Search results for: Thai qualifications framework for higher education

Authors: R. L. David, E. C. P. Tan, M. A. Ferenczi

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This study aimed to investigate the effect of a 'one-time' optional Information Literacy (IL) workshop to enhance Year 1 medical students' literature search, writing, and citation management skills as directed by a customized five-year IL framework developed for LKC Medicine students. At the end of the IL workshop, the overall rated 'somewhat difficult' when finding, citing, and using information from sources. The study method is experimental using a standardized IL test to study the cohort effect of a 'one-time' optional IL workshop on Year 1 students; experimental group in comparison to Year 2 students; control group. Test scores from both groups were compared and analyzed using mean scores and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Unexpectedly, there were no statistically significant differences between group means as determined by One-Way ANOVA (F₁,₁₉₃ = 3.37, p = 0.068, ηp² = 0.017). Challenges and shortfalls posed by 'one-time' interventions raised a rich discussion to adopt an 'embedded librarianship' approach, which shifts the medial librarians' role into the curriculum and uses Team Based Learning to teach IL skills to medical students. The customized five-year IL framework developed for LKC Medicine students becomes a useful librarian-faculty model for embedding and bringing IL into the classroom.

Keywords: information literacy, 'one-time' interventions, medical students, standardized tests, embedded librarianship, curriculum, medical librarians

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Authors: Faranak Omidian

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The aim of this research was to examine the quality of education service at master's level in the Islamic Azad University of Dezful. In terms of objective, this is an applied research and in regard to methodology, it is a descriptive analytical research. The statistical population included all students of master's degree in the Islamic Azad University of Dezful. The sample size was determined using stratified random sampling method in different fields of study. The research questionnaire is the translated version of standardized Abdullah's HEdPERF 41-item scale which is based on a 5-point Likert scale. In order to determine the validity, the translated questionnaire was given to the professors of educational sciences. The correlation among all questions has been regarded at a value of 0.644. The results showed that the quality of educational service at master's level in this university, based on chi-square goodness of fit test, was equal to 73.36 and its degree of freedom was 2 at a significant level of 0.001, indicating the low desirability of the services. According to Friedman test, academic responsiveness has been reported to be in a higher status than other dimensions with an average rank of 3.94 while accessibility, with an average rank of 2.15, has been in the lowest status from master's students' viewpoint.

Keywords: educational service quality, master's level, Iranian university

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Authors: Mohamed Bagues, Ikbel Souli, Feiza Boussora, Kamel Nagaz

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In southern Tunisia, two local barley accessions CV. Ardhaoui; 'Bengardeni' and 'Karkeni' were cultivated in the field under deficit drip irrigation with saline water. Three treatments were used: control or full irrigation T0 (100%ETc) and stressed T1 (75%ETc), T2 (50%ETc). Proline and soluble sugars contents increase significantly under drought between accessions compared to control and varies between growth stages. Moreover, the increasing of Ca2+ concentration enhances the absorption of Na+ ion, consequently K+/Na+ decrease significantly between accessions, these results suggest that a high tolerance of Bengardeni accession to drought stress. Therefore, drought tolerance indices (STI, SSI, MP, GMP, YSI and TOL) were used to identify high yielding and drought tolerant between accessions. MP explained the variation of GYi. GMP and STI explained the variation of GYs. The high values of MP, STI and GMP were associated with higher yielding accession. Higher TOL value is associated with significant grain yield reduction in stressed environment suggesting higher stress responses of accessions. Significant positive correlations between MP, STI and GMP and negative between YSI and SSI. MP, STI, GMP and YSI, TOL, SSI are not correlated with each other.

Keywords: drought, proline, soluble sugars, minerals, yield, drought tolerance indices, barley

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Authors: Sophia Anastasiou, Cosmas Nathanailides, Fotini Kakali, Kostas Karipoglou

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Wild fish are considered as testier and in fish restaurants are offered at twice the price of farmed fish. Several chemical and structural differences can affect the consumer's attitudes for farmed fish. The structure and chemical composition of fish muscle is also important for the performance of farmed fish during handling, storage and processing. In the present work we present the chemical and sensory parameters which are used as indicators of fish flesh quality and we investigated the perceptions of consumers for farmed sea bass and the organoleptic differences between samples of wild and farmed sea bass. A questionnaire was distributed to a group of various ages that were regular consumers of sea bass. The questionnaire included a survey on the perceptions on taste and appearance differences between wild and farmed sea bass. A significant percentage (>40%) of the participants stated their perception of superior taste of wild sea bass versus the farmed fish. The participants took part in an organoleptic assessment of wild and farmed sea bass prepared and cooked by a local fish restaurant. Portions were evaluated for intensity of sensorial attributes from 1 (low intensity) to 5 (high intensity). The results indicate that contrary to the assessor's perception, farmed sea bass scored better in al organoleptic parameters assessed with marked superiority in texture and taste over the wild sea bass. This research has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund – ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) - Research Funding Program: ARCHIMEDES III. Investing in knowledge society through the European Social Fund.

Keywords: fish marketing, farmed fish, seafood quality, wild fish

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Authors: Angelina A. Tzacheva, Jaishree Ranganathan

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Interest in (STEM) Science Technology Engineering Mathematics education especially Computer Science education has seen a drastic increase across the country. This fuels effort towards recruiting and admitting a diverse population of students. Thus the changing conditions in terms of the student population, diversity and the expected teaching and learning outcomes give the platform for use of Innovative Teaching models and technologies. It is necessary that these methods adapted should also concentrate on raising quality of such innovations and have positive impact on student learning. Light-Weight Team is an Active Learning Pedagogy, which is considered to be low-stake activity and has very little or no direct impact on student grades. Emotion plays a major role in student’s motivation to learning. In this work we use the student feedback data with emotion classification using surveys at a public research institution in the United States. We use Actionable Pattern Discovery method for this purpose. Actionable patterns are patterns that provide suggestions in the form of rules to help the user achieve better outcomes. The proposed method provides meaningful insight in terms of changes that can be incorporated in the Light-Weight team activities, resources utilized in the course. The results suggest how to enhance student emotions to a more positive state, in particular focuses on the emotions ‘Trust’ and ‘Joy’.

Keywords: actionable pattern discovery, education, emotion, data mining

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Authors: Mohsen Tehranizadeh, Mahboobe Forghani

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The impact of higher modes on the seismic response of dual structural system consist of concrete moment-resisting frame and with RC shear walls is investigated against near-field earthquakes in this paper. a 20 stories reinforced concrete shear wall-special moment frame structure is designed in accordance with ASCE7 requirements and The nonlinear model of the structure was performed on OpenSees platform. Nonlinear time history dynamic analysis with 3 near-field records are performed on them. In order to further understand the structural collapse behavior in the near field, the response of the structure at the moment of collapse especially the formation of plastic hinges is explored. The results revealed that the amplification of moment at top of the wall due to higher modes, the plastic hinge can form in the upper part of wall, even when designed and detailed for plastic hinging at the base only (according to ACI code).on the other hand, shear forces in excess of capacity design values can develop due to the contribution of the higher modes of vibration to dynamic response due to the near field can cause brittle shear or sliding failure modes. The past investigation on shear walls clearly shows the dual-hinge design concept is effective at reducing the effects of the second mode of response. An advantage of the concept is that, when combined with capacity design, it can result in relaxation of special reinforcing detailing in large portions of the wall. In this study, to investigate the implications of multi-design approach, 4 models with varies arrangement of hinge plastics at the base and height of the shear wall are considered. results base on time history analysis showed that the dual or multi plastic hinges approach can be useful in order to control the high moment and shear demand of higher mode effect.

Keywords: higher mode effect, Near-field earthquake, nonlinear time history analysis, multi plastic hinge design

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Authors: Maria Pratt, Lynn Martin

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Context: In nursing education, clinical instructors are crucial in assessing and evaluating students' performance in clinical courses. However, instructors often struggle when assigning failing grades to students at risk of failing. Research Aim: This qualitative study aims to understand clinical instructors' experiences evaluating students with unsatisfactory performance, including how reflection and collegial support impact this evaluation process. Methodology, Data Collection, and Analysis Procedures: This study employs Gadamer's Hermeneutic Inquiry as the research methodology. A purposive maximum variation sampling technique was used to recruit eight clinical instructors from a collaborative undergraduate nursing program in Southwestern Ontario. Semi-structured, open-ended, and audio-taped interviews were conducted with the participants. The hermeneutic analysis was applied to interpret the interview data to allow for a thorough exploration and interpretation of the instructors' experiences evaluating failing students. Findings: The main findings of this qualitative research indicate that evaluating failing students was emotionally draining for the clinical instructors who experienced multiple challenges, uncertainties, and negative feelings associated with assigning failing grades. However, the analysis revealed that ongoing reflection and collegial support played a crucial role in mitigating the challenges they experienced. Conclusion: This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of nursing education by shedding light on clinical instructors' challenges in evaluating failing students. It emphasizes the emotional toll associated with this process and the role that reflection and collegial support play in alleviating those challenges. The findings underscore the need for ongoing professional development and support for instructors in nursing education. By understanding and addressing clinical instructors' experiences, nursing education programs can better equip them to effectively evaluate struggling students and provide the necessary support for their professional growth.

Keywords: clinical instructor, student evaluation, nursing, reflection, support

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Authors: Muhammad Nouman, Salim Gul, Karim Ullah

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Partnership has been understood as the essence of Islamic banking. However, in practice, the non-partnership paradigm dominates the operations of Islamic banks. Islamic banks adopt partnership contracts for the scheme of deposits, especially for term deposit accounts. However, they do not adopt partnership contracts (i.e., Musharakah and Mudarabah) as the main financing scheme. In practice, non-partnership contracts including Murabahah and Ijara are widely used for financing. Many authors have provided different explanations for the less utilization of the partnership contracts as a scheme of financing. However, the typology of constraints remains missing. The extant literature remains scattered, with diverse studies focused on different dimensions of the issue. Therefore, there is no unified understanding of the constraints in the application of the partnership contracts. This paper aims to highlight the major factors hindering the application of partnership contracts, and produce a coherent view by synthesizing different explanations provided in several studies conducted around the globe. The present study employs insights form the extant literature using a systematic review and provides academia, practitioners, and policy makers with a holistic framework to name and make sense of what is making partnership contracts a less attractive option for Islamic banks. A total of 84 relevant publications including 11 books, 14 chapters of edited books, 48 journal articles, 8 conference papers and 3 IMF working papers were selected using a systematic procedure. Analysis of these selected publications followed three steps: i) In the first step of analysis the constraints explicitly appearing in the literature set of 84 articles were extracted, ii) In the second step 27 factors hindering the application of partnership contracts were identified from the constraints extracted in the first step with the overlapping items either eliminated or combined, iii) In the last step the factors identified in the second step were classified into three distinct categories. Our intention was to develop the typology of constraints by connecting the rather abstract concepts into the broader sets of constraints for better conceptualization and policy implications. Our framework highlights that there are mainly three facets of lower preference for partnership contracts of financing. First, there are several factors in the contemporary business settings, prevailing social setting, and the bank’s internal environment that underpin uncertainty in the success of partnership contracts of financing. Second, partnership contracts have lower demand i.e., entrepreneurs prefer to use non-partnership contracts for financing their ventures due to the inherent restraining characteristics of the partnership contracts. Finally, there are certain factors in the regulatory framework that restraint the extensive utilization of partnership contracts of financing by Islamic banks. The present study contributes to the Islamic banking literature in many ways. It provides clarification to the heavily criticized operations of Islamic banks, integrates the scattered literature, and provides a holistic framework for better conceptualization of the key constraints in the application of the partnership contracts and policy implications. Moreover, it demonstrates an application of systematic review in Islamic banking research.

Keywords: Islamic banking, Islamic finance, Mudarabah, Musharakah, partnership, systematic review

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Authors: Qi Peng

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The Chinese sport sector is currently undergoing a dramatic institutional change. A sport system that was heavily dominated by the government is starting to shift towards one that is driven by the market. During the past sixty years, the Chinese Football Association (CFA), although ostensibly a ‘non-governmental organization’, has been in fact operated under the close supervision and control of the government. The double-identity of CFA has taken most of the blame for the poor performance of the Chinese football team, especially the men’s team. In 2015, a policy initiated by the Chinese government introduced a potentially radical change to the institutional structure of CFA by delegating the power of government agency – the General Administration of Sport of China - to the organization (CFA) itself. Against such background, an overarching research question was brought up- will an organization remained institutionalized within the system change in response to the external (policy) jolt? To answer this question, three principal data collection methods were employed: document review, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Document review provides the mapping of the structural and cultural framework in which the CFA functions during the change process. The author have had the chance to interact closely with the organization as participant observer in the organization for a period of time, long enough to collect the data, but never too long to get biased view of the situation. This stage enables the author to gain an in-depth understanding of how CFA managed to restructure the governance and legitimacy. Conducting semi-structured interviews with staff within the CFA and from staff within selected stakeholders of CFA also provided a crucial step to gain an insight into the factors for change as well as the implications of the change. A wide range of interviewees that have been and to be interviewed include: CFA members (senior officials and staff); local football associations members; senior Chinese Super League football club managers; CFA Super League Co., LTD (senior officials and staff); CSL broadcasters; Chinese Olympic Committee members. The preliminary research data shows that the CFA is currently undergoing two levels of change: although the settings of CFA has been gradually restructured (organizational framework), the organizational values and beliefs remain almost the same as the CFA before the reform. This means that the plan of shifting from a governmental agency to an autonomous association is an going process, and that organizational core beliefs and values are more difficult to change than its structural framework. This is due to the inertia of the organizational history and the effect of institutionalization. The change of Chinese Football Association is looked at as a pioneering sport organization in China to undertake the “decoupling” road. It is believed that many other sport organizations, especially sport governing bodies will follow the step of CFA in the near future. Therefore, the experience of CFA change is worthy of studying.

Keywords: Chinese Football Association, Organizational Change, Organizational Culture, Structural Framework

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Authors: Jane-Francis A. Abongdia, Thandiswa Mpiti

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There is an international concern to develop children’s literacy skills. In many parts of the world, the need to become fluent in a second language is essential for gaining meaningful access to education, the labour market and broader social functioning. In spite of these efforts, the problem still continues. The level of English language proficiency is far from satisfactory and these goals are unattainable by others. The issue is more complex in South Africa as learners are immersed in a second language (L2) curriculum. South Africa is a prime example of a country facing the dilemma of how to effectively equip a majority of its population with English as a second language or first additional language (FAL). Given the multilingual nature of South Africa with eleven official languages, and the position and power of English, the study investigates teachers’ and learners’ experiences on isiXhosa and Afrikaans background learners’ writing in English First Additional Language (EFAL). Moreover, possible causes of writing difficulties and teacher’s practices for writing are explored. The theoretical and conceptual framework for the study is provided by studies on constructivist theories and sociocultural theories. In exploring these issues, a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis were adopted. This data is analysed by critical discourse analysis (CDA). The study identified a weak correlation between teachers’ beliefs and their actual teaching practices. Although the teachers believe that writing is as important as listening, speaking, reading, grammar and vocabulary, and that it needs regular practice, the data reveal that they fail to put their beliefs into practice. Moreover, the data revealed that learners were disturbed by their home language because when they do not know a word they would write either the isiXhosa or the Afrikaans equivalent. Code-switching seems to have instilled a sense of “dependence on translations” where some learners would not even try to answer English questions but would wait for the teacher to translate the questions into isiXhosa or Afrikaans before they could attempt to give answers. The findings of the study show a marked improvement in the writing performance of learners who used the process approach in writing. These findings demonstrate the need for assisting teachers to shift away from focusing only on learners’ performance (testing and grading) towards a stronger emphasis on the process of writing. The study concludes that the process approach to writing could enable teachers to focus on the various parts of the writing process which can give more freedom to learners to experiment their language proficiency. It would require that teachers develop a deeper understanding of the process/genre approaches to teaching writing advocated by CAPS. All in all, the study shows that both learners and teachers face numerous challenges relating to writing. This means that more work still needs to be done in this area. The present study argues that teachers teaching EFAL learners should approach writing as a critical and core aspect of learners’ education. Learners should be exposed to intensive writing activities throughout their school years.

Keywords: constructivism, English second language, language of learning and teaching, writing

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Authors: André Melo Franco Lorena De Barros, Elida Geralda Campos

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The bilingual education has just started in Brazils public schools. This paper is a didactic sequence of biology bilingual lessons about biologic control in the Brazilian Savana. This sequence has been applied in the first year of a bilingual education program in the only public English and Portuguese bilingual high school in Brazil. The aim of this work is to develop and apply a didactic sequence capable of developing the scientific literacy through the bilingual education associated with Problem Based Learning. This didactic sequence was applied in a class of 30 students. It was divided in three lessons. In the first lesson the students were divided in groups and received a fiction Letter from a mayor explaining the problem and asking students for help. The organic soy plantation of the mayor’s is been attacked by caterpillars. The students read the text then raised hypothesis of how they could solve the problem. In the second lesson the students searched online to verify if theirs hypothesis were correct and to find answers for the question proposed. In the third lesson the groups got together and discussed about their results and wrote a final essay with the answers for the problem proposed. The tools used to acquire information about the didactic sequence were: researcher’s diary, survey, interview and essay developed by the students. Most of the initial hypothesis couldn’t answer the problem properly. By the second lesson most of the students could answer properly. During the third lesson all the groups figured out suitable answers. The forms of biological control, birds habits and transgenic were deeply studied by the students. This methodology was successful for developing the scientific literacy with most of the students and also concluded that the quality of learning is directly associated with the effort of each student during the process. [ARAÚJO, Denise Lino de. O que é (e como se faz) sequência didática. Entrepalavras, Fortaleza, v. 3, n. 3, p.322-334, jul. 2013.] [FRANCO, Aline Aparecida et al. Preferência alimentar de Anticarsia gemmatalis Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) por cultivares de soja. Científica: Revista de Ciências Agrárias, Jaboticabal, v. 1, n. 42, p.32-38, 29 jan. 2014.] [RIBEIRO, Luis Roberto de Camargo. Aprendizagem baseada em problemas (PBL): Uma experiência no ensino superior. São Carlos: Editora da Universidade Federal de São Carlos Ribeiro, 2008. 151 p.] [TRIVELATO, Sílvia L. Frateschi; TONIDANDEL, Sandra M. Rudella. Ensino Por Investigação: Eixos Organizadores Para Sequências De Ensino De Biologia. Ensaio Pesquisa em Educação em Ciências, Belo Horizonte, v. 17, n. especial, p.97-114, nov. 2015.].

Keywords: Bilingual Education, Environmental Education, Problem Based Learning, Science education

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Authors: Somkiat Korbuakaew, Bongkoch Puttawong

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This research aims to study the level of e-office system competence of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University graded by age, education background, position and work experience. Sample of this research is 291 staff at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. Data were collected by questionnaire. Statistics used in the research are percentage, mean and standard deviation. The result shows that the overall competence of E-office System of the university staff is at average level. When considered in each aspect, it was found that competency level for creating-forwarding-signing documents is high, while competency level for booking meeting rooms, requesting for transportation service, blackboard system, public relations and making appointment and meeting are average.

Keywords: competence, e-office, education background, work experience

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Authors: Robert Caulk

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A generalized framework for adaptive machine learning deployments in algorithmic trading is introduced, tested, and released as open-source code. The presented software aims to test the hypothesis that recent data contains enough information to form a probabilistically favorable short-term price prediction. Further, the framework contains various adaptive machine learning techniques that are geared toward generating profit during strong trends and minimizing losses during trend changes. Results demonstrate that this adaptive machine learning approach is capable of capturing trends and generating profit. The presentation also discusses the importance of defining the parameter space associated with the dynamic training data-set and using the parameter space to identify and remove outliers from prediction data points. Meanwhile, the generalized architecture enables common users to exploit the powerful machinery while focusing on high-level feature engineering and model testing. The presentation also highlights common strengths and weaknesses associated with the presented technique and presents a broad range of well-tested starting points for feature set construction, target setting, and statistical methods for enforcing risk management and maintaining probabilistically favorable entry and exit points. The presentation also describes the end-to-end data processing tools associated with FreqAI, including automatic data fetching, data aggregation, feature engineering, safe and robust data pre-processing, outlier detection, custom machine learning and statistical tools, data post-processing, and adaptive training backtest emulation, and deployment of adaptive training in live environments. Finally, the generalized user interface is also discussed in the presentation. Feature engineering is simplified so that users can seed their feature sets with common indicator libraries (e.g. TA-lib, pandas-ta). The user also feeds data expansion parameters to fill out a large feature set for the model, which can contain as many as 10,000+ features. The presentation describes the various object-oriented programming techniques employed to make FreqAI agnostic to third-party libraries and external data sources. In other words, the back-end is constructed in such a way that users can leverage a broad range of common regression libraries (Catboost, LightGBM, Sklearn, etc) as well as common Neural Network libraries (TensorFlow, PyTorch) without worrying about the logistical complexities associated with data handling and API interactions. The presentation finishes by drawing conclusions about the most important parameters associated with a live deployment of the adaptive learning framework and provides the road map for future development in FreqAI.

Keywords: machine learning, market trend detection, open-source, adaptive learning, parameter space exploration

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Authors: Tanveer Hussain, Khan Muhammad, Amin Ullah, Mi Young Lee, Sung Wook Baik

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The Big Data generated from distributed vision sensors installed on large scale in smart cities create hurdles in its efficient and beneficial exploration for browsing, retrieval, and indexing. This paper presents a three-folded framework for effective video summarization of such data and provide a compact and representative format of Big Video Data. In the first fold, the paper acquires input video data from the installed cameras and collect clues such as type and count of objects and clarity of the view from a chunk of pre-defined number of frames of each view. The decision of representative view selection for a particular interval is based on fuzzy inference system, acquiring a precise and human resembling decision, reinforced by the known clues as a part of the second fold. In the third fold, the paper forwards the selected view frames to the summary generation mechanism that is supported by a saliency-aware convolution neural network (CNN) model. The new trend of fuzzy rules for view selection followed by CNN architecture for saliency computation makes the multi-view video summarization (MVS) framework a suitable candidate for real-world practice in smart cities.

Keywords: big video data analysis, fuzzy logic, multi-view video summarization, saliency detection

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Authors: Jane Furness, Neville Robertson, Judy Hunter, Darrin Hodgetts, Linda Nikora

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Background and significance: This paper describes the first use of community psychology theories to investigate family-focused literacy education programmes, enabling a wide range of wellbeing effects of such programmes to be identified for the first time. Evaluations of family literacy programmes usually focus on the economic advantage of gains in literacy skills. By identifying other effects on aspects of participants’ lives that are important to them, and how they occur, understanding of how such programmes contribute to wellbeing and social justice is augmented. Drawn from community psychology, an ecological systems-based, culturally adaptive framework for personal, relational and collective wellbeing illuminated outcomes of family literacy programmes that enhanced wellbeing and quality of life for adult participants, their families and their communities. All programmes, irrespective of their institutional location, could be similarly scrutinized. Methodology: The study traced the experiences of nineteen adult participants in four family-focused literacy programmes located in geographically and culturally different communities throughout New Zealand. A critical social constructionist paradigm framed this interpretive study. Participants were mainly Māori, Pacific islands, or European New Zealanders. Seventy-nine repeated conversational interviews were conducted over 18 months with the adult participants, programme staff and people who knew the participants well. Twelve participant observations of programme sessions were conducted, and programme documentation was reviewed. Latent theoretical thematic analysis of data drew on broad perspectives of literacy and ecological systems theory, network theory and holistic, integrative theories of wellbeing. Steps taken to co-construct meaning with participants included the repeated conversational interviews and participant checking of interview transcripts and section drafts. The researcher (this paper’s first author) followed methodological guidelines developed by indigenous peoples for non-indigenous researchers. Findings: The study found that the four family literacy programmes, differing in structure, content, aims and foci, nevertheless shared common principles and practices that reflected programme staff’s overarching concern for people’s wellbeing along with their desire to enhance literacy abilities. A human rights and strengths-based based view of people based on respect for diverse culturally based values and practices were evident in staff expression of their values and beliefs and in their practices. This enacted stance influenced the outcomes of programme participation for the adult participants, their families and their communities. Alongside the literacy and learning gains identified, participants experienced positive social and relational events and changes, affirmation and strengthening of their culturally based values, and affirmation and building of positive identity. Systemically, interconnectedness of programme effects with participants’ personal histories and circumstances; the flow on of effects to other aspects of people’s lives and to their families and communities; and the personalised character of the pathways people journeyed towards enhanced wellbeing were identified. Concluding statement: This paper demonstrates the critical contribution of community psychology to a fuller understanding of family-focused educational programme outcomes than has been previously attainable, the meaning of these broader outcomes to people in their lives, and their role in wellbeing and social justice.

Keywords: community psychology, ecological theory, family literacy education, flow on effects, holistic wellbeing

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Authors: Nam Sze Cheng, P. C. Janita Chau

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Background: Eczema is a chronic inflammatory disease with high global prevalence rates in many childhood populations. It is also the most common paediatric skin problem. Although eczema education and proper skin care were effective in controlling eczema symptoms, the lack of both sufficient time for patient consultation and structured eczema education programme hindered the transferability of knowledge to patients and their parents. As a result, these young patients and their families suffer from a significant physical disability and psychological distress, which can substantially impair their quality of life. Objectives: This integrative review is to examine the effects of educational interventions for children with eczema and identify the core elements associated with an effective intervention. Methods: This integrative review targeted all articles published in 10 databases between May 2016 and February 2017 that reported the outcomes of disease interventions of any format for children and adolescents with the clinical diagnosis of eczema who were under 18 years of age. Five randomized controlled trials (RCT) and one systematic review of 10 RCTs were identified for review. All these publications had high methodological quality, except one study of web-based eczema education that was limited by selection bias and poor subject blinding. Findings: This review found that most studies adopted nurse-led or multi-disciplinary parental eczema education programme at the outpatient clinic setting. The format of these programmes included individual lectures, demonstration and group sharing, and the educational materials covered basic eczema knowledge and management as well as methods to interrupt itch-scratch cycle. The main outcome measures of these studies included severity of eczema symptoms, treatment adherence and quality of life of both patients and their families. Nine included studies reported statistically significant improvement in the primary outcome of symptom severity of these eczematous children. On the other hand, all these reviews failed to identify an effective dosage of intervention under these educational programmes that was attributed to the heterogeneity of the interventions. One study that was designed based on the social cognitive theory to guide the interventional content yielded statistically significant results. The systematic review recommended the importance of measuring parental self-efficacy. Implication: This integrative review concludes that structured educational programme can help nurses understand the theories behind different health interventions. They can then deliver eczema education to their patients in a consistent manner. These interventions also result in behavioral changes through patient education. Due to the lack of validated educational programmes in Chinese, it is imperative to conduct an RCT of eczema educational programme to investigate its effects on eczema severity, quality of life and treatment adherence in Hong Kong children as well as to promote the importance of parental self-efficacy.

Keywords: children, eczema, education, intervention

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Authors: Salinthip Thipayang, Achara Chandrachai, Rath Pichyangkura, Sukree Sinthupinyo

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Most of the well-known frameworks and tools to measure and compare organisational innovation of the public or government agencies have been designed and used in the developed economies such as the EU, Nordic Region, Australia, and South Korea. This project is one of the very first attempts to develop a measurement tool to adequately measure the organisational (administrative) innovation of the government agencies in the developing economies in ASEAN. New measurement framework with the components including the intra and international collaborations of these government agencies to other private, public and academic sectors were added to the proposed measurement framework. Questionnaires and in-depth interviews with the experts and the middle to top executives of the participating public agencies in the ASEAN member states were conducted to determine the suitability and develop the indicators that should be included in the measurement model. The results showed that intra and international collaborations of these government organisations to other agencies in the public, private and academic sectors can lead to new changes and greatly impact the ways in which these government agencies in the ASEAN STI ecosystem are operated and administered. Government organisations in less developing countries in ASEAN are ready and willing to learn from their counterparts in other more advanced countries and adjust their internal management to be more innovative and to better handle international collaborative projects and commitments.

Keywords: organisational innovation, administrative innovation, government agencies, public agencies, ASEAN science technology and innovation ecosystem, international collaborations

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Authors: Fatimah AlSaiari

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In recent years, newspapers in the United Kingdom have been no longer just a means of sharing news about what happens in the world; they are also used to influence target readers by having them become more up-to-date, well-informed, entertained, exasperated, delighted, and infuriated. To achieve these objectives and maintain influence on public opinion, journalists use a particular language in which they can convey emotions and opinions, organize their discourse, and establish solidarity with their audience. This type of language has been widely analyzed under different labels, such as evaluation, appraisal, and stance. There is a considerable amount of linguistic and non-linguistic research devoted to analyzing this type of interpersonal language in journalistic discourse, and most of these studies were carried out to challenge the traditional assumptions of the objectivity and impartiality of news reporting. However, very little research has been undertaken on evaluative language in newspaper institutional editorials, and there is hardly any systematic or exhaustive analysis of this type of language in British tabloid and broadsheet newspapers. This study will attempt to provide new insights into the nature of authorial and non-authorial evaluation in leading articles in popular and quality British newspapers, along with their targets, sources, and discourse functions. The study will also attempt to develop a framework of evaluation that can be applied to evaluative lexical items in newspaper opinion texts. The framework is both theory-driven (i.e., it builds on and modifies previous frameworks of evaluation such as appraisal theory and parameter-based approach) and data-driven (i.e., it elicits the evaluative categories from the analysis of the corpus, which helps in the development of the current framework). To achieve this aim, a corpus of 140 leading articles were selected. The findings revealed that the tabloids tended to express their stance through explicitness, dramatization, frequent reference to social actors’ emotions and beliefs, and exaggeration in negativity, while the broadsheets preferred to express their stance through mitigation ambiguity and implicitness. conceptual themes and propositions were more preferable targets for expressing stance in the broadsheets while human behavior and characters were preferable targets for the tabloids.

Keywords: appraisal theory, evaluative language, British newspapers, broadsheets & tabloids, evaluative adjectives

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Authors: Elif Aksel, Çagrı Imamoglu

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This ongoing study aims to investigate the effects of neighborhood location on place attachment and residential satisfaction. Place attachment will be examined by comparing place of residence in different areas of the city. Furthermore, the relationship between neighborhood and residential satisfaction will be investigated in terms of physical and social aspects of the places influencing residential satisfaction. This study will be carried out in two different districts of Ankara which are Çankaya, located in the city center, and Sincan, a suburb. Two-hundred adult respondents will participate in this research; 100 men and 100 women aged between 18-65 years with different socio-economic status using snowball sampling. A place attachment scale and a questionnaire related with residential satisfaction, including open-ended questions and 7-point Likert type scale, will be used as instruments. Apart from these, demographic information of the participants such as gender, age, education, the length of residence will be collected. The findings of the study are expected to demonstrate that neighborhood is seen to be influential on place attachment by affecting the intensity of attachment. The level of place attachment is expected to be greater in areas far from the city compared to areas in the center of the city. Apart from this, the neighborhood is also effective in residential satisfaction. The residents living in these neighborhoods having strong physical and social opportunities will be expected to have higher residential satisfaction.

Keywords: neighborhood, neighborhood satisfaction, place attachment, residential satisfaction

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Authors: R. Setino, I. M. Ambe, J. A Badenhorst-Weiss

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The South African government supply chain management system is not adequately implemented in State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). There are weaknesses in the SOEs SCM enablers, strategies and policies. In addition, top management of SOEs still do not see SCM as strategic enough to deserve their attention, and therefore, there is very little support from top management, thus making it even difficult for SCM practitioners to execute their day to day functions, let alone delivering the letter and spirit of the relevant legislations. Supply chain strategies lack buy in from the top, and as a result senior SCM practitioners has not been involved in the corporate strategy. This has resulted in supply chain and corporate strategies being misaligned. Due to service delivery backlog, high level of corruption and continuous strikes across the country for better services it is inevitable that government leaders be more strategic about how South Africa can use SCM as a tool to improve service delivery. Consequently, there is a need to close the gap between the strategic level dealt by top management and the application of operational SCM concepts: the use of SCM concepts and, therefore, supply chain strategies – should be aligned with the corporate and business strategies in order to ensure the achievement of top level business objectives. This paper aims to explore supply chain practices in State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). The paper based on a conceptual review provides the status, trends and development and suggests a framework for aligning supply chain strategies and organizational strategies in an SOE environment.

Keywords: alignment, strategies, state owned enterprises, supply chain management, South Africa

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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 toward learning and the educational environment of the student community. Social Media platforms have become a source of collaboration with one another throughout the globe, making it a small world. This study performs a focalized investigation of the adverse and constructive factors that have a strong impact not only on psychological adjustments but also on the academic performance of peers. This study is quantitative research adopting a random sampling method in which the participants were the students at the university. The researcher distributed 1000 questionnaires among the university students from different departments and asked them to fill in the data on the Lickert Scale. The participants are from the age group of 18-24 years. The study applies user and gratification theory in order to examine the behavior of students practicing social media in their academic and personal lives. The findings of the study reveal that the use of social media platforms in the 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 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 impacts, negative impacts, sustainable education, learning behaviour

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Authors: Klio Monokrousou, Maria Giannopoulou

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Urban areas, as they have been developed and operate today, are areas of accumulation of a significant amount of people and a large number of activities that generate desires and reasons for traveling. The territorial expansion of the cities as well as the need to preserve the importance of the central city areas lead to the continuous increase of transportation needs which in the limited urban space results in creating serious traffic and operational problems. The modern perception of urban planning is directed towards more holistic approaches and integrated policies that make it economically competitive, socially just and more environmentally friendly. Over the last 25 years, the goal of sustainable transport development has been central to the agenda of any plan or policy for the city. The modern planning of urban space takes into account the economic and social aspects of the city and the importance of the environment to sustainable urban development. In this context, the European Union promotes direct or indirect related interventions according to the cohesion and environmental policies; many countries even had the chance to actually test them. This paper is part of a wider research still in progress and it explores the methods and processes that have been developed towards this direction and presents a review and systematic presentation of this work. The ultimate purpose of this research is to effectively use this review to create a decision making methodological framework which can be the basis of a useful operational tool for sustainable urban planning.

Keywords: methods, sustainable urban development, urban mobility, methodological framework

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Authors: Meruyert Serik, Nassipzhan Duisegaliyeva, Danara Tleumagambetova, Madina Ermaganbetova

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This research paper explores the process of creating a proctoring system by evaluating the implementation of practical face recognition algorithms. Students of educational programs reviewed the research work "6B01511-Computer Science", "7M01511-Computer Science", "7M01525- STEM Education," and "8D01511-Computer Science" of Eurasian National University named after L.N. Gumilyov. As an outcome, a proctoring system will be created, enabling the conduction of tests and ensuring academic integrity checks within the system. Due to the correct operation of the system, test works are carried out. The result of the creation of the proctoring system will be the basis for the automation of the informational, educational portal developed by machine learning.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, education portal, face recognition, machine learning, proctoring

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Authors: Smita Singh

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The paper develops a critical framework to the hegemonic discourses resorted to by the dominant powers in the global security architecture. Within this framework, security is viewed as a discourse through which identities and threats are represented and produced to legitimize the security concerns of few at the cost of others. International security have long been driven and dominated by power relations. Since the end of the Cold War, the global transformations have triggered contestations to the idea of security at both theoretical and practical level. These widening and deepening of the concept of security have challenged the existing power hierarchies at the theoretical level but not altered the substance and actors defining it. When discourses are introduced into security studies, several critical questions erupt: how has power shaped security policies of the globe through language? How does one understand the meanings and impact of those discourses? Who decides the agenda, rules, players and outliers of the security? Language as a symbolic system and form of power is fluid and not fixed. Over the years the dominant Western powers, led by the United States of America have employed various discursive practices such as humanitarian intervention, responsibility to protect, non proliferation, human rights, war on terror and so on to reorient the constitution of identities and interests and hence the policies that need to be adopted for its actualization. These power relations are illustrated in this paper through the narratives used in the nonproliferation regime. The hierarchical security dynamics is a manifestation of the global power relations driven by many factors including discourses.

Keywords: hegemonic discourse, global security, non-proliferation regime, power politics

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Authors: Raza Ullah, Hazir Ullah

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There is ample evidence that reveals the outstanding performance of girls in a different range of subjects. However, it is pertinent to mention here that boys have historically dominated girls, particularly in math, physics, and technological subjects across the globe with the exception of few developed countries. This article examines the reasons why girls are underdog in STEM subjects. The article critically analyzes two main approaches towards gender and education: biological determinist and feminist. This article highlights that social factors influencing girls performance in STEM subjects have not analyzed critically, and girls underachieving in science has linked with biological and sex differences. The article concludes that the underperformance of girls in a STEM subject is the direct response of socio-cultural factors. Thus, socio-cultural factors are responsible for the dearth of girls in STEM subjects.

Keywords: gender, underperformance, STEM, education, sex

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Authors: Ang Ling Weay, Mona Masood

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This paper discusses the potential benefits of an interactive multimedia information representation in enhancing students’ critical thinking aligned with history reasoning in learning history between Secondary School students in Malaysia. Two modes of multimedia information representation implemented which are chronological and thematic information representation. A qualitative study of an unstructured interview was conducted among two history teachers, one history education lecturer, two i-think expert and program trainers and five form 4 secondary school students. The interview was to elicit their opinions on the implementation of thinking maps and interactive multimedia information representation in history learning. The key elements of interactive multimedia (e.g. multiple media, user control, interactivity, and use of timelines and concept maps) were then considered to improve the learning process. Findings of the preliminary investigation reveal that the interactive multimedia information representations have the potential benefits to be implemented as instructional resource in enhancing students’ higher order thinking skills (HOTs). This paper concludes by giving suggestions for future work.

Keywords: multimedia information representation, critical thinking, history reasoning, chronological and thematic information representation

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Authors: Tayyaba Bibi, Jenny Ronan, Robert Hernan, Kathleen O’Rourke, Brendan McHugh, Evin McGovern, Michelle Giltrap, Gordon Chambers, James Wilson

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Sediment contamination is a major source of ecosystem stress and has received significant attention from the scientific community. Both the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) require a robust set of tools for biological and chemical monitoring. For the MSFD in particular, causal links between contaminant and effects need to be assessed. Appropriate assessment tools are required in order to make an accurate evaluation. In this study, a range of recommended sediment bioassays and chemical measurements are assessed in a number of potentially impacted and lowly impacted locations around Ireland. Previously, assessment indices have been developed on individual compartments, i.e. contaminant levels or biomarker/bioassay responses. A number of assessment indices are applied to chemical and ecotoxicological data from the Seachange project (Project code) and compared including the metal pollution index (MPI), pollution load index (PLI) and Chapman index for chemistry as well as integrated biomarker response (IBR). The benefits and drawbacks of the use of indices and aggregation techniques are discussed. In addition to this, modelling of raw data is investigated to analyse links between contaminant and effects.

Keywords: bioassays, contamination indices, ecotoxicity, marine environment, sediments

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Authors: Leonardo Ko

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In an era marked by rapid technological innovation, the classical instrument industry nonetheless has not seen significant change. Is this a matter of stubborn traditionalism, or do old, conventional instruments really sound better? Because of the widespread use of 3-D printing, it seems feasible to produce modern, 3-D printed instruments that adhere to the basic conventions of standard construction. This study aimed to design and create a practical, effective 3-D printed acoustic violin. A cost-benefit analysis of materials and design is presented in addition to a report on sound tests in which a pool of professional musicians compared the traditional violin to its synthetic counterpart with regard to acoustic properties. With a low-cost yet functional instrument, musicians of all levels would be able to afford instruments with much greater ease; the present study thus hopes to contribute to efforts to increase the accessibility of classical music education.

Keywords: acoustic musical instrument, classical musical education, low-cost, 3-D printing

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Authors: Amir Wahid, Fazal Hadi, Amin Ullah Jan

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Tomato and Cauliflower seedlings were grown in-vitro under salt concentrations (0, 2, 4, 8, and 10 dSm-1) with objectives to investigate; (1) The effect of salinity on seedling growth and free proline production, (2) the correlation between seedling growth and proline contents, (3) comparative salt tolerance of both species. Different concentrations of salt showed considerable effect on percent (%) germination of seeds, length and biomass of shoot and root and also showed effect on percent water content of both plants seedlings. Germination rate in cauliflower was two times higher than tomato even at highest salt concentration (10 dSm-1). Seedling growth of both species was less effected at low salt concentrations (2 and 4 dSm-1) but at high concentrations (6 and 8 dSm-1) the seedling growth of both species was significantly decreased. Particularly the tomato root was highly significantly reduced. The proline level linearly increased in both species with increasing salt concentrations up-to 4 dSm-1 and then declined. The cauliflower showed higher free proline level than tomato under all salt treatments. Overall, the cauliflower seedlings showed better growth response along with higher proline contents on comparison with tomato seedlings.

Keywords: NaCl (Sodium Chloride), EC (Electrical Conductivity), MS (Murashig and Skoog), ANOVA (Analysis of Variance), LSD (Least Significant Differences)

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Authors: Laith F. Gulli, Nicole M. Mallory

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The undertaking to develop a psychometric instrument is monumental. Understanding the relationship between variables and events is important in structural and exploratory design of psychometric instruments. Considering this, we describe a method used to group, pair and combine multiple Philosophical Assumption statements that assisted in development of a 13 item psychometric screening instrument. We abbreviated our Philosophical Assumptions (PA)s and added parameters, which were then condensed and mathematically modeled in a specific process. This model produced clusters of combinatorics which was utilized in design and development for 1) information retrieval and categorization 2) item development and 3) estimation of interactions among variables and likelihood of events. The psychometric screening instrument measured Knowledge, Assessment (education) and Beliefs (KAB) of New Addictions Research (NAR), which we called KABNAR. We obtained an overall internal consistency for the seven Likert belief items as measured by Cronbach’s α of .81 in the final study of 40 Clinicians, calculated by SPSS 14.0.1 for Windows. We constructed the instrument to begin with demographic items (degree/addictions certifications) for identification of target populations that practiced within Outpatient Substance Abuse Counseling (OSAC) settings. We then devised education items, beliefs items (seven items) and a modifiable “barrier from learning” item that consisted of six “choose any” choices. We also conceptualized a close relationship between identifying various degrees and certifications held by Outpatient Substance Abuse Therapists (OSAT) (the demographics domain) and all aspects of their education related to EB-NAR (past and present education and desired future training). We placed a descriptive (PA)1tx in both demographic and education domains to trace relationships of therapist education within these two domains. The two perceptions domains B1/b1 and B2/b2 represented different but interrelated perceptions from the therapist perspective. The belief items measured therapist perceptions concerning EB-NAR and therapist perceptions using EB-NAR during the beginning of outpatient addictions counseling. The (PA)s were written in simple words and descriptively accurate and concise. We then devised a list of parameters and appropriately matched them to each PA and devised descriptive parametric (PA)s in a domain categorized information grid. Descriptive parametric (PA)s were reduced to simple mathematical symbols. This made it easy to utilize parametric (PA)s into algorithms, combinatorics and clusters to develop larger information grids. By using matching combinatorics we took paired demographic and education domains with a subscript of 1 and matched them to the column with each B domain with subscript 1. Our algorithmic matching formed larger information grids with organized clusters in columns and rows. We repeated the process using different demographic, education and belief domains and devised multiple information grids with different parametric clusters and geometric arrays. We found benefit combining clusters by different geometric arrays, which enabled us to trace parametric variables and concepts. We were able to understand potential differences between dependent and independent variables and trace relationships of maximum likelihoods.

Keywords: psychometric, parametric, domains, grids, therapists

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