Search results for: national council for educational research and training
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 30458

Search results for: national council for educational research and training

26378 Coping Strategies and Characterization of Vulnerability in the Perspective of Climate Change

Authors: Muhammad Umer Mehmood, Muhammad Luqman, Muhammad Yaseen, Imtiaz Hussain

Abstract:

Climate change is an arduous fact, which could not be unheeded easily. It is a phenomenon which has brought a collection of challenges for the mankind. Scientists have found many of its negative impacts on the life of human being and the resources on which the life of humanity is dependent. There are many issues which are associated with the factor of prime importance in this study, 'climate change'. Whenever changes happen in nature, they strike the whole globe. Effects of these changes vary from region to region. Climate of every region of this globe is different from the other. Even within a state, country or the province has different climatic conditions. So it is mandatory that the response in that specific region and the coping strategy of this specific region should be according to the prevailing risk. In the present study, the objective was to assess the coping strategies and vulnerability of small landholders. So that a professional suggestion could be made to cope with the vulnerability factor of small farmers. The cross-sectional research design was used with the intervention of quantitative approach. The study was conducted in the Khanewal district, of Punjab, Pakistan. 120 small farmers were interviewed after randomized sampling from the population of respective area. All respondents were above the age of 15 years. A questionnaire was developed after keen observation of facts in the respective area. Content and face validity of the instrument was assessed with SPSS and experts in the field. Data were analyzed through SPSS using descriptive statistics. From the sample of 120, 81.67% of the respondents claimed that the environment is getting warmer and not fit for their present agricultural practices. 84.17% of the sample expressed serious concern that they are disturbed due to change in rainfall pattern and vulnerability towards the climatic effects. On the other hand, they expressed that they are not good at tackling the effects of climate change. Adaptation of coping strategies like change in cropping pattern, use of resistant varieties, varieties with minimum water requirement, intercropping and tree planting was low by more than half of the sample. From the sample 63.33% small farmers said that the coping strategies they adopt are not effective enough. The present study showed that subsistence farming, lack of marketing and overall infrastructure, lack of access to social security networks, limited access to agriculture extension services, inappropriate access to agrometeorological system, unawareness and access to scientific development and low crop yield are the prominent factors which are responsible for the vulnerability of small farmers. A comprehensive study should be conducted at national level so that a national policy could be formulated to cope with the dilemma in future with relevance to climate change. Mainstreaming and collaboration among the researchers and academicians could prove beneficiary in this regard the interest of national leaders’ does matter. Proper policies to avoid the vulnerability factors should be the top priority. The world is taking up this issue with full responsibility as should we, keeping in view the local situation.

Keywords: adaptation, coping strategies, climate change, Pakistan, small farmers, vulnerability

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26377 Sports Fans and Non-Interested Public Recognition of the Problems of Sports in Egypt through Caricature

Authors: Alaaeldin Hamdy Ahmed Mohammed

Abstract:

Introduction: This study examines sports’ fans and non-interested public perception and recognition of the problems that have negative impacts upon the Egyptian sports, particularly football, through caricatures. Eight caricature paintings were designed to express eight problems affecting the Egyptian sports and its development. These paintings were distributed on two groups of the fans and the non-interested public. Methods: The study was limited to eight caricatures representing the eight issues which are: the impact of stopping the sports activity on athletes, the effect of clubs’ disagreement, fanaticism between the members of the ultras of different clubs, the negative impact of the mingling of politics into sports, the negative role of the clubs affects the professionalism of the promising players, the conflict between the national organization responsible for sports, the breaking in of the fans to the playgrounds, the impact of the lack of planning on the national team. The Results: The results showed that both sports fans and those who are not interested in sports recognized the problems that the caricatures refer to and criticizes exaggeration although the rate was higher for the fans. These caricatures contributed also in their recognition of the danger of the negative impact of these problems on the Egyptian sports, particularly football which is the most common at the Egyptian sports fans. Discussion: This finding echoes the conclusion that caricatures are distinctive in the adults’ facial stimuli that are either systematically exaggerated recognition of them.

Keywords: caricature, fans, football, sports

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26376 Research on the Performance Management of Social Organizations Participating in Home-Based Care

Authors: Qiuhu Shao

Abstract:

Community home-based care service system, which is based on the family pension, supported by community pension and supplied by institutions pension, is an effective pension system to solve the current situation of China's accelerated aging. However, due to the fundamental realities of our country, the government is not able to bear the unilateral supply of the old-age service of the community. Therefore, based on the theory of welfare pluralism, the participation of social organizations in the home-based care service center has become an important part of the diversified supply of the old-age service for the elderly. Meanwhile, the home-based care service industry is still in the early stage, the management is relatively rough, which resulted in a large number of social resources waste. Thus, scientific, objective and long-term implementation is needed for social organizations to participate in home-based care services to guide its performance management. In order to realize the design of the performance management system, the author has done a research work that clarifies the research status of social organization's participation in home-based care service. Relevant theories such as welfare pluralism, community care theory, and performance management theory have been used to demonstrate the feasibility of data envelopment analysis method in social organization performance research. This paper analyzes the characteristics of the operation mode of the home-based care service center, and hackles the national as well as local documents, standards and norms related to the development of the home-based care industry, particularly studies those documents in Nanjing. Based on this, the paper designed a set of performance management PDCA system for home-based care service center in Nanjing and clarified each step of the system in detail. Subsequently, the research methods of performance evaluation and performance management and feedback, which are two core steps of performance management have been compared and screened in order to establish the overall framework of the performance management system of the home-based care service center. Through a large number of research, the paper summarized and analyzed the characteristics of the home-based care service center. Based on the research results, combined with the practice of the industry development in Nanjing, the paper puts forward a targeted performance evaluation index system of home-based care service center in Nanjing. Finally, the paper evaluated and sub-filed the performance of 186 home-based care service centers in Nanjing and then designed the performance optimization direction and performance improvement path based on the results. This study constructs the index system of performance evaluation of home-based care service and makes the index detailed to the implementation level, and constructs the evaluation index system which can be applied directly. Meanwhile, the quantitative evaluation of social organizations participating in the home-based care service changed the subjective impression in the previous practice of evaluation.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis, home-based care, performance management, social organization

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26375 Possibilities, Challenges and the State of the Art of Automatic Speech Recognition in Air Traffic Control

Authors: Van Nhan Nguyen, Harald Holone

Abstract:

Over the past few years, a lot of research has been conducted to bring Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) into various areas of Air Traffic Control (ATC), such as air traffic control simulation and training, monitoring live operators for with the aim of safety improvements, air traffic controller workload measurement and conducting analysis on large quantities controller-pilot speech. Due to the high accuracy requirements of the ATC context and its unique challenges, automatic speech recognition has not been widely adopted in this field. With the aim of providing a good starting point for researchers who are interested bringing automatic speech recognition into ATC, this paper gives an overview of possibilities and challenges of applying automatic speech recognition in air traffic control. To provide this overview, we present an updated literature review of speech recognition technologies in general, as well as specific approaches relevant to the ATC context. Based on this literature review, criteria for selecting speech recognition approaches for the ATC domain are presented, and remaining challenges and possible solutions are discussed.

Keywords: automatic speech recognition, asr, air traffic control, atc

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26374 Effects and Coping Strategies of Cyber Bullying in Pakistan: A Gender Response

Authors: Rabia Qusien

Abstract:

New media has emerged as a significant force in the society which connects people across the globe. Where new media brought many advantages for its users, there is a darker aspect of new technology in the form of cyberbullying. Researcher has employed survey method to reach to its targeted audience. Sample of 604 respondents was selected from one of metropolitan city of Pakistan Lahore to collect the data. Equal sample from both genders was selected to apply gender analysis. Results of this study indicate that cyber bullying is having significant psychological and educational effects. Females face more cyber bullying incidents as compared to males so they face more severe effects of cyber bullying. A comprehensive analysis of managing strategies depicts that mostly youth tries to handle this issue personally but at times they seek the support of their family and friends when they face severe issues. Due to privacy concerns females get more upset and they are more likely to seek social support from friends and family.

Keywords: cyber bullying, cyber victims, educational impacts, psychological impacts

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26373 The Relationship between Caregiver Burden and Life Satisfaction of Caregivers of Elderly Individuals

Authors: Guler Duru Asiret, Cemile Kutmec Yilmaz, Gulcan Bagcivan, Tugce Turten Kaymaz

Abstract:

This descriptive study was conducted to determine the relationship between caregiver burden and life satisfaction who give home care to elderly individuals. The sample was recruited from the internal medicine unit and palliative unit of a state hospital located in Turkey on June 2016-2017. The study sample consisted of 231 primary caregiver family member, who met the eligibility criteria and agreed to participate in the study. The inclusion criteria were as follows: inpatient’s caregiver, primary caregiver for at least 3 months, at least 18 years of age, no communication problem or mental disorder. Data were gathered using an Information Form prepared by the researchers based on previous literature, the Zarit Burden Interview (ZBI), and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics software version 20.0 (SPSS, Chicago, IL). The descriptive characteristics of the participant were analyzed using number, percentage, mean and standard deviation. The suitability of normal distribution of scale scores was analyzed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk test. Relationships between scales were analyzed using Spearman’s rank-correlation coefficient. P values less than 0.05 were considered to be significant. The average age of the caregivers was 50.11±13.46 (mean±SD) years. Of the caregivers, 76.2% were women, 45% were primary school graduates, 89.2% were married, 38.1% were the daughters of their patients. Among these, 52.4% evaluated their income level to be good. Of them, 53.6% had been giving care less than 2 years. The patients’ average age was 77.1±8.0 years. Of the patients, 55.8% were women, 56.3% were illeterate, 70.6% were married, and 97.4% had at least one chronic disease. The mean Zarit Burden Interview score was 35.4±1.5 and the Satisfaction with Life Scale score was 20.6±6.8. A negative relationship was found between the patients’ score average on the ZBI, and on the SWLS (r= -0.438, p=0.000). The present study determined that the caregivers have a moderate caregiver burden and the life satisfaction. And the life satisfaction of caregivers decreased as their caregiver burden increase. In line with the results obtained from the research, it is recommended that to increase the effectiveness of discharge training, to arrange training and counseling programs for caregivers to cope with the problems they experienced, to monitor the caregivers at regular intervals and to provide necessary institutional support.

Keywords: caregiver burden, family caregivers, nurses, satisfaction

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26372 Effective Service Provision and Multi-Agency Working in Service Providers for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities: A Mixed Methods Systematic Review

Authors: Natalie Tyldesley-Marshall, Janette Parr, Anna Brown, Yen-Fu Chen, Amy Grove

Abstract:

It is widely recognised in policy and research that the provision of services for children and young people (CYP) with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) is enhanced when health and social care, and education services collaborate and interact effectively. In the UK, there have been significant changes to policy and provisions which support and improve collaboration. However, professionals responsible for implementing these changes face multiple challenges, including a lack of specific implementation guidance or framework to illustrate how effective multi-agency working could or should work. This systematic review will identify the key components of effective multi-agency working in services for CYP with SEND; and the most effective forms of partnership working in this setting. The review highlights interventions that lead to service improvements; and the conditions in the local area that support and encourage success. A protocol was written and registered with PROSPERO registration: CRD42022352194. Searches were conducted on several health, care, education, and applied social science databases from the year 2012 onwards. Citation chaining has been undertaken, as well as broader grey literature searching to enrich the findings. Qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods studies and systematic reviews were included, assessed independently, and critically appraised or assessed for risk of bias using appropriate tools based on study design. Data were extracted in NVivo software and checked by a more experienced researcher. A convergent segregated approach to synthesis and integration was used in which the quantitative and qualitative data were synthesised independently and then integrated using a joint display integration matrix. Findings demonstrate the key ingredients for effective partnership working for services delivering SEND. Interventions deemed effective are described, and lessons learned across interventions are summarised. Results will be of interest to educators and health and social care professionals that provide services to those with SEND. These will also be used to develop policy recommendations for how UK healthcare, social care, and education services for CYP with SEND aged 0-25 can most effectively collaborate and achieve service improvement. The review will also identify any gaps in the literature to recommend areas for future research. Funding for this review was provided by the Department for Education.

Keywords: collaboration, joint commissioning, service delivery, service improvement

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26371 The Collagen and Glycosaminoglycnas Isolated from Salmo Salar Skin

Authors: Beata Kaczmarek-Szczepańska, Lidia Zasada

Abstract:

Marine collagens such as fish skin, bone, cartilage, and scales, including both marine vertebrates and invertebrates sources, are more bioavailable compared to bovine or porcine collagen and have a higher absorption capability and more rapid bloodstream circulation due to their low molecular weight and small particle size. Fish skin may be used as a source of bioactive compounds. The advantage is that fish skin is a by-product of the food industry. The subject of the study is a lyophilizate consisting of a mixture of compounds from the group of glycosaminoglycans and collagen obtained as a result of processing fish skins. Bioactive compounds may find biomedical use in the production of dressing materials for wounds or in tissue engineering for the production of scaffolds for cells. Collagen and glycosaminoglycans were isolated from Salmo salar skin. The final mixture was obtained by the freeze-drying method. In the obtained lyophilizate, the content of amino acids was studied as well as the presence of polysaccharides. The studies showed the presence of glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline, which are the main amino acids of collagen. The HPLC analysis showed the presence of glucose which is a product of polysaccharides hydrolyzation and then reduction of glucuronic acid. It may be assumed that the lyophilizate contains both collagen and polysaccharide, which is probably hyaluronic acid. Acknowledgment: This work was carried out as a result of research project no. TANGO-V-A/0020/2021 financed by the National Centre for Research and Development.

Keywords: collagen, glycosaminoglycans, bioactive compounds, fish skin

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26370 ‘It Is a Class Thing’: Socio-Economic Factors Sustaining Illicit Trading in New Naira Notes in Ibadan, Nigeria

Authors: Frank C. Amaechi, Adeyinka A. Aderinto, Usman A. Ojedokun, Oludayo Tade

Abstract:

Illicit trading in new naira notes has become a common practice in most communities in Nigeria despite the Central Bank Act’s in 2007 proscription of all forms of naira abuse. This study investigated the socio-economic factors sustaining illicit trading in new naira notes in Ibadan metropolis. The study was exploratory and cross-sectional in design. Neutralization theory was adopted as theoretical framework. Data were generated through the combination of in-depth interview and key informant interview methods. The purposive sampling technique was utilised to select five illicit traders of new naira notes, 32 patrons of the trade and six bank officials. Findings revealed that illicit trading in Nigeria’s national currency is flourishing because of the frequent demand for new naira notes that are not readily available in Nigerian banks. Also, the norm of cash spraying at social events is sustaining the illicit markets for new naira notes in Ibadan metropolis. In addition, a chain of network, comprising three principal actors, is behind the illegal business. A strict enforcement of the law banning cash spraying is advocated as a means of arresting this phenomenon.

Keywords: illicit trading, naira notes, national currency, Nigeria

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26369 Fairness in Recommendations Ranking: From Pairwise Approach to Listwise Approach

Authors: Patik Joslin Kenfack, Polyakov Vladimir Mikhailovich

Abstract:

Machine Learning (ML) systems are trained using human generated data that could be biased by implicitly containing racist, sexist, or discriminating data. ML models learn those biases or even amplify them. Recent research in work on has begun to consider issues of fairness. The concept of fairness is extended to recommendation. A recommender system will be considered fair if it doesn’t under rank items of protected group (gender, race, demographic...). Several metrics for evaluating fairness concerns in recommendation systems have been proposed, which take pairs of items as ‘instances’ in fairness evaluation. It doesn’t take in account the fact that the fairness should be evaluated across a list of items. The paper explores a probabilistic approach that generalize pairwise metric by using a list k (listwise) of items as ‘instances’ in fairness evaluation, parametrized by k. We also explore new regularization method based on this metric to improve fairness ranking during model training.

Keywords: Fairness, Recommender System, Ranking, Listwise Approach

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26368 The Importance of Awareness and Appropriate Management in Inclusive Education in India

Authors: Lusia Ndahafa Nghitotelwa

Abstract:

India is a home to many languages, cultures, traditions, castes and religions. This diversity, when observed in education, appears to be challenging and difficult to manage with respect to including everyone in the educational system. But in order to achieve this, attempts to understand the complexity of the issue and find some solutions for including everyone in education has been made in India since independence, regardless of the students’ background. Despite that, the challenge is still topical. Plenty of students are left out of the system due to the lack of awareness and appropriate management of these diversities. Therefore, the present paper makes an attempt to study the awareness and management of diversity in Indian schools. Existing studies on diversity in Indian schools, along with how measures and which measures have been taken to accommodate and retain everyone in school, have been looked at, and a thorough critical analysis of findings has been narrated. It was found that a lot of efforts have been conjugated to include and educate children of all castes, religions, and linguistic backgrounds. Furthermore, the awareness of inclusive education among teachers and society members is moderate, but teachers lack the necessary skills and knowledge on how to deal with students with special educational needs in regular classes. Also, the management is aware of inclusive education, but the management does not include teachers in decision-making. Moreover, it was found that the poor management of inclusion services and retention of special needs students in Indian schools results in their poor effective integration into the workforce. Finally, the management was found to have stringent admission criteria, which has the effect of hindering some students from entering the educational system. Based on the results of the study, it is clear that the implementation of inclusive education is still a challenge in India. However, there are promising results in tackling the issue. All children should be given an opportunity to learn together with other children in order to broaden their interest and challenge their potential.

Keywords: awareness, management, inclusive education, students

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26367 Problems of Youth Employment in Agricultural Sector of Georgia and Causes of Migration

Authors: E. Kharaishvili, M. Chavleishvili, M. Lobzhanidze, N. Damenia, N. Sagareishvili

Abstract:

The article substantiates that youth employment in Georgia, especially in the agricultural sector, is an acute socio-economic problem. The paper analyzes the indicators of youth employment and unemployment rates by age and gender in the agriculture sector. Research revealed that over the past decade, the unemployment rate in rural areas has decreased; however, the problem of unemployment is more sensitive than in the city in this field. The article established youth unemployment rates in rural areas; it assesses labor and educational migration causes. Based on the survey, there are proposed findings and recommendations of the agricultural sector about improving youth employment, reducing unemployment rate, reaching migration processes optimization.

Keywords: youth employment, the agricultural sector, unemployment rate, youth migration, agricultural education

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26366 Probing Scientific Literature Metadata in Search for Climate Services in African Cities

Authors: Zohra Mhedhbi, Meheret Gaston, Sinda Haoues-Jouve, Julia Hidalgo, Pierre Mazzega

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In the current context of climate change, supporting national and local stakeholders to make climate-smart decisions is necessary but still underdeveloped in many countries. To overcome this problem, the Global Frameworks for Climate Services (GFCS), implemented under the aegis of the United Nations in 2012, has initiated many programs in different countries. The GFCS contributes to the development of Climate Services, an instrument based on the production and transfer of scientific climate knowledge for specific users such as citizens, urban planning actors, or agricultural professionals. As cities concentrate on economic, social and environmental issues that make them more vulnerable to climate change, the New Urban Agenda (NUA), adopted at Habitat III in October 2016, highlights the importance of paying particular attention to disaster risk management, climate and environmental sustainability and urban resilience. In order to support the implementation of the NUA, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has identified the urban dimension as one of its priorities and has proposed a new tool, the Integrated Urban Services (IUS), for more sustainable and resilient cities. In the southern countries, there’s a lack of development of climate services, which can be partially explained by problems related to their economic financing. In addition, it is often difficult to make climate change a priority in urban planning, given the more traditional urban challenges these countries face, such as massive poverty, high population growth, etc. Climate services and Integrated Urban Services, particularly in African cities, are expected to contribute to the sustainable development of cities. These tools will help promoting the acquisition of meteorological and socio-ecological data on their transformations, encouraging coordination between national or local institutions providing various sectoral urban services, and should contribute to the achievement of the objectives defined by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) or the Paris Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals. To assess the state of the art on these various points, the Web of Science metadatabase is queried. With a query combining the keywords "climate*" and "urban*", more than 24,000 articles are identified, source of more than 40,000 distinct keywords (but including synonyms and acronyms) which finely mesh the conceptual field of research. The occurrence of one or more names of the 514 African cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants or countries, reduces this base to a smaller corpus of about 1410 articles (2990 keywords). 41 countries and 136 African cities are cited. The lexicometric analysis of the metadata of the articles and the analysis of the structural indicators (various centralities) of the networks induced by the co-occurrence of expressions related more specifically to climate services show the development potential of these services, identify the gaps which remain to be filled for their implementation and allow to compare the diversity of national and regional situations with regard to these services.

Keywords: African cities, climate change, climate services, integrated urban services, lexicometry, networks, urban planning, web of science

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26365 Statistical Model to Examine the Impact of the Inflation Rate and Real Interest Rate on the Bahrain Economy

Authors: Ghada Abo-Zaid

Abstract:

Introduction: Oil is one of the most income source in Bahrain. Low oil price influence on the economy growth and the investment rate in Bahrain. For example, the economic growth was 3.7% in 2012, and it reduced to 2.9% in 2015. Investment rate was 9.8% in 2012, and it is reduced to be 5.9% and -12.1% in 2014 and 2015, respectively. The inflation rate is increased to the peak point in 2013 with 3.3 %. Objectives: The objectives here are to build statistical models to examine the effect of the interest rate inflation rate on the growth economy in Bahrain from 2000 to 2018. Methods: This study based on 18 years, and the multiple regression model is used for the analysis. All of the missing data are omitted from the analysis. Results: Regression model is used to examine the association between the Growth national product (GNP), the inflation rate, and real interest rate. We found that (i) Increase the real interest rate decrease the GNP. (ii) Increase the inflation rate does not effect on the growth economy in Bahrain since the average of the inflation rate was almost 2%, and this is considered as a low percentage. Conclusion: There is a positive impact of the real interest rate on the GNP in Bahrain. While the inflation rate does not show any negative influence on the GNP as the inflation rate was not large enough to effect negatively on the economy growth rate in Bahrain.

Keywords: growth national product, egypt, regression model, interest rate

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26364 Statistic Regression and Open Data Approach for Identifying Economic Indicators That Influence e-Commerce

Authors: Apollinaire Barme, Simon Tamayo, Arthur Gaudron

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This paper presents a statistical approach to identify explanatory variables linearly related to e-commerce sales. The proposed methodology allows specifying a regression model in order to quantify the relevance between openly available data (economic and demographic) and national e-commerce sales. The proposed methodology consists in collecting data, preselecting input variables, performing regressions for choosing variables and models, testing and validating. The usefulness of the proposed approach is twofold: on the one hand, it allows identifying the variables that influence e- commerce sales with an accessible approach. And on the other hand, it can be used to model future sales from the input variables. Results show that e-commerce is linearly dependent on 11 economic and demographic indicators.

Keywords: e-commerce, statistical modeling, regression, empirical research

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26363 Student Performance and Confidence Analysis on Education Virtual Environments through Different Assessment Strategies

Authors: Rubén Manrique, Delio Balcázar, José Parrado, Sebastián Rodríguez

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Hand in hand with the evolution of technology, education systems have moved to virtual environments to provide increased coverage and facilitate the access to education. However, measuring student performance in virtual environments presents significant challenges to ensure students are acquiring the expected skills. In this study, the confidence and performance of engineering students in virtual environments is analyzed through different evaluation strategies. The effect of the assessment strategy in student confidence is identified using educational data mining techniques. Four assessment strategies were used. First, a conventional multiple choice test; second, a multiple choice test with feedback; third, a multiple choice test with a second chance; and fourth; a multiple choice test with feedback and second chance. Our results show that applying testing with online feedback strategies can influence positively student confidence.

Keywords: assessment strategies, educational data mining, student performance, student confidence

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26362 Digital Dialogue Game, Epistemic Beliefs, Argumentation and Learning

Authors: Omid Noroozi, Martin Mulder

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The motivational potential of educational games is undeniable especially for teaching topics and skills that are difficult to deal with in traditional educational situations such as argumentation competence. Willingness to argue has an association with student epistemic beliefs, which can influence whether, and the way in which students engage in argumentative discourse activities and critical discussion. The goal of this study was to explore how undergraduate students engage with argumentative discourse activities which have been designed to intensify debate, and whether epistemic beliefs are significant to the outcomes. A pre-test, post-test design was used with students who were assigned to groups of four. They were asked to argue a controversial topic with the aim of exploring various perspectives, and the 'pros and cons' on the topic of 'Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)'. The results show that the game facilitated argumentative discourse and a willingness to argue and challenged peers, regardless of students’ epistemic beliefs. Furthermore, the game was evaluated positively in terms of students’ motivation and satisfaction with the learning experience.

Keywords: argumentation, attitudinal change, epistemic beliefs, dialogue, digital game objectives and theoretical

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26361 Evaluation of Dual Polarization Rainfall Estimation Algorithm Applicability in Korea: A Case Study on Biseulsan Radar

Authors: Chulsang Yoo, Gildo Kim

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Dual polarization radar provides comprehensive information about rainfall by measuring multiple parameters. In Korea, for the rainfall estimation, JPOLE and CSU-HIDRO algorithms are generally used. This study evaluated the local applicability of JPOLE and CSU-HIDRO algorithms in Korea by using the observed rainfall data collected on August, 2014 by the Biseulsan dual polarization radar data and KMA AWS. A total of 11,372 pairs of radar-ground rain rate data were classified according to thresholds of synthetic algorithms into suitable and unsuitable data. Then, evaluation criteria were derived by comparing radar rain rate and ground rain rate, respectively, for entire, suitable, unsuitable data. The results are as follows: (1) The radar rain rate equation including KDP, was found better in the rainfall estimation than the other equations for both JPOLE and CSU-HIDRO algorithms. The thresholds were found to be adequately applied for both algorithms including specific differential phase. (2) The radar rain rate equation including horizontal reflectivity and differential reflectivity were found poor compared to the others. The result was not improved even when only the suitable data were applied. Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea, funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2013R1A1A2011012).

Keywords: CSU-HIDRO algorithm, dual polarization radar, JPOLE algorithm, radar rainfall estimation algorithm

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26360 Effect of Ambient Oxygen Content and Lifting Frequency on the Participant’s Lifting Capabilities, Muscle Activities, and Perceived Exertion

Authors: Atef M. Ghaleb, Mohamed Z. Ramadan, Khalid Saad Aljaloud

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The aim of this study is to assesses the lifting capabilities of persons experiencing hypoxia. It also examines the behavior of the physiological response induced through the lifting process related to changing in the hypoxia and lifting frequency variables. For this purpose, the study performed two consecutive tests by using; (1) training and acclimatization; and (2) an actual collection of data. A total of 10 male students from King Saud University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, were recruited in the study. A two-way repeated measures design, with two independent variables (ambient oxygen (15%, 18% and 21%)) and lifting frequency (1 lift/min and 4 lifts/min) and four dependent variables i.e., maximum acceptable weight of lift (MAWL), Electromyography (EMG) of four muscle groups (anterior deltoid, trapezius, biceps brachii, and erector spinae), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and rating of oxygen feeling (ROF) were used in this study. The results show that lifting frequency has significantly impacted the MAWL and muscles’ activities. The oxygen content had a significant effect on the RPE and ROE. The study has revealed that acclimatization and training sessions significantly reduce the effect of the hypoxia on the human physiological parameters during the manual materials handling tasks.

Keywords: lifting capabilities, muscle activities, oxygen content, perceived exertion

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26359 The Passive Recipient – How the Pupil Comes across in Local Swedish Health Policy Documents

Authors: Zofia Hammerin, Goran Basic, Disa Bergnehr

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Ever since the Ottawa charter in 1986, health promotion through schools has been stressed across the globe. Both in the global and national discourse, schools are made responsible not only for providing education but also for working with pupil health and well-being. In Sweden, where the study is set, it is emphasized in national directives that promoting pupil health should be part of the school practice. Since the Swedish school system is decentralized, these directives need to be interpreted and recontextualized locally. This study aims to explore how the student comes across in Swedish local health policy documents. The data consists of 37 such documents called student health plans collected from different high schools throughout Sweden. The analysis was inspired by critical discourse analysis, and tentative results are divided into two main themes; the invisible actor and the passive recipient. The pupil is largely invisible in the documents, and the discourse instead focuses on school health service staff and, to some extent, the teachers. When the pupils are visible, they mainly come across as passive recipients of health promoting actions. Since participation, taking action, and feeling empowered are key aspects of health promotion, the findings could impact the pupils’ possibilities for health and well-being.

Keywords: health promotion, high school, student, sweden

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26358 Philosophy and Value Education for Children in India

Authors: Merina Islam

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In this paper, an attempt is made to draw out the contemporary relevance of philosophy in school education of India. This paper attempt is made to inquire into the importance of philosophy for schoolchildren in the Indian cultural context. As education in philosophy for children is useful for teaching the acquisition of knowledge from the information provided, for questioning of rules in different contexts, and for the analysis of facts encountered in daily life. Ethical attitudes can neither be derived from the information provided about the moral rules, nor do they result from a practice of unquestioning obedience It includes some studies done in this field and also reports on philosophy. Many European countries emphasise on the above said theme. There are lots of work and research done by many philosophers on philosophy for children. Indian values system is different from the West and more important than others. Education has become a tool to achieve efficiency in all walks of human life whether social, political, religious or philosophical. Every nation started developing its own specific set of educational values. For India it is very necessary to increase philosophical thinking study and research. Philosophy could make significant contribution, particularly in relation to children's moral development because the Indian curriculum currently neglects this aim. A teacher can play an important role in promoting this discussion because a teacher has the capacity to influence students with their thoughts and personality and engages them in these activities. Philosophy needs to be included in the curriculum and have demonstrated cognitive and social gains in children who were explored to philosophy in their schooling.

Keywords: education, ethical attitude, moral value, philosophy

Procedia PDF Downloads 286
26357 Analysis of the Demographic Variable Associated with Common Pregnancy Related Illnesses among Pregnant Mothers in Anambra

Authors: Nkiru Nnaemezie, J. O. Okafor

Abstract:

The high mortality as a result of pregnancy related illnesses is a global public health problem and a source of concern to most countries including Nigeria. This study was therefore designed to determine the Demographic Variables associated with common pregnancy related illnesses among pregnant mothers in Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State. The design of the study was an expost-facto research design. All the folders of the pregnant mothers that were studied from 2010-2014 formed the population of the study which included 10,250 folders. Based on the content of the folders, a researcher developed pro-forma (RDP) was used for data collection. Five research questions and five hypotheses were postulated for the study. Research questions postulated were answered using simple percentage. Hypotheses stated were analyzed at 0.05 level of significance using chi-square (X²) statistics. The result among others showed that pregnant mothers within 15-29 years had the most pregnancy related illnesses than mothers on other age brackets. Pregnant mothers with 0-1 parity level experienced the most pregnancy related illnesses than mothers on other parity levels. Public servants experienced the most pregnancy related illnesses than mothers in other occupations. Married pregnant mothers experienced the most pregnancy related illnesses than single mothers. Pregnant mothers with secondary education had the most pregnancy related illnesses than mothers in other education levels. There were significant differences in the common pregnancy related illnesses among the pregnant mothers of the study in relation to the demographic variables of the study which included age, parity, occupation, marital status and educational level. Based on the findings, conclusions were drawn, and the following recommendations among others were made: there is need for health education in terms of educating those pregnant mothers during antenatal clinics; single mothers should be advised to register for antenatal early enough.

Keywords: analysis, demographic variables, pregnancy related illnesses, pregnant mothers

Procedia PDF Downloads 252
26356 Teaching Critical Thinking in Post-Conflict Countries: The University of Liberia

Authors: Kamille Beye

Abstract:

Critical thinking is a topic that has been disputed in the field of education for decades, but many resulting debates have centered around strengthening critical thinking capabilities in the societies, workforces, and educational centers of the global north. In contrast, this paper provides an analysis of the teaching of critical thinking in Liberia, which has been ravaged by years of war and a recent Ebola outbreak. These crises have decimated the Liberian education sector, leading to a loss of teaching capacities that are essential to providing critical thinking education. Until recently, critical thinking had no seat at the table when the future needs of the country were discussed by the government and non-governmental agencies. Now, the University of Liberia has a bold goal to become one of the top twenty universities in West Africa in the next seven years, which has led to a focus on teaching critical thinking skills to improve learning. This paper argues that critical thinking is essential to strengthening not only the Liberian education system, but for promoting peace amongst community members, and yet it suggests that commitments to the teaching of critical thinking in Liberia have hitherto been overly superficial. Based on an initial scoping study, this paper will examine the potential impacts of teaching critical thinking skills to undergraduate students in the William V. S. Tubman School of Education at the University of Liberia on continued peacebuilding and reconstruction efforts of the country. The research contends that if critical thinking skills are taught, practiced and continually utilized, teachers and students will have the ability to engage with information and negotiate challenges to solutions in ways that are beneficial to the communities in which they live. The research will use a variety of methods, that include the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory. This research will demonstrate that critical thinking skills are not only needed for entering the workforce, but necessary for negotiating and expressing the needs and desires of local communities in a peaceful way.

Keywords: critical thinking, higher education, Liberia, peacebuilding, post-conflict

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26355 Developing Open-Air Museum: The Heritage Conservation Effort, Oriented to Geotourism Concept and Education

Authors: Rinaldi Ikhram, R. A. Julia Satriani

Abstract:

The discovery of historical objects in Indonesia, especially in the area around Bandung and Priangan zone in general, have been inventorized and recorded by Dutch geologists during the colonial time. Among artefacts such as axes made of chalcedony and quartzite; arrowheads, knives, shrivel, and drill bit all made from obsidian; grindstones, even bracelet from stones. Ceramic mold for smelting bronze or iron were also found. The abundance of artefacts inspired DR. W. Docters van Leeuwen and his colleagues to initiate the establishment of Sunda Open-air Museum "Soenda Openlucht Museum" in 1917, located in the hills of North Bandung area, the site of pre-historic settlements that needs conservation. Unfortunately, this plan was not implemented because shortly after, World War II occurred. The efforts of heritage conservation is one of our responsibilities as a geologist today. Open-air Museum may be one of the solutions of heritage conservation for historic sites around the world. In this paper, the study of the development of Open-air Museum will be focused on the area of Dago, North Bandung. Method used is data analysis of field surveys, and data analysis of the remaining artefacts stored at both the National Museum in Jakarta, and the Bandung Museum of Geology. The museum is based on Geotourism and further research on pre-historic culture, while its purpose is to give people a common interest and to motivate them to participate in the research and conservation of pre-historic relics. This paper will describe more details about the concept, form, and management of the geopark and the Open-air Museum within.

Keywords: geoparks, heritage conservation, open-air museum, sustainable tourism

Procedia PDF Downloads 342
26354 The Relationships among Learning Emotion, Major Satisfaction, Learning Flow, and Academic Achievement in Medical School Students

Authors: S. J. Yune, S. Y. Lee, S. J. Im, B. S. Kam, S. Y. Baek

Abstract:

This study explored whether academic emotion, major satisfaction, and learning flow are associated with academic achievement in medical school. We know that emotion and affective factors are important factors in students' learning and performance. Emotion has taken the stage in much of contemporary educational psychology literature, no longer relegated to secondary status behind traditionally studied cognitive constructs. Medical school students (n=164) completed academic emotion, major satisfaction, and learning flow online survey. Academic performance was operationalized as students' average grade on two semester exams. For data analysis, correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, hierarchical multiple regression analyses and ANOVA were conducted. The results largely confirmed the hypothesized relations among academic emotion, major satisfaction, learning flow and academic achievement. Positive academic emotion had a correlation with academic achievement (β=.191). Positive emotion had 8.5% explanatory power for academic achievement. Especially, sense of accomplishment had a significant impact on learning performance (β=.265). On the other hand, negative emotion, major satisfaction, and learning flow did not affect academic performance. Also, there were differences in sense of great (F=5.446, p=.001) and interest (F=2.78, p=.043) among positive emotion, boredom (F=3.55, p=.016), anger (F=4.346, p=.006), and petulance (F=3.779, p=.012) among negative emotion by grade. This study suggested that medical students' positive emotion was an important contributor to their academic achievement. At the same time, it is important to consider that some negative emotions can act to increase one’s motivation. Of particular importance is the notion that instructors can and should create learning environment that foster positive emotion for students. In doing so, instructors improve their chances of positively impacting students’ achievement emotions, as well as their subsequent motivation, learning, and performance. This result had an implication for medical educators striving to understand the personal emotional factors that influence learning and performance in medical training.

Keywords: academic achievement, learning emotion, learning flow, major satisfaction

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26353 Epidemiological, Clinical, Histopathological Profile and Management of Breast Cancer at Kinshasa University Clinics

Authors: Eddy K. Mukadi

Abstract:

This work is a documentary and descriptive study devoted to the epidemiological, clinical, histopathological and therapeutic profile of breast cancer deals with the department of gynecology and obstetrics of the university clinics of Kinshasa during the period from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2014. We have identified 56 cases of breast cancer. These cancers accounted for 45.2% of gynecological mammary cancers. The youngest in our series was 18 years old while the oldest was 74 years old; And the mean age of these patients was 43.4 years and mostly multiparous (35.7%). Brides (60.7%) and bachelors (26.8%) were the most affected by breast cancer. The reasons for consultation were dominated by nodules in the breast (48.2%) followed by pain (35.7%) and nipple discharge (14.3%). In 89.2% of the cases, it was the advanced clinical stage (stage 3 and 4) and the infiltrating ductal carcinoma was the most frequent histological type (75%) The malignant tumor was mainly in the left breast (55.3%), and chemotherapy with hormone therapy and patey was the most convenient treatment (42.8%), while patey mastectomy was performed in 12.5% of patients. Because of the high incidence of breast cancer identified in our study, some preventive measures must be taken into account to address this public health problem, including breast autopalpation once a month, Early detection system development of a national breast cancer policy and the implementation of a national breast cancer control program.

Keywords: breast cancer, histopathological profile, epidemiological profile, Kinshasa

Procedia PDF Downloads 210
26352 Generating Music with More Refined Emotions

Authors: Shao-Di Feng, Von-Wun Soo

Abstract:

To generate symbolic music with specific emotions is a challenging task due to symbolic music datasets that have emotion labels are scarce and incomplete. This research aims to generate more refined emotions based on the training datasets that are only labeled with four quadrants in Russel’s 2D emotion model. We focus on the theory of Music Fadernet and map arousal and valence to the low-level attributes, and build a symbolic music generation model by combining transformer and GM-VAE. We adopt an in-attention mechanism for the model and improve it by allowing modulation by conditional information. And we show the music generation model could control the generation of music according to the emotions specified by users in terms of high-level linguistic expression and by manipulating their corresponding low-level musical attributes. Finally, we evaluate the model performance using a pre-trained emotion classifier against a pop piano midi dataset called EMOPIA, and by subjective listening evaluation, we demonstrate that the model could generate music with more refined emotions correctly.

Keywords: music generation, music emotion controlling, deep learning, semi-supervised learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 81
26351 The Use of Biofeedback to Increase Resilience and Mental Health of Supersonic Pilots

Authors: G. Kloudova, S. Kozlova, M. Stehlik

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Pilots are operating in a high-risk environment rich in potential stressors, which negatively affect aviation safety and the mental health of pilots. In the research conducted, the pilots were offered mental training biofeedback therapy. Biofeedback is an objective tool to measure physiological responses to stress. After only six sessions, all of the pilots tested showed significant differences between their initial condition and their condition after therapy. The biggest improvement was found in decreased heart rate (in 83.3% of tested pilots) and respiration rate (66.7%), which are the best indicators of anxiety states and panic attacks. To incorporate all of the variables, we correlated the measured physiological state of the pilots with their personality traits. Surprisingly, we found a high correlation with peripheral temperature and confidence (0.98) and with heart rate and aggressiveness (0.97). A retest made after a one-year interval showed that in majority of the subjects tested their acquired self-regulation ability had been internalized.

Keywords: aviation, biofeedback, mental workload, performance psychology

Procedia PDF Downloads 246
26350 Unveiling Coaching Style of PE Teachers: A Convergent Parallel Approach

Authors: Arazan Jane V., Badiang, Ronesito Jr. R., Clavesillas Cristine Joy H., Belleza Saramie S.

Abstract:

This study examined the coaching style among the PE Teachers in terms of Autonomy, Supportive style, and Controlling Style. On the other hand, gives opportunities to an athlete to be independent, task-oriented, and acknowledge their feelings and perspective of each individual. A controlling coaching style is also portrayed by the rises and falls over an athlete's training development; when this variance is identified, it might harm training. The selection of the respondents of the study will use a random sample of High School PE teachers of the Division of Davao del Norte with a total of 78 High School PE teachers, which can be broken down into 70 High School PE Teachers for Quantitative data for the survey questionnaire and 8 PE Teachers for Qualitative data (IDI). In the quantitative phase, a set of survey questionnaires will be used to gather data from the participants—the extent of the Implementation Questionnaire. The tool will be a researcher-made questionnaire based on the Coaching Styles of selected High School PE teachers of Davao Del Norte. In the qualitative phase, an interview guide questionnaire will be used. Focus group discussions will be conducted to determine themes and patterns or participants' experiences and insights. The researchers conclude that the degree of coaching style among PE Teachers from the Division of Davao del Norte is high, as seen by the findings of this study, and that coaching style among these teachers is highly noticeable.

Keywords: supportive autonomy style, controlling style, live experiences, exemplified

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26349 Towards Overturning the Dismal Mathematics Performance in Schools by Capitalizing on the Overlooked Cognitive Prowess for Adolescents to Learn Mathematics

Authors: Dudu Ka Ruth Mkhize

Abstract:

Adolescents are at the front and centre of poor mathematics performance in schools. Literature has concluded in some countries that there is a permanent and perpetual mathematics crisis in schools of the persistent poor performance in mathematics by teens. There is no shortage of interventions and research to solve this problem. However, none has capitalised on the cognitive prowess of adolescents, which was revealed at the turn of the century by the introduction of neuroimaging technologies such as structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI and fMRI). This research found that brain growth during adolescence results in enhanced cognitive abilities essential for mathematics learning. This paper is based on the four-year case study of rural high school adolescents who had a negative attitude towards mathematics and hence were failing mathematics. But through a ten-day intervention where teaching revolved around invoking their cognitive ability, their attitude and motivation for mathematics changed for the better. The paper concludes that despite educational psychology being part of teacher education as well as education systems, there are numerous overlooked gems of psychological theories which have the potential to enhance academic achievement for youth in schools. A recommendation is made to take cues from positive psychology, whose establishment was a rejection of the dominance of the disease model in psychology. Similarly, the general perspective of poor mathematics performance can take a u-turn towards the cognitive ability acquired by adolescents because of their developmental stage.

Keywords: adolescence, cognitive growth, mathematics performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 64