Search results for: mobile apps for education

Authors: Karolina Wieczorek, Zofia Przypaśniak

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Climate change is a rapidly growing threat to global health, and part of the responsibility to combat it lies within the healthcare sector itself, including adequate education of future medical professionals. To mitigate the consequences, the General Medical Council (GMC) has equipped medical schools with a list of outcomes regarding sustainability teaching. Students are expected to analyze the impact of the healthcare sector’s emissions on climate change. The delivery of the related teaching content is, however, often inadequate and insufficient time is devoted for exploration of the topics. Teaching curricula lack in-depth exploration of the learning objectives. This study aims to assess the extent and characteristics of climate change and sustainability subjects teaching in the curriculum of a chosen UK medical school (Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry). It compares the data to the national average scores from the Climate Change and Sustainability Teaching (C.A.S.T.) in Medical Education Audit to draw conclusions about teaching on a regional level. This is a single-center audit of the timetabled sessions of teaching in the medical course. The study looked at the academic year 2020/2021 which included a review of all non-elective, core curriculum teaching materials including tutorials, lectures, written resources, and assignments in all five years of the undergraduate and graduate degrees, focusing only on mandatory teaching attended by all students (excluding elective modules). The topics covered were crosschecked with GMC Outcomes for graduates: “Educating for Sustainable Healthcare – Priority Learning Outcomes” as gold standard to look for coverage of the outcomes and gaps in teaching. Quantitative data was collected in form of time allocated for teaching as proxy of time spent per individual outcomes. The data was collected independently by two students (KW and ZP) who have received prior training and assessed two separate data sets to increase interrater reliability. In terms of coverage of learning outcomes, 12 out of 13 were taught (with the national average being 9.7). The school ranked sixth in the UK for time spent per topic and second in terms of overall coverage, meaning the school has a broad range of topics taught with some being explored in more detail than others. For the first outcome 4 out of 4 objectives covered (average 3.5) with 47 minutes spent per outcome (average 84 min), for the second objective 5 out of 5 covered (average 3.5) with 46 minutes spent (average 20), for the third 3 out of 4 (average 2.5) with 10 mins pent (average 19 min). A disproportionately large amount of time is spent delivering teaching regarding air pollution (respiratory illnesses), which resulted in the topic of sustainability in other specialties being excluded from teaching (musculoskeletal, ophthalmology, pediatrics, renal). Conclusions: Currently, there is no coherent strategy on national teaching of climate change topics and as a result an unstandardized amount of time spent on teaching and coverage of objectives can be observed.

Keywords: audit, climate change, sustainability, education

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Authors: Suraj Nair, Aravindkumar Vijayalingam, Alexander Perzylo, Alois Knoll

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In the last decade robotics research and development activities have grown rapidly, especially in the domain of service robotics. Integrating service robots into human occupied spaces such as homes, offices, hospitals, etc. has become increasingly worked upon. The primary motive is to ease daily lives of humans by taking over some of the household/office chores. However, several challenges remain in systematically integrating such systems in human shared work-spaces. In addition to sensing and indoor-navigation challenges, programmability of such systems is a major hurdle due to the fact that the potential user cannot be expected to have knowledge in robotics or similar mechatronic systems. In this paper, we propose a cognitive system for service robotics which allows non-expert users to easily model system behaviour in an underspecified manner through abstract tasks and objects associated with them. The system uses domain knowledge expressed in the form of an ontology along with logical reasoning mechanisms to infer all the missing pieces of information required for executing the tasks. Furthermore, the system is also capable of recovering from failed tasks arising due to on-line disturbances by using the knowledge base and inferring alternate methods to execute the same tasks. The system is demonstrated through a coffee fetching scenario in an office environment using a mobile robot equipped with sensors and software capabilities for autonomous navigation and human-interaction through natural language.

Keywords: cognitive robotics, reasoning, service robotics, task based systems

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Authors: Mafawez Alharbi, Mahdi Jemmali

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E-learning is a developing area especially in education. E-learning can provide several benefits to learners. An intelligent system to collect all components satisfying user preferences is so important. This research presents an approach that it capable to personalize e-information and give the user their needs following their preferences. This proposal can make some knowledge after more evaluations made by the user. In addition, it can learn from the habit from the user. Finally, we show a walk-through to prove how intelligent process work.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, architecture, e-learning, software engineering, processing

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Authors: Chien-Hung Liu, Yu-Fen Chen

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This study used triangular laser probe and three-axial direction mobile platform for surface measurement, programmed it and applied it to real-time analytic statistics of different measured data. This structure was used to design a system integration program: using triangular laser probe for scattering or reflection non-contact measurement, transferring the captured signals to the computer through RS-232, and using RS-485 to control the three-axis platform for a wide range of measurement. The data captured by the laser probe are formed into a 3D surface. This study constructed an optical measurement application program in the concept of visual programming language. First, the signals are transmitted to the computer through RS-232/RS-485, and then the signals are stored and recorded in graphic interface timely. This programming concept analyzes various messages, and makes proper presentation graphs and data processing to provide the users with friendly graphic interfaces and data processing state monitoring, and identifies whether the present data are normal in graphic concept. The major functions of the measurement system developed by this study are thickness measurement, SPC, surface smoothness analysis, and analytical calculation of trend line. A result report can be made and printed promptly. This study measured different heights and surfaces successfully, performed on-line data analysis and processing effectively, and developed a man-machine interface for users to operate.

Keywords: laser probe, non-contact measurement, triangulation measurement principle, statistical process control, labVIEW

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Authors: Jianghao Hu, Hongyu Wang

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The effective and efficient human pose estimation algorithm is an important task for real-time human pose estimation on mobile devices. This paper proposes a light-weight human key points detection algorithm, Light-Weight Network for Real-Time Pose Estimation (LWPE). LWPE uses light-weight backbone network and depthwise separable convolutions to reduce parameters and lower latency. LWPE uses the feature pyramid network (FPN) to fuse the high-resolution, semantically weak features with the low-resolution, semantically strong features. In the meantime, with multi-scale prediction, the predicted result by the low-resolution feature map is stacked to the adjacent higher-resolution feature map to intermediately monitor the network and continuously refine the results. At the last step, the key point coordinates predicted in the highest-resolution are used as the final output of the network. For the key-points that are difficult to predict, LWPE adopts the online hard key points mining strategy to focus on the key points that hard predicting. The proposed algorithm achieves excellent performance in the single-person dataset selected in the AI (artificial intelligence) challenge dataset. The algorithm maintains high-precision performance even though the model only contains 3.9M parameters, and it can run at 225 frames per second (FPS) on the generic graphics processing unit (GPU).

Keywords: depthwise separable convolutions, feature pyramid network, human pose estimation, light-weight backbone

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Authors: D. S. Mohale, A. P. Dewani, A. S.tripathi, A. V. Chandewar

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Present work demonstrates the applicability of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with UV-Vis detection for the quantification of malondialdehyde as malondialdehyde-thiobarbituric acid complex (MDA-TBA) in-vivo in rats. The HPLC method for MDA-TBA was achieved by isocratic mode on a reverse-phase C18 column (250mm×4.6mm) at a flow rate of 1.0mLmin−1 followed by detection at 532 nm. The chromatographic conditions were optimized by varying the concentration and pH of water followed by changes in percentage of organic phase optimal mobile phase consisted of mixture of water (0.2% triethylamine pH adjusted to 2.3 by ortho-phosphoric acid) and acetonitrile in ratio (80:20v/v). The retention time of MDA-TBA complex was 3.7 min. The developed method was sensitive as limit of detection and quantification (LOD and LOQ) for MDA-TBA complex were (standard deviation and slope of calibration curve) 110 ng/ml and 363 ng/ml respectively. Calibration studies were done by spiking MDA into rat plasma at concentrations ranging from 500 to 1000 ng/ml. The precision of developed method measured in terms of relative standard deviations for intra-day and inter-day studies was 1.6–5.0% and 1.9–3.6% respectively. The HPLC method was applied for monitoring MDA levels in rats subjected to chronic treatment of levofloxacin (LEV) (5mg/kg/day) for 21 days. Results were compared by findings in control group rats. Mean peak areas of both study groups was subjected for statistical treatment to unpaired student t-test to find p-values. The p value was <0.001 indicating significant results and suggesting increased MDA levels in rats subjected to chronic treatment of LEV of 21 days.

Keywords: malondialdehyde-thiobarbituric acid complex, levofloxacin, HPLC, oxidative stress

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Authors: Parul Grover, K. A. Suri, Raj Kumar, Gulshan Bansal

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Background: Nyctanthes arbortristis Linn is traditionally used as anticancer herb in Indian system of medicine, but its introduction into modern system of medicine is still awaited due to lack of systematic scientific studies. Objective: The objective of the present study was to isolate and characterize anticancer phytoconstituents from N. arbortristis L. leaves based on bioactivity guided fractionation. Method: Different extracts of the leaves of the plant were prepared by Soxhlet extractor. Each extract was evaluated for anticancer activity against HL-60 cell lines. Chloroform and HA extract showed potent anticancer activity and hence were selected for fractionation. Fraction C1 from chloroform extract was found to be most potent amongst all when tested against three cell lines (HL-60, A-549, and HCT-116) and thus was selected for further fractionation and a pure compound CP-01 was isolated. RP-HPLC method has been developed for quantification of isolated compound by using Kinetex C-18 column with gradient elution at 0.7 mL/min using mobile phase containing potassium dihydrogen phosphate (0.01 M, pH 3.0) with acetonitrile. The wavelength of maximum absorption (λₘₐₓ) selected was 210 nm. Results: The structure of potent anticancer CP-01 was determined on the basis spectroscopic methods like IR, 1H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR and Mass Spectrometry and it was characterized as 1,1,2-tris(2’,4’-di-tert-butylbenzene)-4,4-dimethyl-pent-1-ene. The content of CP-01 was found to be 0.88 %w/w of chloroform extract and 0.08 %w/w of N.arbortristis leaves. Conclusion: The study supports the traditional use of N. arbortristis as anticancer herb & the identified compound CP-01 can serve as an excellent lead to develop potent and safe anticancer drugs.

Keywords: anticancer, HL-60 cell lines, Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, RP-HPLC

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Authors: Vassilis Argyropoulos, Magda Nikolaraizi, Maria Papazafiri

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This study describes a series of learning workshops, which took place within CUIDAR project. The workshops aimed to empower children to share their experiences and views in relation to natural hazards and disasters. The participants in the workshops were ten primary school students who had severe visual impairments or multiple disabilities and visual impairments (MDVI). The main objectives of the workshops were: a) to promote access of the children through the use of appropriate educational material such as texts in braille, enlarged text, tactile maps and the implementation of differentiated instruction, b) to make children aware regarding their rights to have access to information and to participate in planning and decision-making especially in relation to disaster education programs, and c) to encourage children to have an active role during the workshops through child-led and experiential learning activities. The children expressed their views regarding the meaning of hazards and disasters. Following, they discussed their experiences and emotions regarding natural hazards and disasters, and they chose to place the emphasis on a hazard, which was more pertinent to them, their community and their region, namely fires. Therefore, they recalled fires that have caused major disasters, and they discussed about the impact that these fires had on their community or on their country. Furthermore, they were encouraged to become aware regarding their own role and responsibility to prevent a fire or get prepared and know how to behave if a fire occurs. They realized that prevention and preparation are a matter of personal responsibility. They also felt the responsibility to inform their own families. Finally, they met important people involved in fire protection such as rescuers and firefighters and had the opportunity to carry dialogues. In conclusion, through child led workshops, experiential and accessible activities, the students had the opportunity to share their own experiences, to express their views and their questions, to broaden their knowledge and to realize their personal responsibility in disaster risk reduction, specifically in relation to fires.

Keywords: accessibility, children, disasters, visual impairment

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Authors: Moen Torill, Rismark Marit, Astrid M. Solvberg

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In Norway, every municipality shall provide an educational psychological service, EPS, to support kindergartens and schools in their work with children and youths with special needs. The EPS focus its work on individuals, aiming to identify special needs and to give advice to teachers and parents when they ask for it. In addition, the service also give priority to prevention and system intervention in kindergartens and schools. To master these big tasks university courses are established to support EPS counsellors' continuous learning. There is, however, a need for more in-depth and systematic knowledge on how they experience the courses they attend. In this study, EPS counsellors’ reflection logs during a particular course are investigated. The research question is: what are the content and priorities of the reflections that are communicated in the logs produced by the educational psychological counsellors during a post-graduate course? The investigated course is a credit course organized over a one-year period in two one-semester modules. The altogether 55 students enrolled in the course work as EPS counsellors in various municipalities across Norway. At the end of each day throughout the course period, the participants wrote reflection logs about what they had experienced during the day. The data material consists of 165 pages of typed text. The collaborating researchers studied the data material to ascertain, differentiate and understand the meaning of the content in each log. The analysis also involved the search for similarity in content and development of analytical categories that described the focus and primary concerns in each of the written logs. This involved constant 'critical and sustained discussions' for mutual construction of meaning between the co-researchers in the developing categories. The process is inspired by Grounded Theory. This means that the concepts developed during the analysis derived from the data material and not chosen prior to the investigation. The analysis revealed that the concept 'Useful' frequently appeared in the participants’ reflections and, as such, 'Useful' serves as a core category. The core category is described through three major categories: (1) knowledge sharing (concerning direct and indirect work with students with special needs) with colleagues is useful, (2) reflections on models and theoretical concepts (concerning students with special needs) are useful, (3) reflection on the role as EPS counsellor is useful. In all the categories, the notion of useful occurs in the participants’ emphasis on and acknowledgement of the immediate and direct link between the university course content and their daily work practice. Even if each category has an importance and value of its own, it is crucial that they are understood in connection with one another and as interwoven. It is the connectedness that gives the core category an overarching explanatory power. The knowledge from this study may be a relevant contribution when it comes to designing new courses that support continuing professional development for EPS counsellors, whether for post-graduate university courses or local courses at the EPS offices or whether in Norway or other countries in the world.

Keywords: constructing and circulating knowledge, educational-psychological counsellor, higher education, professional development

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Authors: Matthew Kostawich, Mohammed Elmorsy, Mohamed Sayed Sifat, Shoukry Shams, Mahmoud Elsaadany

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6G communication systems represent the nominal future extension of current wireless technology, where its impact is extended to touch upon all human activities, including medical, security, and entertainment applications. As a result, human needs are allocated among the highest priority aspects of the system design and requirements. 6G communications is expected to replace all the current video conferencing with interactive virtual reality meetings involving high data-rate transmission merged with massive distributed computing resources. In addition, the current expansion of IoT applications must be mitigated with significant network changes to provide a reasonable Quality of Service (QoS). This directly implies a high demand for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) through mobile computing modules in future wireless communication systems. This article proposes the utilization of a Printed Ridge Gap Waveguide (PRGW) to host the wearable nodes. To the best of our knowledge, we propose for the first time a physical layer analysis within the context of a complete architecture. A thorough study is provided on the impact of the distortion of the guiding structure on the overall system performance. The proposed structure shows small latency and small losses, highlighting its compatibility with future applications.

Keywords: ridge gap waveguide, edge computing module, 6G, multimedia IoT applications

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Authors: Zakhile Somlata

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In the context of international linguistic and cultural diversity, all languages can be used for all purposes. Africa in general and South Africa, in particular, is not an exception to multilingual and multicultural society. The multilingual and multicultural nature of South African society has a direct bearing to the heterogeneity of South African Universities in general. Universities as the centers of research, innovation, and transformation of the entire society should be at the forefront in leading multilingualism. The universities in South Africa had been using English and to a certain extent Afrikaans as the only academic languages during colonialism and apartheid regime. The democratic breakthrough of 1994 brought linguistic relief in South Africa. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa recognizes 11 official languages that should enjoy parity of esteem for the realization of multilingualism. The elevation of the nine previously marginalized indigenous African languages as academic languages in higher education is central to multilingualism. It is high time that Afrocentric model instead of Eurocentric model should be the one which underpins education system in South Africa at all levels. Almost all South African universities have their language policies that seek to promote access and success of students through multilingualism, but the main dilemma is the implementation of language policies. This study is significant to respond to two objectives: (i) To evaluate how selected institutions use language policies for accessibility and success of students. (ii) To study how selected universities integrate African languages for both academic and administrative purposes. This paper reflects the language policy practices in one selected University of Technology (UoT) in South Africa. The UoT has its own language policy which depicts linguistic diversity of the institution and its commitment to promote multilingualism. Translanguaging pedagogy which accommodates minority languages' usage in the teaching and learning process plays a pivotal role in promoting multilingualism. This research paper employs mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative research) approach. Qualitative data has been collected from the key informants (insiders and experts), while quantitative data has been collected from a cohort of third-year students. A mixed methods approach with its convergent parallel design allows the data to be collected separately, analysed separately but with the comparison of the results. Language development initiatives have been discussed within the framework of language policy and policy implementation strategies. Theoretically, this paper is rooted in language as a problem, language as a right and language as a resource. The findings demonstrate that despite being a multilingual institution, there is a perpetuation of marginalization of African languages to be used as academic languages. Findings further display the hegemony of English. The promotion of status quo compromises the promotion of multilingualism, Africanization of Higher Education and intellectualization of indigenous African languages in South Africa under a democratic dispensation.

Keywords: afro-centric model, hegemony of English, language as a resource, translanguaging pedagogy

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Authors: Kofi Nkonkonya Mpuangnan, Samantha Govender, Hlengiwe Romualda Mhlongo

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Educational leaders are skilled architects crafting a vibrant environment where growth, creativity, and adaptability can flourish within schools. Their journey is one of transformation, urging them to explore administrative strategies that align seamlessly with evolving educational models and cater to the specific needs of students, educators, and stakeholders. Through this committed effort to innovate, they seek to enhance the effectiveness and influence of educational systems, paving the way for a more inclusive and forward-thinking educational environment. In this context, the authors explored the concept of transforming educational leadership with administrative strategies in alignment with the following research objectives. To find the strategies that can be adopted by transformation leaders to promote effective administrative practices in an educational setting and to explore the roles of educational leaders in promoting collaboration in education. To find answers to these questions, a systematic literature review underpinned by the transformational leadership model was adopted. Therefore, concepts integrated from a variety of outlets, including academic journals, conference proceedings, and reports found within SCOPUS, WoS, and IBSS databases. A search was aided using specific themes like innovative administrative practices, the roles of educational leaders, and interdisciplinary approaches to administrative practices. The process of conducting the search adhered to the five-step framework, which was subjected to inclusion and exclusion of studies. It was found that transformational leadership, agile methodologies, employee wellbeing, seminars and workshops could foster a culture of innovation and creativity among teachers and staff to transform administrative practices in education settings. It was recommended that professional development programs be organized periodically for educational leaders in educational institutions to help them revitalize their knowledge and skills in educational administration.

Keywords: educational leadership, innovative strategies, administrative practices, professional development, stakeholder engaement, student outcome

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Authors: Hardisiswo Soedjana, Inne Caroline

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Deep dermal or full thickness burns are inevitably lead to post-burn contractures. These contractures remain to be one of the most concerning late complications of burn injuries. Surgical management includes releasing the contracture followed by resurfacing the defect accompanied by post-operative rehabilitation. Optimal treatment of post-burn contractures depends on the characteristics of the contractures. This study is aimed to describe clinical characteristics, problems, and management of post-burn contractures in adults and children. A retrospective analysis was conducted from medical records of patients suffered from contractures after burn injuries admitted to Hasan Sadikin general hospital between January 2016 and January 2018. A total of 50 patients with post burn contractures were included in the study. There were 17 adults and 33 children. Most patients were male, whose age range within 15-59 years old and 5-9 years old. Educational background was mostly senior high school among adults, while there was only one third of children who have entered school. Etiology of burns was predominantly flame in adults (82.3%); whereas flame and scald were the leading cause of burn injury in children (11%). Based on anatomical regions, hands were the most common affected both in adults (35.2%) and children (48.5%). Contractures were identified in 6-12 months since the initial burns. Most post-burn hand contractures were resurfaced with full-thickness skin graft (FTSG) both in adults and children. There were 11 patients who presented with recurrent contracture after previous history of contracture release. Post-operative rehabilitation was conducted for all patients; however, it is important to highlight that it is still challenging to control splinting and exercise when patients are discharged and especially the compliance in children. In order to improve quality of life in patients with history of deep burn injuries, prevention of contractures should begin right after acute care has been established. Education for the importance of splinting and exercise should be administered as comprehensible as possible for adult patients and parents of pediatric patients.

Keywords: burn, contracture, education, exercise, splinting

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Authors: Mohammad Bagher Heidari, Hefzollah Mohammadian

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TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) is a digital radio communication standard, which has been implemented in several different parts of the gas refinery ninth (phase 12th) by South Pars Gas Complex. Studies on possible impacts on the users' health considering different exposure conditions are missing. Objectives: To investigate possible acute effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) of two different levels of TETRA hand-held transmitter signals on cognitive function and well-being in healthy young males. Methods: In the present double-blind cross-over study possible effects of short-term (2.5 h) EMF exposure of handset-like signals of TETRA (450 - 470 MHz) were studied in 30 healthy male participants (mean ± SD: 25.4 ±2.6 years). Individuals were tested on nine study days, on which they were exposed to three different exposure conditions (Sham, TETRA 1.5 W/kg and TETRA 10.0 W/kg) in a randomly assigned and balanced order. Participants were tested in the afternoon at a fixed timeframe. Results: Attention remained unchanged in two out of three tasks. In the working memory, significant changes were observed in two out of four subtasks. Significant results were found in 5 out of 35 tested parameters, four of them led to an improvement in performance. Mood, well-being and subjective somatic complaints were not affected by TETRA exposure. Conclusions: The results of the present study do not indicate a negative impact of a short-term EMF- effect of TETRA on cognitive function and well-being in healthy young men.

Keywords: TETRA (terrestrial trunked radio), electromagnetic fields (EMF), mobile telecommunication health research (MTHR), antenna

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Authors: Ashimolowo Olubunmi

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Contraception use helps prevent pregnancy as well as health-related challenges, most especially among youths and girls. Our communities are bedeviled with many problems, including rape, defilement, neglect by the spouse, and intimate partner violence. Current interventions target only adults, with most facilities having youth and unfriendly adolescent services. To further support the need for this research, especially with our target beneficiaries, the partnership embarked on qualitative evidence-finding research through focus group discussions and in-depth-interview in Abeokuta and Ibadan (the capital cities of Ogun). The Focus Group Discussion (FGD) sessions were held in the state with adolescents (10-18 years) and young women (18-30 years). The result revealed that teenagers and youths who receive formal and sexual education on abstinence, and birth control methods, are likely to have healthier sexual behaviours through the promotion of abstinence and the use of condoms and other forms of contraceptives at their first intercourse, thereby protecting themselves against HIV/AIDs (Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The result further revealed that parents do not discuss issues around Adolescent and Sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH) with their adolescent girls, leading to gaps in knowledge of ASRH. Stakeholders’ involvement and trust are low. Respondents noted that there were few outreaches on ASRH and that youth-friendly adolescent centres are not common in the community. Respondents noted that there were few outreaches on ASRH organised within the community. Also, youth-friendly services were not common. There is a need to work with all stakeholders to promote those foundational life skills on pubertal changes, menstruation, and sexual life to prepare youths and girls for challenges ahead through sex education; we should work to institutionalize youth and adolescent-friendly Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) in our communities.

Keywords: contraception, family planning, focus group discussion, adolescents

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Authors: Dzul Fahmi Md. Nordin, Rosmini Omar

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This conceptual paper aims to explore the concept of National Talent Retention for a nation by extending the works on Talent Retention in organizations to the scope of nations. The objective of this paper is to explore the relationship of National Talent Retention as the dependent variable with the three explored value propositions namely Firm Value Proposition, Higher Education and Training Value Proposition and National Attractiveness Value Proposition as the independent variables. Life Satisfaction is introduced in this study as a moderating variable to explore possibilities of Life Satisfaction as a mediator for the relationship between National Value Proposition and National Talent Retention. Theories such as Migration, Value Propositions, Life Satisfaction, Human Resource Management and Resource Based View are referred to in order to understand and explore the concept of National Talent Retention. Malaysia is chosen as the background of this study since Malaysia represents a developing nation with progressive economic, education and national policy which presents an interesting background for this exploratory paper. Surprisingly, Malaysia is still facing the phenomenon of Brain Drain which if not handled properly will hinder its Vision 2020 to progress a fully developed nation by year 2020. Mixed methodology analysis is proposed in this paper to include both qualitative face-to-face interview as well as quantitative survey questionnaire to study on the value proposition factors explored. Target respondents are strictly confined to Malaysia’s local high skilled talents either residing in Malaysia or migrated abroad since this paper is mainly interested to study on the concept of National Talent Retention and how successful Malaysia is projecting its value propositions from the perception of high skilled talent Malaysians. It is hoped that this paper could contribute towards understanding National Talent Retention concept where, the model could be replicated to identify influential factors specific to other nations.

Keywords: national talent retention, national value proposition, life satisfaction, high skilled talents

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Authors: Laura M. Espinoza, Karen A. Hernández, Diana B. Ledezma

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Currently, in Chile, migratory movements are generated, where the country receives constantly people from Latin America such as Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Haiti, among others. This phenomenon has reached the schools of Chile, where immigrant children and adolescents are educated in a context of cultural diversity. However, education professionals face this recent phenomenon without prior preparation to carry out their pedagogical practices in the classroom. On the other hand, research on how to understand and guide the processes of cultural diversity especially within the school is even scarce and recent in Latin America and specifically in Chile. The general purpose of the study is to analyze the relationships between teaching efforts towards multiculturalism and inclusive pedagogical practices in the schools of the city of La Serena and Coquimbo, in Chile. The study refers to a quantitative approach, with a correlational design. The selection of the participants was not intentional probabilistic. It comprises 88 teachers of preschool, primary, secondary and special education, who work in two schools with similar characteristics. For the collection of information on the independent variable, the attitude scale towards Immigration and the attitude scale towards Multiculturalism in the school are applied. To obtain information on the independent variable, the guide for the evaluation of inclusive practices in the classroom is applied. Both instruments have statistical validation. A Spearman correlation analysis was made to achieve the objective of the study. Among the main findings, we will find the relationships between the positive perceptions of multiculturalism at school and inclusive practices such as the physical conditions of the classroom, planning, methodology, use of time and evaluation. These findings are relevant to the teaching and learning processes of students in Chilean classrooms and contribute to literature for the understanding of educational processes in contexts of cultural diversity.

Keywords: cultural diversity, immigration, inclusive pedagogical practices, multiculturalism

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Authors: Ayşen Bakioğlu, Gökçen Seyra Çakır

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This study aims to explore how research assistants who work in project teams experience team member autonomy and how they reconcile team member autonomy with team collaboration. The study utilizes snowball sampling. 20 research assistants who work the faculties of education in Marmara University and Yıldız Technical University have been interviewed. The analysis of data involves a content analysis MAXQDAPlus 11 which is a qualitative data analysis software is used as the data analysis tool. According to the findings of this study, emerging themes include team norm formation, team coordination management, the role of individual tasks in team collaboration, leadership distribution. According to the findings, interviewees experience team norm formation process in terms of processes, which pertain to task fulfillment, and processes, which pertain to the regulation of team dynamics. Team norm formation process instills a sense of responsibility amongst individual team members. Apart from that, the interviewees’ responses indicate that the realization of the obligation to work in a team contributes to the team norm formation process. The participants indicate that individual expectations are taken into consideration during the coordination of the team. The supervisor of the project team also has a crucial role in maintaining team collaboration. Coordination problems arise when an individual team member does not relate his/her academic field with the research topic of the project team. The findings indicate that the leadership distribution in the project teams involves two leadership processes: leadership distribution which is based on the processes that focus on individual team members and leadership distribution which is based on the processes that focus on team interaction. Apart from that, individual tasks serve as a facilitator of collaboration amongst team members. Interviewees also indicate that individual tasks also facilitate the expression of individuality.

Keywords: project teams in higher education, research assistant teams, team collaboration, team member autonomy

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Authors: Yosef Ferede Bogale

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree of customer satisfaction and the variables influencing it in the instance of the Bank of Abyssinia branches in the districts of Arada and Bole in Addis Ababa. The study was carried out utilizing a mixed research approach and a descriptive and explanatory research design in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. Both primary and secondary data were employed in this investigation. The study's target population consisted of 1000 of the bank's most prestigious clients. With a 93% response rate, 265 respondents from both genders in the active age group had higher levels of education and work experience and were in the active age group. Customers of the case bank under consideration comprised the study's target audience. The respondents, who belonged to both gender groups, were in the active age bracket with superior levels of education and work experience. As a result, this investigation discovered that the degree of client satisfaction was assigned a medium rating. Additionally given a middling rating were the company's image practices, employee competency, technology, and service quality. Further, the results also demonstrate that corporate image, employees’ competency, technology, and service quality all positively and significantly affect customer happiness. This study found that, to varying degrees, company image, technology, competence, and high-quality financial services will all improve consumer happiness. According to this report, banks should monitor customer satisfaction and service quality at least twice a year. This is because there is a growing movement among bank service providers for accountability, and measuring these factors is crucial. This study also recommends that banks make every effort to satisfy consumers' expectations to the highest level.

Keywords: customer satisfaction, corporate image, quality service risk, banks

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Authors: Zeeshan Khan, Faisal Nouroz, Shumaila Noureen

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European or common rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) belongs to class Mammalia, order Lagomorpha of family Leporidae. They are distributed worldwide and are native to Europe (France, Spain and Portugal) and Africa (Morocco and Algeria). LTR retrotransposons are major Class I mobile genetic elements of eukaryotic genomes and play a crucial role in genome expansion, evolution and diversification. They were mostly annotated in various genomes by conventional approaches of homology searches, which restricted the annotation of novel elements. Present work involved de novo identification of LTR retrotransposons by LTR_FINDER in haploid genome of rabbit (2247.74 Mb) distributed in 22 chromosomes, of which 7,933 putative full-length or partial copies were identified containing 69.38 Mb of elements, accounting 3.08% of the genome. Highest copy numbers (731) were found on chromosome 7, followed by chromosome 12 (705), while the lowest copy numbers (27) were detected in chromosome 19 with no elements identified from chromosome 21 due to partially sequenced chromosome, unidentified nucleotides (N) and repeated simple sequence repeats (SSRs). The identified elements ranged in sizes from 1.2 - 25.8 Kb with average sizes between 2-10 Kb. Highest percentage (4.77%) of elements was found in chromosome 15, while lowest (0.55%) in chromosome 19. The most frequent tRNA type was Arginine present in majority of the elements. Based on gained results, it was estimated that rabbit exhibits 15,866 copies having 137.73 Mb of elements accounting 6.16% of diploid genome (44 chromosomes). Further molecular analyses will be helpful in chromosomal localization and distribution of these elements on chromosomes.

Keywords: rabbit, LTR retrotransposons, genome, chromosome

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Authors: Aliya Moreira, Blake Duffy, Sam Kosinski, Kate Heckman, Erika Steensma

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Introduction: The One Health initiative promotes recognition of the interrelatedness between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment. The field of comparative medicine studies the similarities and differences between humans and animals for the purpose of advancing medical sciences. Currently, medical school education is narrowly focused on human anatomy and physiology, but as the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated, a holistic understanding of health requires comprehension of the interconnection between health and the lived environment. To prepare future physicians for unique challenges from emerging zoonoses to climate change, medical students can benefit from exposure to and experience with One Health and Comparative Medicine content. Methods: In January 2020, an elective course for medical students on One Health and Comparative Medicine was created to provide medical students with the background knowledge necessary to understand the applicability of animal and environmental health in medical research and practice. The 2-week course was continued in January 2021, with didactic and experiential activities taking place virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to student feedback, lectures were added to expand instructional content on zoonotic and wildlife diseases for the second iteration of the course. Other didactic sessions included interprofessional lectures from 20 physicians, veterinarians, public health professionals, and basic science researchers. The first two cohorts of students were surveyed regarding One Health and Comparative Medicine concepts at the beginning and conclusion of the course. Results: 16 medical students have completed the comparative medicine course thus far, with 87.5% (n=14) completing pre-and post-course evaluations. 100% of student respondents indicated little to no exposure to comparative medicine or One Health concepts during medical school. Following the course, 100% of students felt familiar or very familiar with comparative medicine and One Health concepts. To assess course efficacy, questions were evaluated on a five-point Likert scale. 100% agreed or strongly agreed that learning Comparative Medicine and One Health topics augmented their medical education. 100% agreed or strongly agreed that a course covering this content should be regularly offered to medical students. Conclusions: Data from the student evaluation surveys demonstrate that the Comparative Medicine course was successful in increasing medical student knowledge of Comparative Medicine and One Health. Results also suggest that interprofessional training in One Health and Comparative Medicine is applicable and useful for medical trainees. Future iterations of this course could capitalize on the inherently interdisciplinary nature of these topics by enrolling students from veterinary and public health schools into a longitudinal course. Such recruitment may increase the course’s value by offering multidisciplinary student teams the opportunity to conduct research projects, thereby strengthening both the individual learning experience as well as sparking future interprofessional research ventures. Overall, these efforts to educate medical students in One Health topics should be reproducible at other institutions, preparing more future physicians for the diverse challenges they will encounter in practice.

Keywords: medical education, interprofessional instruction, one health, comparative medicine

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Authors: Iva Trako, Maris Micaela Sviatschi, Guadalupe Kavanaugh

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Domestic violence is a major concern in developing countries, with important social, economic and health consequences. However, institutions do not usually address the problems facing women or ethnic and religious minorities. For example, the police do very little to stop domestic violence in rural areas of developing countries. This paper exploits the introduction of women’s justice centers (WJCs) in Peru to provide causal estimates on the effects of improving access to justice for women and children. These centers offer a new integrated public service model for women by including medical, psychological and legal support in cases of violence against women. Our empirical approach uses a difference in difference estimation exploiting variation over time and space in the opening of WJC together with province-by-year fixed effects. Exploiting administrative data from health providers and district attorney offices, we find that after the opening of these centers, there are important improvements on women's welfare: a large reduction in femicides and female hospitalizations for assault. Moreover, using geo-coded household surveys we find evidence that the existence of these services reduces domestic violence, improves women's health, increases women's threat points and, therefore, lead to household decisions that are more aligned with their interests. Using administrative data on the universe of schools, we find large gains on human capital for their children: affected children are more likely to enroll, attend school and have better grades in national exams, instead of working for the family. In sum, the evidence in this paper shows that providing access to justice for women can be a powerful tool to reduce domestic violence and increase education of children, suggesting a positive inter-generational benefit.

Keywords: access to justice, domestic violence, education, household bargaining

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Authors: Diana Kwok

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Introduction: There is a rising concern on the educational needs of school guidance teachers, counselors, and sex educators to work effectively with students from multicultural groups, such as racial minorities, gender minorities, sexual minorities, and disability groups etc., and to respect cultural diversities. A specialized training model, the multicultural framework based on contact theory is recognized as necessary training model for professional training programs. Methodology: While the major focus of this project is on improving teaching and learning in teacher training courses within the department of Special Education and Counselling, it specifically aims to enhance the cultural competence of 102 participants enrolled in counseling and sexuality education courses by integrating the following teaching and learning strategies: 1) Panel presentation; 2) Case studies; 3) Experiential learning. Data sources from the participants consisted of the following: (a) questionnaires (MCKAS and ATLG) administered in classes; (b) weekly reflective journals, and c) focus group interviews with panel members. The focus group interviews with panel members were documented. Qualitatively, the weekly reflections were content analyzed. The presentation in this specific conference put focus on themes we found from qualitative content analysis of weekly reflective journals from 102 participants. Findings: Content analysis had found the following preliminary emergent themes: Theme I) Cultural knowledge and challenges to personal limitation. Students had gained a new perspective that specific cultural knowledge involved unique values and worldview. Awareness of limitation of counsellors is very important after actively acquiring the cultural knowledge. Theme 2 - Observation, engagement and active learning. Through the sharing and case studies, as well as visits to the communities, students recognized that observation and listening to the needs of cultural group members were the essential steps before taking any intervention steps. Theme 3 - Curiosity and desire for further inter-group dialogue. All students expressed their desire, curiosity, and motivation to have further inter-group dialogue in their future work settings. Theme 4: Experience with teaching and learning strategies. Students shared their perspectives on how teaching and learning strategies had facilitated their acquisition of cultural competence. Results of this analysis suggests that diverse teaching and learning strategies based on contact perspective had stimulated their curiosity to re-examine their values and motivated them to acquire cultural knowledge relevant to the cultural groups. Acknowledgment: The teaching and learning project was funded by the Teaching and Development Grant, Hong Kong Institute of Education (Project Number T0142).

Keywords: cultural competence, Chinese teacher students, teaching and learning, contacts

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Authors: Kexin Tan

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The Silk Road is a concept idiosyncratic in nature. Western scholars co-created and conceptualized in its early days, transliterated into the countries along the Silk Road, redefined, reimagined, and reconfigured by the public in the second half of the twentieth century. Therefore, the image is not only a mirror of the discursive interactions between East and West but Self and Other. The travel narrative of Sven Hedin, through which the Silk Road was enriched in meanings and popularized, is the focus of this study. This article examines how the Silk Road was imagined in three key texts of Sven Hedin: The Silk Road, The Wandering Lake, and The Flight of “Big Horse”. Three recurring themes are extracted and analyzed: the Silk Road, the land of enigmas, the virgin land, and the reconnecting road. Ideas about ethnotypes and images drawn from theorists such as Joep Leerssen have been deployed in the analysis. This research tracks how the images were configured, concentrating on China’s ethnotypes, travel writing tropes, and the Silk Road discourse that preceded Sven Hedin. Hedin’s role in his expedition, his geopolitical viewpoints, and the commercial considerations of his books are also discussed in relation to the intellectual construct of the Silk Road. It is discovered that the images of the Silk Road and the discursive traditions behind it are mobile rather than static, inclusive than antithetical. The paradoxical characters of the Silk Road reveal the complexity of the socio-historical background of Hedin’s time, as well as the collision of discursive traditions and practical issues. While it is true that Hedin’s discursive construction of the Silk Road image embodies the bias of Self-West against Other-East, its characteristics such as fluidity and openness could probably offer a hint at its resurgence in the postcolonial era.

Keywords: the silk road, Sven Hedin, imagology, ethnotype, travelogue

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Authors: Yusuf Ismaila

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The developing countries are characterized by inefficient production systems and unequal distribution of wealth. Developing countries are largely populated, yet under developed. This can be attributed partly to the unplanned efforts towards the development of human capital through education and training. In the developed nations a huge attention is accorded to indices such as life expectancy, literacy, infant mortality, education, and the efficient delivery of social services. This is the reason why many developing countries have been scored low by the United Nations in terms of its human development indicators. The population growth continued to expand far beyond the rate of economic growth, a situation that gave rise to increasing poverty. This paper examines the effect of selected human development indicators on the economic development. Thus human capital development is one of the fundamental solutions to enter the international arena. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were used to demonstrate the effect of selected human capital indices and related literatures were also reviewed for exposition of the human capital concept. It was found that there are no conscious efforts in human capital planning. This has therefore resulted to continuing dwindling of production system and poverty. Recommendations made to redress the situation include that human capital development should be planned and adequately funded in line with the needs of the economy and by applying international standards. Specifically, developing countries must invest necessary resources in developing human capital which tend to have a great impact on sustainable development. Information about the labour market should improve while government policy should favour labour mobility. HCD strategy must focus on improving the skills of the workforce, reducing the cost of doing business and making available the resources business needs to compete and thrive in a fast globalizing economy. There should be regular interaction of planners, employers and builders of human capital to facilitate the process of meaningful national development.

Keywords: economic development, human capital, economic growth, developing countries

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Authors: Sana Abusin

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Food security in Qatar is a research priority of Qatar University (2021-2025) and all national strategies, including the Qatar National Vision 2030 and food security strategy (2018-2023). Achieving food security requires three actions: 1) transforming surplus food to those who are insecure; 2) reducing food loss and waste by recycling food into valuable resources such as compost (“green fertilizer”) that can be used in growing food; and, finally, 3) establishing strong enforcement agencies to protect consumers from outdated food and promote healthy food. Currently, these objectives are approached separately and not in a sustainable fashion. Food security in Qatar is a research priority of Qatar University (2021-2025) and all national strategies, including the Qatar National Vision 2030 and food security strategy (2018-2023). The study aims to develop an innovative mobile application that supports a sustainable solution to food insecurity and food waste in Qatar. The application will provide a common solution for many different users. For producers, it will facilitate easy disposal of excess food. For charities, it will notify them about surplus food ready for redistribution. The application will also benefit the second layer of end-users in the form of food recycling companies, who will receive information about available food waste that is unable to be consumed. We will use self-exoplanetary diagrams and digital pictures to show all the steps to the final stage. The aim is to motivate the young generation toward innovation and creation, and to encourage public-private collaboration in this sector.

Keywords: food security, innovative technology, sustainability, food waste, Qatar

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Authors: Yosef Ferede Bogale

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree of customer satisfaction and the variables influencing it in the instance of the Bank of Abyssinia branches in the districts of Arada and Bole in Addis Ababa. The study was carried out utilizing a mixed research approach and a descriptive and explanatory research design in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. Both primary and secondary data were employed in this investigation. The study's target population consisted of 1000 of the bank's most prestigious clients. With a 93% response rate, 265 respondents from both genders in the active age group had higher levels of education and work experience and were in the active age group. Customers of the case bank under consideration comprised the study's target audience. The respondents, who belonged to both gender groups, were in the active age bracket with superior levels of education and work experience. As a result, this investigation discovered that the degree of client satisfaction was assigned a medium rating. Additionally given a middling rating were the company's image practices, employee competency, technology, and service quality. Further, the results also demonstrate that corporate image, employees’ competency, technology, and service quality all positively and significantly affect customer happiness. This study found that, to varying degrees, company image, technology, competence, and high-quality financial services will all improve consumer happiness. According to this report, banks should monitor customer satisfaction and service quality at least twice a year. This is because there is a growing movement among bank service providers for accountability, and measuring these factors is crucial. This study also recommends that banks make every effort to satisfy consumers' expectations to the highest level.

Keywords: customer satisfaction, corporate image, quality services risk, bank

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Authors: Hadjer Chellia

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the present study reports on second language use among Algerian international students in the UK. In Algeria, French has an important status among the Algerian verbal repertoires due to colonial reasons. This has triggered many language conflicts and many debates among policy makers in Algeria. In higher education, Algerian English students’ sociolinguistic profile is characterised by the use of French as a sign of prestige. What may leave room for debate is the effect of crossing borders towards the UK as a result of international mobility programmes, a transition which could add more complexity since French, is not so significant as a language in the UK context. In this respect, the micro-objective is to explore the fate of French use among Ph.D. students in the UK as a newly established group vis-à-vis English. To fulfill the purpose of the present inquiry, the research employs multiple approaches in which semi-structured interview is a primary source of data to know participants’ attitudes about French use, targeting both their pre-migratory experience and current one. Web-based questionnaires are set up to access larger population. Focus group sessions are further procedures of scrutiny in this piece of work to explore the actual linguistic behaviours. Preliminary findings from both interviews and questionnaires reveal that students’ current experience, particularly living in the UK, affects their pre-migratory attitudes towards French language and its use. The overall findings are expected to bring manifold contributions to the field of research among which is setting factors that influence language use among newly established émigrés communities. The research is also relevant to international students’ experience of study abroad in terms of language use in the guise of internationalization of higher education, mobility and exchange programmes. It could contribute to the sociolinguistics of the Algerian diaspora: the dispersed residence of non-native communities - not to mention its significance on the Algerian research field abroad.

Keywords: Algerian diaspora, French language, language maintenance, language shift, mobility

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Authors: Chiao-Chen Chang, Yang-Chieh Chin

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The mobile phone has no longer confined to communication, from the aspect of smartphones, consumers are only willing to pay for the product which the added value has corresponded with their appetites, such as multiple application, upgrade of the camera, and the appearance of the phone and so on. Moreover, as the maturity stage of smartphone industry today, the strategy which manufactures used to gain competitive advantages through hardware as well as software differentiation, is no longer valid. Thus, this research aims to initiate from brand image, to examine exactly whether consumers’ buying intention focus on smartphone brand or operating system, at the same time, perceived value and customer satisfaction will be added between brand image and continuous usage intention to investigate the impact of these two facets toward continuous usage intention. This study verifies the correlation, fitness, and relationship between the variables that lies within the conceptual framework. The result of using structural equation modeling shows that brand image has a positive impact on continuous usage intention. Firms can affect consumer perceived value and customer satisfaction through the creation of the brand image. It also shows that the brand image of smartphone and brand image of the operating system have a positive impact on customer perceived value and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, perceived value also has a positive impact on satisfaction, and so is the relation within satisfaction and perceived value to the continuous usage intention. Last but not least, the brand image of the smartphone has a more remarkable impact on customers than the brand image of the operating system. In addition, this study extends the results to management practice and suggests manufactures to provide fine product design and hardware.

Keywords: smartphone, brand image, perceived value, continuous usage intention

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Authors: Saeid Eshghi, Neeraj Saxena, Abdulmajeed Alsultan

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Carbon dioxide (CO₂) alongside other gas emissions in the atmosphere cause a greenhouse effect, resulting in an increase of the average temperature of the planet. Transportation vehicles are among the main contributors of CO₂ emission. Stationary vehicles with initiated motors produce more emissions than mobile ones. Intersections with traffic lights that force the vehicles to become stationary for a period of time produce more CO₂ pollution than other parts of the road. This paper focuses on analyzing the CO₂ produced by the traffic flow at Anzac Parade Road - Barker Street intersection in Sydney, Australia, before and after the implementation of Light rail transport (LRT). The data are gathered during the construction phase of the LRT by collecting the number of vehicles on each path of the intersection for 15 minutes during the evening rush hour of 1 week (6-7 pm, July 04-31, 2018) and then multiplied by 4 to calculate the flow of vehicles in 1 hour. For analyzing the data, the microscopic simulation software “VISSIM” has been used. Through the analysis, the traffic flow was processed in three stages: before and after implementation of light rail train, and one during the construction phase. Finally, the traffic results were input into another software called “EnViVer”, to calculate the amount of CO₂ during 1 h. The results showed that after the implementation of the light rail, CO₂ will drop by a minimum of 13%. This finding provides an evidence that light rail is a sustainable mode of transport.

Keywords: carbon dioxide, emission modeling, light rail, microscopic model, traffic flow

Procedia PDF Downloads 138