertainties to each reliability analysis procedures (first-order, second-order, and simulation methods of reliability), one index of reliability from each procedure is determined. These values are studied and compared.

Keywords: buckling, second-order theory, reliability index, steel columns

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Authors: Andrew Enaifoghe

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Municipalities are the most fundamental units of governance, and they are responsible for providing basic services and supporting growth in the areas they rule. South African local government is primarily understood in terms of service delivery, and the South African constitution provides municipalities with the responsibility of mobilizing economic resources, to better the lives of all people. Essential public services are the primary pillars of enhanced quality of life, and appropriate supplies of safe water and sanitation are required for life, well-being, and human dignity. Therefore, having access to basic services is directly tied to social inclusion and social capital, and towns' inability to offer services can have a negative influence on social and economic growth. The problem of service delivery is seen as one of the biggest challenges facing South African municipalities today. This study attempts to assess South African municipal service delivery. Focusing on the main causes of service delivery challenges, the study also looks at the impact of these challenges to identify ways to minimize such challenges by introducing legal instruments such as municipal budgeting and annual reports. A qualitative design was adopted, and data were collected using a desktop technique and analyzed based on content. While public engagement in municipal affairs is required by law, considerable work has to be done to ensure successful participation. Finally, municipalities were deemed to need to do more to improve human capacity to offer services.

Keywords: municipalities, service delivery, corruption, monitoring, South Africa

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Authors: Wu Hu

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There is an increasing amount of research bridging the gap between transportation and subjective well-being (SWB). However, travel SWB research in this area is still sporadic. Therefore, we are in need of a more systematic body of work that examines travel SWB considering various work occupations, working conditions, commuting variabilities, and other related variables, and develops updated qualitative and quantitative methods to inform the transportation design. In this Super Mario Guide, the author reflects on the related elements involved with travel SWB under four categories (having Super Mario as the protagonist): 1. the starting point including variables like living conditions; 2. the commuter including the commuter’s age, gender, occupation, and others; 3. the commuting including commuting environment, vehicles, commuting time, commuting vehicles flexibility and variability and others; 4. destination including the workplace conditions, the corporate culture on working flexibility, the employer supportiveness and others. In addition, with the rise of new vehicles such as auto-driving, this research can play a significant role to better understand travel SWB and to guide the design of more efficient travelling systems so as to improve worker performance and general SWB. The author also shares thoughts on promising areas for future research.

Keywords: transportation, subjective well-being (SWB), commuting, happiness

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Authors: Ligia Nascimento, Manuela Faia Correia

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Nowadays, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are embedded in most professions. Technostress - or stress induced by the use of ICTs, has been studied in various sectors of activity and in different geographical areas, mainly from the perspective of its harmful impacts. In the context of work, the technological contexts capable of causing stress have been examined in-depth, as well as the type of individuals most likely to experience its negative effects. However, new lines of the research argue that the stress generated by the use of ICTs may not necessarily be detrimental (technodistress), admitting that, in contrast, and in addition, it may actually be beneficial to organizations and their employees (technoeustress). Any measures that succeed in reducing technodistress do not necessarily lead to the creation of technoeustress, justifying the study of this phenomenon in a focused and independent manner. Adopting the transactional model of stress as the basic theoretical framework, an ongoing research project aims to study technoeustress independently. Given the role played in the qualification and progress of society and the economy, it becomes particularly critical to care for the well-being of the higher education teacher. Particularly in recent times, when teleworking is prevalent, these professionals have made a huge, compulsive effort to adapt to a new teaching reality. Rather than limiting itself to mitigating adverse effects of ICT use, which featured earlier approaches, the present study seeks to understand how to activate the positive side of technostress in higher education teachers in order to obtain favorable personal and organizational outcomes from ICT use at work. The research model seeks to understand, upstream, the ICT characteristics that increase the perception of technoeustress among higher education teachers, studying the direct and moderating effects of individual and organizational variables and, downstream, the impacts that technoeustress has on job satisfaction and performance. This research contributes both to expanding the knowledge of the technostress phenomenon and to identify possible recommendations for management.

Keywords: higher education teachers, ICT, stress, technoeustress

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Authors: R. S. Fisca, Y. R. Elox, L. Umi, U. Z. Luttfia, Kun Harismah

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Petai (Parkia speciosa) is a plant indigenous to Southeast Asia. It is consumed either raw or cooked. It has been used in folk medicine to treat diabetes, hypertension, and kidney problems. It contains minerals and vitamins. Petai contains a lot of chemical compounds that are beneficial for health, including antioxidants, Vitamin B6 0,9mg, energy 142 g. cal, 10.4 g protein. 2 g fat, 22 g carbohydrates, 95 mg calcium, phosphorus 115 mg, 1 mg iron, 200 IU of vitamin A, vitamin B1 0.17 mg, 36 mg of vitamin C that can resolve various health problems. These chips are the result of innovation from petai packaged in such a way becomes a tasty snack chips and can be enjoyed by many people to relax and also nutritious for health. In the manufacture of petai chips require several steps of them start by boiling, flating, drying and the last frying. In introducing the products widely we sell petai chips with several methods. Some of these methods include direct sales, delivery order, online/social media, and open some booth at a few places and the car free day in Solo every sunday. Opportunity in selling petai chips is very wide because there is no competitors with similar business. With the innovation of petai chips become healthy snacks can be introduced to the public and can even be exported out of the country as one of the extraordinary snacks from Indonesia.

Keywords: antioxidants, chips, healty, petai

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Authors: Konstantinos Liagkouras, Konstantinos Metaxiotis

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In this paper we present a classification of the various technologies applied for the solution of the portfolio selection problem according to the discipline and the methodological framework followed. We provide a concise presentation of the emerged categories and we are trying to identify which methods considered obsolete and which lie at the heart of the debate. On top of that, we provide a comparative study of the different technologies applied for efficient portfolio construction and we suggest potential paths for future work that lie at the intersection of the presented techniques.

Keywords: portfolio selection, optimization techniques, financial models, stochastic, heuristics

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Authors: Pei-Shan Wei, Szu-Ying Lee, Hsi-Peng Lu, Jen-Chuen Tzou, Chien-I Weng

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Mobile social games recently become extremely popular, spawning a whole new entertainment culture. However, mobile game players are fickle, quickly and easily picking up and abandoning games. This pilot study seeks to identify factors that influence users to discontinue playing mobile social games. We identified three sacrifices which can prompt users to abandon games: monetary sacrifice, time sacrifice and privacy sacrifice. The results showed that monetary sacrifice has a greater impact than the other two factors in causing players to discontinue usage intention.

Keywords: abandon, mobile devices, mobile social games, perceived sacrifice

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Authors: Wayne Tarrant, Ethan Petersen

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The concept of a flat tax goes back to at least the Biblical tithe. A progressive income tax was first vociferously espoused in a small, but famous, pamphlet in 1848 (although England had an emergency progressive tax for war costs prior to this). Within a few years many countries had adopted the progressive structure. The flat tax was only reinstated in some small countries and British protectorates until Mart Laar was elected Prime Minister of Estonia in 1992. Since Estonia’s adoption of the flat tax in 1993, many other formerly Communist countries have likewise abandoned progressive income taxes. Economists had expectations of what would happen when a flat tax was enacted, but very little work has been done on actually measuring the effect. With a testbed of 21 countries in this region that currently have a flat tax, much comparison is possible. Several countries have retained progressive taxes, giving an opportunity for contrast. There are also the cases of Czech Republic and Slovakia, which have adopted and later abandoned the flat tax. Further, with over 20 years’ worth of economic history in some flat tax countries, we can begin to do some serious longitudinal study. In this paper we consider many economic variables to determine if there are statistically significant differences from before to after the adoption of a flat tax. We consider unemployment rates, tax receipts, GDP growth, Gini coefficients, and market data where the data are available. Comparisons are made through the use of event studies and time series methods. The results are mixed, but we draw statistically significant conclusions about some effects. We also look at the different implementations of the flat tax. In some countries there are equal income and corporate tax rates. In others the income tax has a lower rate, while in others the reverse is true. Each of these sends a clear message to individuals and corporations. The policy makers surely have a desired effect in mind. We group countries with similar policies, try to determine if the intended effect actually occurred, and then report the results. This is a work in progress, and we welcome the suggestion of variables to consider. Further, some of the data from before the fall of the Iron Curtain are suspect. Since there are new ruling regimes in these countries, the methods of computing different statistical measures has changed. Although we first look at the raw data as reported, we also attempt to account for these changes. We show which data seem to be fictional and suggest ways to infer the needed statistics from other data. These results are reported beside those on the reported data. Since there is debate about taxation structure, this paper can help inform policymakers of change the flat tax has caused in other countries. The work shows some strengths and weaknesses of a flat tax structure. Moreover, it provides beginnings of a scientific analysis of the flat tax in practice rather than having discussion based solely upon theory and conjecture.

Keywords: flat tax, financial markets, GDP, unemployment rate, Gini coefficient

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Authors: Verónica Díaz Quezada

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The importance given to the development of the problem solving skill and the requirement to solve problems framed in mathematical or real life contexts, in practice, they are not evidence in relation to the teaching of proportional variations. This qualitative and descriptive study aims to (1) to improve problem solving ability of high school students in Chile, (ii) to elaborate and describe a didactic intervention strategy based on learning situations in proportional variations, focused on solving types of routine problems of various contexts and non-routine problems. For this purpose, participant observation was conducted, test of mathematics problems and an opinion questionnaire to thirty-six high school students. Through the results, the highest academic performance is evidenced in the routine problems of purely mathematical context, realistic, fantasy context, and non-routine problems, except in the routine problems of real context and compound proportionality problems. The results highlight the need to consider in the curriculum different types of problems in the teaching of mathematics that relate the discipline to everyday life situations

Keywords: algebra, high school, proportion variations, nonroutine problem solving, routine problem solving

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Authors: Aliyu Aminu Baba, Mustapha Makama

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Tertiary institutions are citadel of learning and societal orientation. Due to the huge investment of various government to tertiary institutions, these institutions are solely financed by the government alone. As stakeholders of society, corporations have to have to intervene and provide corporate social responsibility. The study intends to investigate the role of Entrepreneurs in incorporating social Responsibility. Tertiary institutions are citadel of learning and societal orientation. Due to the huge investment of various government to tertiary institutions, the study intends to investigate the role of businesses and Entrepreneurs, which could be among the important contributions of businesses and Entrepreneurs on corporate social Responsibility to Tertiary Institutions in Bauchi State. Corporate social responsibility is vital in enhancing the infrastructural development of the tertiary institution as almost all individuals and corporate bodies benefit from this tertiary institutions. The study intends to examine the impact of corporate social responsibility to tertiary institutions and entrepreneurs in Bauchi state Nigeria. Questionnaires would be distributed to tertiary institutions and entrepreneurs in the Bauchi metropolis. The data collected will be analyzed with the help of SPSS version 23. The main objective is to investigate the role of businesses and Entrepreneurs, which could be among the important contributions of businesses and entrepreneurs on corporate social Responsibility to Tertiary Institutions in Bauchi State.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, tertiary, institutions, profitability

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Authors: Abrar R. Al-Hasan

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Despite the widespread use of social media by consumers and marketers, empirical research investigating their economic value in the healthcare industry still lags. This study explores the impact of the use of social media marketing efforts on a hospital's brand equity and, ultimately, consumer response. Using social media data from Twitter and Facebook, along with an online and offline survey methodology, data is analyzed using logistic regression models. A random sample of (728) residents of the Kuwaiti population is used. The results of this study found that social media marketing efforts (SMME) in terms of use and validation lead to higher hospital brand equity and in turn, patient loyalty and patient visit. The study highlights the impact of SMME on hospital brand equity and patient response. Healthcare organizations should guide their marketing efforts to better manage this new way of marketing and communicating with patients to enhance their consumer loyalty and financial performance.

Keywords: brand equity, healthcare marketing, patient visit, social media, SMME

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Authors: Žymantas Rudžionis, Paulius Grigaliūnas, Danutė Vaičiukynienė

Abstract:

By planning this experimental work to investigate the effect of zeolitic waste on rheological and technological properties of self-compacting fiber reinforced concrete, we had an intention to draw attention to the environmental factor. Large amount of zeolitic waste, as a secondary raw materials are not in use properly and large amount of it is collected without a clear view of it’s usage in future. The principal aim of this work is to assure, that zeolitic waste admixture takes positive effect to the self-compacting fiber reinforced concrete mixes stability, flowability and other properties by using the experimental research methods. In addition to that a research on cement and zeolitic waste mortars were implemented to clarify the effect of zeolitic waste on properties of cement paste and stone. Primary studies indicates that zeolitic waste characterizes clear puzzolanic behavior, do not deteriorate and in some cases ensure positive rheological and mechanical characteristics of self-compacting concrete mixes.

Keywords: self compacting concrete, steel fiber reinforced concrete, zeolitic waste, rheological, properties of concrete, slump flow

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Authors: Naritphol Boonyakiat

Abstract:

This research attempts to investigate the effects of corporate social responsibility and knowledge management factors on students’ learning process of the Silpakorn University. The goal of this study is to fill the literature gap by gaining an understanding of corporate social responsibility and the knowledge management factors that fundamentally relate to students’ learning process within the university context. Thus, this study will focus on the outcomes that derive from a set of quantitative data that were obtained using Silpakorn university’s database of 200 students. The results represent the perceptions of students regarding the impact of corporate social responsibility and knowledge management factors on their learning process within the university. The findings indicate that corporate social responsibility and knowledge management have significant effects on students’ learning process. This study may assist us in gaining a better understanding of the integrated aspects of university and learning environments to discover how to allocate optimally university’s resources and management approaches to gain benefits from corporate social responsibility and knowledge management practices toward students’ learning process within the university bodies. Therefore, there is a sufficient reason to believe that the findings can contribute to research in the area of CSR, KM and students’ learning process as an essential aspect of university’s stakeholder.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, knowledge management, learning process, university’s students

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Authors: Wanida Suwunniponth

Abstract:

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between the factors of using online social network for tourism destination in case of Bangkok area in Thailand, by extending the use of technology acceptance model (TAM). This study employed by quantitative research and the target population were entrepreneurs and local people in Bangkok who use social network-Facebook concerning tourist destinations in Bangkok. Questionnaire was used to collect data from 300 purposive samples. The multiple regression analysis and path analysis were used to analyze data. The results revealed that most people who used Facebook for promoting tourism destinations in Bangkok perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived trust in using Facebook and influenced by social normative as well as having positive attitude towards using this application. Addition, the hypothesis results indicate that acceptance of online social network-Facebook was related to the positive attitude towards using of Facebook and related to their intention to use this application for tourism.

Keywords: Facebook, online social network, technology acceptance model, tourism destination

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Authors: Lei Liu

Abstract:

Since the famous opening up and reform strategy of China, lots of migrants have flowed from rural areas to urban areas. In this paper, the author investigates the rural elderly left behind, which are defined aged people left alone at home while their adult children have to migrant outside. This phenomenon is a quite general and serious social problem that cannot be ignored, accompanied by the process of urbanization and regional transferring of rural labor. The Chinese internal migration not only exerts great influence to China’s economy and urbanization but also obviously reduces the labor and care to rural aged people. Contrary to assumptions in some migration and aging studies, which show the inevitable negative effects of migration upon the old age care, the author highlights unique features in their daily strategies of house holding to integrate into society with the analysis of the conception of social inclusion. Through life history interviews with elderly left behind in one rural village, this article sheds light on three different factors of social inclusion, namely, economic inclusion, social identity and political inclusion and shows its necessaries to fully understand the status of the social wellbeing of rural elderly left behind.

Keywords: labor migration, elderly left behind, social inclusion, rural China

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Authors: Darawan Augsornwan, Artitaya Sabangbal, Maneewan Srijan, Kanokarn Kongpitee, Lalida Petphai, Palakorn Surakunprapha

Abstract:

Background: Srinagarind Hospital, Ward 3C, has patients with head and neck cancer, congenital urology anomalies such as hypospadis, cleft lip and cleft palate and congenital megacolon who need surgery. Undergoing surgery is a difficult time for patients/ family; they feel fear and anxiety. Nurses work closely with patients and family for 24 hours in the process of patients care, so should have the good nursing ability, innovation and an efficient nursing care system to promote patients self-care ability reducing suffering and preventing complications. From previous nursing outcomes we found patients did not receive appropriate information, could not take care of their wound, not early ambulation after the operation and lost follow-up. Objective: to develop the nursing system for patients who were undergoing an operation. Method: this is a participation action research. The sample population was 11 nurses and 60 patients. This study was divided into 3 phase: Phase 1. Situation review In this phase we review the clinical outcomes, the process of care from documents such as nurses note and interview nurses, patients and family about the process of care by nurses. Phase 2: focus group with 11 nurses, searching guideline for specific care, nursing care system then establish the protocol. This phase we have the protocol for giving information, teaching protocol and teaching record, leaflet for all of top five diseases, make video media to convey information, ambulation package and protocol for patients with head and neck cancer, patients zoning, primary nurse, improved job description for each staff level. Program to record number of patients, kind of medical procedures for showing nurses activity each day. Phase 3 implementation and evaluation. Result: patients/family receive appropriate information about deep breathing exercise, cough, early ambulation after the operation, information during the stay in the hospital. Patients family satisfaction is 95.04 percent, appropriate job description for a practical nurse, nurse aid, and worker. Nurses satisfaction is 95 percent. The complications can be prevented. Conclusion: the nursing system is the dynamic process using evidence to develop nursing care. The appropriate system depends on context and needs to keep an eye on every event.

Keywords: development, nursing system, patients undergoing operation, 3C Ward

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