Search results for: psychological and pedagogical support

Authors: Ehsan Khorshidian, Afshin Farahbakhsh, Sina Aghili

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Enzymes are promising biocatalysts for many organic reactions. They have excellent features like high activity, specificity and selectivity, and can catalyze under mild and environment friendly conditions. Epoxy-activated supports are almost-ideal ones to perform very easy immobilization of proteins and enzymes at both laboratory and industrial scale. The activated epoxy supports (chitosan/alginate, Eupergit C) may be very suitable to achieve the multipoint covalent attachment of proteins and enzymes, therefore, to stabilize their three-dimensional structure. The enzyme is firstly covalently immobilized under conditions pH 7.0 and 10.0. The remaining groups of the support are blocked to stop additional interaction between the enzyme and support by mercaptoethanol or Triton X-100. The results show support allowed obtaining biocatalysts with high immobilized protein amount and hydrolytic activity. The immobilization of lipases on epoxy support may be considered as attractive tool for obtaining highly active biocatalysts to be used in both aqueous and anhydrous aqueous media.

Keywords: immobilization of enzymes, epoxy supports, enzyme multipoint covalent attachment, microbial lipases

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Authors: Dalila Lino

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The power of play for learning and development in early childhood education is beyond question. The main goal of this study is to analyse how three contemporary early childhood pedagogical approaches, the High Scope, the Modern School Movement (MEM) and the Pedagogy of Participation integrate play in their curriculum development. From this main goal the following objectives emerged: (i) to characterize how play is integrated in the daily routine of the pedagogical approaches under study; (ii) to analyse the teachers’ role during children’s playing situations; (iii) to identify the types of play that children are more often involved. The methodology used is the qualitative approach and is situated under the interpretative paradigm. Data is collected through semi-structured interviews to 30 preschool teachers and through observations of typical daily routines. The participants are 30 Portuguese preschool classrooms attending children from 3 to 6 years and working with the High Scope curriculum (10 classrooms), the MEM (10 classrooms) and the Pedagogy of Participation (10 classrooms). The qualitative method of content analysis was used to analyse the data. To ensure confidentiality, no information is disclosed without participants' consent, and the interviews were transcribed and sent to the participants for a final revision. The results show that there are differences how play is integrated and promoted in the three pedagogical approaches. The teachers’ role when children are at play varies according the pedagogical approach adopted, and also according to the teachers’ understanding about the meaning of play. The study highlights the key role that early childhood curriculum models have to promote opportunities for children to play, and therefore to be involved in meaningful learning.

Keywords: curriculum models, early childhood education, pedagogy, play

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Authors: Saidia Houari

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The current coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) is a special and unusual reality. It can affect people physically, but also psychologically. Indeed, in such a context, many people will experience reactions of stress, anxiety and depression, and Sports is known to be a great in improving the effectiveness of the nervous system and mental health. Professor Ango Frubuze“many studies proved that sports play an important role in fighting psychological tension and some other psychological problems, such as depression and sleep difficulties, but on condition of practicing them properly,choosing the kind that generates comfort and happiness for man “ .The sports university professor in the German city of Cologne added that the effort exerted during the exercise works on restoring balance to the stress hormones like cortisol.The case report provides an insight into the COVID-19 current situation and represents a picture of the current state of mental health and an overview of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreaks in some countries of the world. Some procedures taken to combat the coronavirus. We proposed the practice of physical activities during the quarantine period, and we showed their importance and their positive effects.

Keywords: COVID-19, psycholiqical impacts, stress, physical activities

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Authors: Rui Xing, Xiaowen Zhao, Hao Huang, Chang Liu

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Creativity is regarded as vital for new ventures' development since the whole process of entrepreneurship is rooted in the creation and exploration of new ideas. The entrepreneurial leader is central to the entrepreneurial team, who plays an especially important role in this process. However, few scholars have studied the impact entrepreneurs' leadership styles on the creativity of entrepreneurial teams. In this study, we integrate the historically disjointed literatures of leadership style and team creativity under entrepreneurship circumstance to understand why and when entrepreneurs' different leadership style relates to team creativity. Focus on answering the following questions: Is humility leadership necessarily better than narcissism leadership at increasing the creativity of entrepreneurial teams? Moreover, in which situations humility leadership or narcissism leadership is more conducive to the entrepreneurial team's creativity? Based on the componential theory of creativity and entrepreneurial cognition theory, we explore the relationship between entrepreneurs' leadership style and team creativity, treating team cognitive diversity and environmental uncertainty as moderators and psychological empowerment as mediators. We tested our hypotheses using data gathered from 64 teams and 256 individual members from 53 new firms in China's first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. We found that there was a significant positive relation between entrepreneurs' humble leadership and psychological empowerment, and the more significant the positive correlation was when the environmental uncertainty was high. In addition, there was a significant negative relation between entrepreneurs' narcissistic leadership and psychological empowerment, and the negative relation was weaker in teams with a high team cognitive diversity value. Furthermore, both entrepreneurs' humble leadership and team psychological empowerment were significantly positively related to team creativity. While entrepreneurs' narcissistic leadership was negatively related to team creativity, and the negative relationship was weaker in teams with a high team cognitive diversity or a high environmental uncertainty value. This study has some implications for both scholars and entrepreneurs. Firstly, our study enriches the understanding of the role of leadership in entrepreneurial team creativity. Different from previous team creativity literatures, focusing on TMT and R&D team, this study is a significant attempt to demonstrate that entrepreneurial leadership style is particularly relevant to the core requirements of team creativity. Secondly, this study introduces two moderating variables, cognitive diversity and environmental uncertainty, to explore the different boundary conditions under which the two leadership styles play their roles, which is helpful for entrepreneurs to understand how to leverage leadership to improve entrepreneurial team creativity, how to recruit cognitively diverse employees to moderate the effects of inappropriate leadership to the team. Finally, our findings showed that entrepreneurs' humble leadership makes a unique contribution to explaining team creativity through team psychological empowerment.

Keywords: entrepreneurs’ leadership style, entrepreneurial team creativity, team psychological empowerment, team cognitive diversity, environmental uncertainty

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Authors: Anastasia Papachristou, Anastasia Ntikoudi, Vasileios Saridakis

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The safety and health care needs of refugees have become an increasingly important issue all over the world especially during last few decades. Wars are the primary reason for refugees to leave their countries. Moreover, refugees are frequently exposed to a variety of stressors such as socioeconomic disadvantages, poverty, changes in family structure and functioning, losing social support, difficulty to access education, living in very crowded places, experiencing racism and isolation. This systematic review included research studies published between 2007-2017 from the search databases Medline, Scopus, Cinahl and PubMed, with keywords 'war survivors', 'war trauma', 'psychiatric disorders', 'refugees'. In order to meet the purpose of the systematic review, further research for complementary studies was conducted into the literature references of the research articles included in this study that would meet the criteria. Overall, 14 studies were reviewed and evaluated. The majority of them demonstrated that the most common psychiatric disorders observed among war refugees are post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety and multiple somatic complaints. Moreover, significant relationship was shown between the number of traumatic events experienced by the refugees and sociodemographic features such as gender, age and previous family history of any psychological disorder. War violence is highly traumatic, causing multiple, long-term negative outcomes such as the aforementioned psychiatric disorders. The number of the studies reviewed in this systematic review is not representative of the problem and its significance. The need for care of the survivors and their families is vital. Further research is necessary in order to clarify the role of predictive factors in the development and maintenance of post-traumatic stress and the rest psychiatric disorders following war trauma. In conclusion, it is necessary to have large multicenter studies in the future in order to be able to draw reliable conclusions about the effects of war.

Keywords: psychiatric disorders, refugees, war survivors, war trauma

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Authors: Yunfeng Shan, Xiaoliang Wang, Youjun Zhou

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Whole-genome data from two lungfish species, along with other species, present a valuable opportunity to re-investigate the longstanding debate regarding the evolutionary relationships among tetrapods, lungfishes, and coelacanths. However, the use of bootstrap support has become outdated for large-scale phylogenomic data. Without robust phylogenetic support, the phylogenetic trees become meaningless. Therefore, it is necessary to re-evaluate the phylogenies of tetrapods, lungfishes, and coelacanths using novel measures of phylogenetic support specifically designed for phylogenomic data, as the previous phylogenies were based on 100% bootstrap support. Our findings consistently provide strong evidence favoring lungfish as the closest living relative of tetrapods. This conclusion is based on high internode certainty, relative gene support, and high gene concordance factor. The evidence stems from five previous datasets derived from lungfish transcriptomes. These results yield fresh insights into the three hypotheses regarding the phylogenies of tetrapods, lungfishes, and coelacanths. Importantly, these hypotheses are not mere conjectures but are substantiated by a significant number of genes. Analyzing real biological data further demonstrates that the inclusion of additional taxa leads to more diverse tree topologies. Consequently, gene trees and species trees may not be identical even when whole-genome sequencing data is utilized. However, it is worth noting that many gene trees can accurately reflect the species tree if an appropriate number of taxa, typically ranging from six to ten, are sampled. Therefore, it is crucial to carefully select the number of taxa and an appropriate outgroup, such as slow-evolving species, while excluding fast-evolving taxa as outgroups to mitigate the adverse effects of long-branch attraction and achieve an accurate reconstruction of the species tree. This is particularly important as more whole-genome sequencing data becomes available.

Keywords: novel measures of phylogenetic support for phylogenomic data, gene concordance factor confidence, relative gene support, internode certainty, origin of tetrapods

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Authors: Aryan Sood, Shruti Pathak, Dipanshu Chaudhary, Shreyanshi, Yogesh Pal

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In this comprehensive meta-analysis, the study delves into the widespread issue of body shaming, revealing its pervasive impact on various aspects of human life and its profound implications for mental health. The paper first explores the origins of body shaming, including societal norms, media influences, and interpersonal dynamics. It highlights the various forms it takes and its detrimental effects on self-esteem, body image, and psychological well-being. Particularly among adolescents and teenagers in today's social media-driven world, the pressure to conform to idealized beauty standards is significant, leading to negative consequences for their development and health. The research emphasizes the long-lasting mental health effects of body shaming, including depression, body dysmorphia, low self-esteem, and eating disorders. The study also discusses the emergence of body positivity movements as a means to challenge societal norms and promote inclusivity and empathy. Furthermore, the research addresses body shaming in the workplace and presents strategies to combat it, stressing the importance of awareness campaigns, education, and policy changes. In conclusion, the study underscores the critical need for a culture of acceptance and support, the promotion of positive body image, and efforts to mitigate the severe mental health toll that body shaming takes on individuals and communities. Overall, this research provides a comprehensive overview of body shaming, its root causes, and its far-reaching impacts on mental health and well-being. It highlights the urgency of addressing this issue in various contexts, from adolescence to the workplace, and offers solutions, such as awareness campaigns and societal changes, to foster a more inclusive and empathetic future.

Keywords: body shaming, mental health, age, gender, societal norms, appearance-based discrimination, cyberbullying, self-esteem, social media, depression, acceptance

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Authors: Jenny Fairthorne, Yuka Mori, Helen Leonard

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Background: Primary care-givers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or intellectual disability (ID) have poorer health and quality of life (QoL) than primary care-givers (hereafter referred to as just care-givers) of typically developing children. We aimed to review original research which described factors impacting the health of care-givers of children with ASD or ID and to discuss how these factors might influence care-giver health. Methods: We searched Web of Knowledge, Medline, Scopus and Google Scholar using selections of words from each of three groups. The first comprised terms associated with ASD and ID and included autism, pervasive development disorder, intellectual disability, mental retardation, disability, disabled, Down and Asperger. The second included terms related to health such as depression, physical, mental, psychiatric, psychological and well-being. The third was terms related to care-givers such as mother, parent and care-giver. We included an original paper in our review if it was published between 1st January 1990 and 31st December, 2016, described original research in a peer-reviewed journal and was written in English. Additional criteria were that the research used a study population of 15 persons or more; described a risk or protective factor for the health of care-givers of a child with ASD, ID or a sub-type (such as ASD with ID or Down syndrome). Using previous research, we developed a simple and objective five-level tool to assess the strength of evidence provided by the reviewed papers. Results: We retained 33 papers. Factors impacting primary care-giver health included child behaviour, level of support, socio-economic status (SES) and diagnostic issues. Challenging child behaviour, the most commonly identified risk factor for poorer care-giver health and QoL was reported in ten of the studies. A higher level of support was associated with improved care-giver health and QoL. For example, substantial evidence indicated that family support reduced care-giver burden in families with a child with ASD and that family and neighbourhood support was associated with improved care-giver mental health. Higher socio-economic status (SES) was a protective factor for care-giver health and particularly maternal health. Diagnostic uncertainty and an unclear prognosis are factors which can cause the greatest concern to care-givers of children with ASD and those for whom a cause of their child’s ID has not been identified. We explain how each of these factors might impact caregiver health and how they might act differentially in care-givers of children with different types of ASD or ID (such as Down syndrome and ASD without ID). Conclusion: Care-givers of children with ASD may be more likely to experience many risk factors and less likely to experience the protective factors we identified for poorer mental health. Interventions to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors could pave the way for improved care-giver health. For example, workshops to train care-givers to better manage challenging child behaviours and earlier diagnosis of ASD (and particularly ASD without ID) would seem likely to improve care-giver well-being. Similarly, helping to expand support networks might reduce care-giver burden and stress leading to improved health.

Keywords: autism, caregivers, health, intellectual disability, mothers, review

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Authors: Haykal. Kay-Anne

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The health and well-being of students is a priority for the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. The demands of medical studies are extreme, and many studies confirm that the prevalence of psychological distress is very high among medical students and that it is higher than that of the general population of the same age. The main goal is to identify risk factors for mental health among medical students at the University of Ottawa. The secondary objectives are to determine the variation of these risk factors according to demographic variables, as well as to determine if there is a change in the mental health of students during the 1st and 3rd years of their study. Medical students have a mandatory first and third-year wellness check meeting. This assessment includes a questionnaire on demographic information, mental health, and risk factors such as physical health, sleep, social support, financial stress, education and career, stress and drug use and/or alcohol. Student responses were converted to numerical values and analyzed statistically. The results show that 61% of the variation in the mean of the mental health score is explained by the following risk factors (R2 = 0.61, F (9.396) = 67.197, p < 0.01): lack of sleep and fatigue (β = 0.281, p < 0.001), lack of social support (β = 0.217, p <0.001), poor study or career development (β = 0.195, p < 0.001) and an increase stress and drug and alcohol use (β = -0.239, p < 0.001). No demographic variable has a significant effect on the presence of risk factors. In addition, fixed-effects regression demonstrated significantly lower mental health (p < 0.1) among first-year students (M = 0.587, SD = 0.072) than among third-year students (M = 0.719, SD = 0.071). This preliminary study indicates the need to continue data collection and analysis to increase the significance of the study results. As risk factors are present at the beginning of medical studies, it is important to offer resources to students very early in their medical studies and to have close monitoring and supervision.

Keywords: assessment of mental health, medical students, risk factors for mental health, wellness assessment

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Authors: Chryssi Vitsilaki, Apostolos Kostas, Ilias Efthymiou

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This paper presents selected best practices on online learning and teaching derived from a novel and innovating Lifelong Learning program through e-Learning, which has during the last five years been set up at the University of the Aegean in Greece. The university, capitalizing on an award-winning, decade-long experience in e-learning and blended learning in undergraduate and postgraduate studies, recently expanded into continuous education and vocational training programs in various cutting-edge fields. So, in this article we present: (a) the academic structure/infrastructure which has been developed for the administrative, organizational and educational support of the e-Learning process, including training the trainers, (b) the mode of design and implementation based on a sound pedagogical framework of open and distance education, and (c) the key results of the assessment of the e-learning process by the participants, as they are used to feedback on continuous organizational and teaching improvement and quality control.

Keywords: distance education, e-learning, life-long programs, synchronous/asynchronous learning

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Authors: I. Dumand, C. Clesse, M. Decker, C. Savini, J. Lighezzolo-Alnot

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In the landscape of French psychiatry, long-term institutionalization of patients with severe and disabling chronics disorders is common. Faced with the failures of classical reinsertion, sometimes these users are hurriedly considered as 'insortables'. However, this representation is often swayed by the current behavior of the patient observed through the clinical observation. Unfortunately, it seems that this way of proceeding can not integrate the potentialities of the institutionalized patients and their possible evolution. Therefore, in order not to make hasty conclusions about the life perspectives of these individuals, it seems essential to associate with clinical observation a psycho social rehabilitation diagnosis. Multidisciplinary, it combine all the aspects that make up the life of the subject (the life aspirations, psycho social determinants, family support, cognitive potential, symptoms ...). In this paper, we will rank these different aspects necessary prerequisites to the realization of a psycho social rehabilitation diagnosis. Then, we will specifically speak of the issue of psychological evaluation. By adopting an integrative approach combining neuro psychological tools (Grober and Buschke, Stroop, WCST, AIPSS, WAIS, Eyes test ...) and projective tools interpreted under a psycho dynamic angle (Rorschach, TAT ..) we think that we can grasp the patient in his globality. Thus, during this process we will justify the interest of combining a cognitive and a psycho affective approach, we will identify the different items assessed and their future implications on the everyday life of the users. Finally, we show that this diagnosis can give a chance to reintegration to 30% of patients considered as ''insortables''. In conclusion, we will highlight the importance of this process dear to the community psychology emphasizing in the same time the interests of this approach in terms of empowerment, recovery and quality of life.

Keywords: assessment, potentiality, psychosocial rehabilitation diagnosis, tools

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Authors: I. A. Farhat, M. Bin Hasan

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A developed approach for the protection of power transmission lines using Support Vector Machines (SVM) technique is presented. In this paper, the SVM technique is utilized for the classification and isolation of faults in power transmission lines. Accurate fault classification and location results are obtained for all possible types of short circuit faults. As in distance protection, the approach utilizes the voltage and current post-fault samples as inputs. The main advantage of the method introduced here is that the method could easily be extended to any power transmission line.

Keywords: fault detection, classification, diagnosis, power transmission line protection, support vector machines (SVM)

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Authors: Anagha Pavithran Vattamparambil, Niranjana Regimon

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Dalit and tribal communities in India have the largest suicide rate; however, the current literature does not reflect this reality. While existing research acknowledges socio-cultural risk factors, it fails to discuss structural issues pertaining to marginalized communities in India. Furthermore, the language is framed in an individualistic manner which denies room for recognizing systemic violence and injustice among causative agents of suicide. We aim to examine the representation of Dalit and tribal identities and their experiences of marginalisation as a contributive factor of suicide, as well as discuss the epistemic injustice involved in its exclusion. Electronic searches of PubMed, PsychInfo, and Web of Science databases will be carried out from inception till January 2023 to conduct a systematic scoping review of peer-reviewed articles; it will include all studies involving psychological autopsy in India. A narrative synthesis will be performed to gain insight into the inclusion of the experiences of Dalits and Tribals, the absence of which indicates a lacking understanding of suicide in India. It is also expected to highlight the alienation of lived experiences and narratives of marginalisation from mainstream discourse on suicide that constitutes epistemic injustice. There is a complex interplay of psychological, socio-cultural, economic, and political factors for suicide in the Indian setting. But, political and systemic issues are often downplayed in suicide etiology, including casteist assault, rape, violence, public humiliation, and discrimination which deserves more research attention.

Keywords: dalits, marginalisation, psychological autopsy, suicide, tribals

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Authors: Medha Basu, Kumardeb Banerjee, Dipak Ghosh

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After the massive blow of the COVID-19 pandemic, several health hazards have been reported all over the world. Serious cases of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) are seen to be common in about 15% of the global population, making depression one of the leading mental health diseases, as reported by the World Health Organization. Various psychological and pharmacological treatment techniques are regularly being reported. Music, a globally accepted mode of entertainment, is often used as a therapeutic measure to treat various health conditions. We have tried to understand how Indian Classical Music can affect the overall well-being of the human brain. A case study has been reported here, where a Flute-rendition has been chosen from a detailed audience response survey, and the effects of that clip on human brain conditions have been studied from both psychological and neural perspectives. Taking help from internationally-accepted depression-rating scales, two questionnaires have been designed to understand both the prolonged and immediate effect of music on various emotional states of human lives. Thereafter, from EEG experiments on 5 participants using the same clip, the parameter ‘ALAY’, alpha frontal asymmetry (alpha power difference of right and left frontal hemispheres), has been calculated. Works of Richard Davidson show that an increase in the ‘ALAY’ value indicates a decrease in depressive symptoms. Using the non-linear technique of MFDFA on EEG analysis, we have also calculated frontal asymmetry using the complexity values of alpha-waves in both hemispheres. The results show a positive correlation between both the psychological survey and the EEG findings, revealing the prominent role of music on the human brain, leading to a decrease in mental unrest and an increase in overall well-being. In this study, we plan to propose the scientific foundation of music therapy, especially from a neurocognition perspective, with appropriate neural bio-markers to understand the positive and remedial effects of music on the human brain.

Keywords: music therapy, EEG, psychological survey, frontal alpha asymmetry, wellbeing

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Authors: Fahad Alam

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Work stress directly affects job performance, specifically in a worse environment. Consequently, a social provision plays a crucial part for enhancement. Therefore, the current research investigates the direct and moderating effect between religious activities, sustainability and peer support on job performance at hospitals in Khyber PakhtunKhwa (KPK), Pakistan. Both primary and secondary data are collected through 261 questionnaires of medical employees from four district hospitals in Khyber PakhtunKhwa, Pakistan, in 2018. The analysis was carried out by SPSS16 and SMART PLS3, to test the direct effect of religious activities, sustainability and social support on job performance and the effect of moderating variable 'work environment' on job performance. The finding confirmed that direct and moderating variables play a significant positive effect among religious activities, sustainability and peer support on job performance, the variables help to diminish the strain level or the stress level, consequently helps in the job completed. Affirmative social approaches produce desirable effects on job performance. The research revealed that social provisions are significant triggers for superior practices. Moreover, the results are stimulating because some of the past literature revealed an insignificant correlation between social provision and performance. This study found that there is a significant relationship which persuades health care organizations.

Keywords: job performance, peer’s support, religious activities, sustainability, work environment

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Authors: Kamyar Kildashti, Rasoul Mirghaderi

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This paper describes the three-dimensional seismic performance assessment of a high-rise steel moment-frame setback tower, designed and detailed per the 2010 ASCE7, under multiple support excitations. The vulnerability analyses are conducted based on nonlinear history analyses under a set of multi-directional strong ground motion records which are scaled to design-based site-specific spectrum in accordance with ASCE41-13. Spatial variation of input motions between far distant supports of each part of the tower is considered by defining time lag. Plastic hinge monotonic and cyclic behavior for prequalified steel connections, panel zones, as well as steel columns is obtained from predefined values presented in TBI Guidelines, PEER/ATC72 and FEMA P440A to include stiffness and strength degradation. Inter-story drift ratios, residual drift ratios, as well as plastic hinge rotation demands under multiple support excitations, are compared to those obtained from uniform support excitations. Performance objectives based on acceptance criteria declared by TBI Guidelines are compared between uniform and multiple support excitations. The results demonstrate that input motion discrepancy results in detrimental effects on the local and global response of the tower.

Keywords: high-rise building, nonlinear time history analysis, multiple support excitation, performance-based design

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Authors: R. Bhagwan, M. Subbhan

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Nursing is a very challenging field in South Africa and due to the burden of disease it is critical that nursing students are prepared with the adequate knowledge and skills to deliver effective patient care. Despite this very little research has been done on the teaching strategies used by nurse educators to teach nursing students. It is in this context that a survey of all nurse educators at Nursing Colleges and Universities in Kwa-Zulu Natal was undertaken (n=300) to explore what current pedagogical strategies were being used and which more creative methodologies should be implemented in relation to specific nursing content. Findings revealed that most nurse educators still utlize the lecture approach, but although believe other methodologies such as e-learning are important have not done so because of inadequate training. The recommendations made are that more creative pedagogical strategies such as simultation, portfoloios and case studies be adopted.

Keywords: creative, teaching methodologies, dydactic, nursing

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Authors: Susanna Asatryan

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The author will introduce the Language Portfolio for master course student-teachers of Yerevan Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences The overall aim of the Portfolio is to serve as a visual didactic tool for the pedagogical internship of master students in specialization “A Foreign Language Teacher of High Schools and Professional Educational Institutions”, based on the principles and fundamentals of the EPOSTL. The author will present the parts of the Portfolio, including the programme, goal and objectives of student-teacher’s internship, content and organization, expected outputs and the principles of the student’s self-assessment, based on Can-do philosophy suggested by the EPOSTL. The Language Portfolio for master course student-teachers outlines the distinctive stages of their scientific-pedagogical internship. In Lesson Observation and Teaching section student teachers present thematic planning of the syllabus course, including individual lesson plan-description and analysis of the lesson. In Realization of the Scientific-Pedagogical Research section student-teachers introduce the plan of their research work, its goal, objectives, steps of procedure and outcomes. In Educational Activity section student-teachers analyze the educational sides of the lesson, they introduce the plan of the extracurricular activity, provide psycho-pedagogical description of the group or the whole class, and outline extracurricular entertainments. In the Dossier the student-teachers store up the entire instructional “product” during their pedagogical internship: e.g. samples of surveys, tests, recordings, videos, posters, postcards, pupils’ poems, photos, pictures, etc. The author’s presentation will also cover the Self Assessment Checklist, which highlights the main didactic competences of student-teachers, extracted from the EPOSTL. The Self Assessment Checklist is introduced with some innovations, taking into consideration the local educational objectives that Armenian students come across with. The students’ feedback on the use of the Portfolio will also be presented.

Keywords: internship, lesson observation, can-do philosophy, self-assessment

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Authors: Eleanor F. Willard

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The attrition rate on distance learning courses can be high. This research examines how online students often react when faced with poor results. Using q methodology, it was found that the emotional response level and the type of social support sought by students were key influences on their attitude to failure. As educational and psychological researchers, we are adept at measuring learning and achievement, but examining attitudes towards barriers to learning are not so well researched. The distance learning student has differing needs from onsite learners and, as the attrition rate is notoriously high in the online student population, examining learners’ attitude towards adversity and barriers is important. Self-report measures such as questionnaires are useful in terms of ascertaining levels of constructs such as resilience and academic confidence. Interviewing, too, can gain in depth detail of the opinions of such a population, but only in individuals. The aim of this research was to ascertain what the feelings and attitudes of online students were when faced with a setback. This was achieved using q methodology due to its use of both quantitative and qualitative methodology and its suitability for exploratory research. The emphasis with this methodology is the attitudes, not the individuals. The work was focused upon a population of distance learning students who attended a school on site for one week as part of their studies. They were engaged in a psychology masters conversion course and, as such, were graduate students. The Q sort had 30 items taken from the Academic Resilience Scale (ARS-30). The scale items represent three constructs; perseverance, reflecting (including adaptive help-seeking) and negative affect. These are widely acknowledged as being relevant concepts underpinning psychological resilience. The q sort was conducted with 19 students in total. This is done by participants arranging statement cards regarding how similar to themselves they believe each statement to be. This was done after reading a vignette describing an experience of academic failure. Commonalities and differences between the sorts from all participants are then analyzed in terms of correlations and response patterns. Following data collection, the participants' responses were initially analyzed and the key perspectives (factors) to emerge were labelled ‘persevering individuals’ and ‘emotional networkers’. The differences between the two perspectives centre around the level of emotion felt when faced with barriers and the extent that students enlist the help of others inside and outside of the university. The dominant factor to emerge from the sorts of ‘persevering individuals’ demonstrated that many distance learners are tenacious. However, for other students, the level of emotional and social support is pivotal in helping them complete their studies when facing adversity. This was demonstrated by the ‘emotional networkers’ perspective. This research forms a starting point for further work on engaging and retaining online students at university and can potentially provide insight into how universities can lower attrition rates on distance learning courses.

Keywords: academic resilience, distance learning, online learning, q methodology

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Authors: Irene Kretchy, Frances Owusu-Daaku, Samuel Danquah

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Hypertension is the leading risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, and a major cause of death and disability worldwide. This study examined whether psychosocial variables influenced patients’ perception and experience of side effects of their medicines, how they coped with these experiences and the impact on mental health and medication adherence to conventional hypertension therapies. Methods: A hospital-based mixed methods study, using quantitative and qualitative approaches was conducted on hypertensive patients. Participants were asked about side effects, medication adherence, common psychological symptoms, and coping mechanisms with the aid of standard questionnaires. Information from the quantitative phase was analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. The interviews from the qualitative study were audio-taped with a digital audio recorder, manually transcribed and analyzed using thematic content analysis. The themes originated from participant interviews a posteriori. Results: The experiences of side effects – such as palpitations, frequent urination, recurrent bouts of hunger, erectile dysfunction, dizziness, cough, physical exhaustion - were categorized as no/low (39.75%), moderate (53.0%) and high (7.25%). Significant relationships between depression (x 2 = 24.21, P < 0.0001), anxiety (x 2 = 42.33, P < 0.0001), stress (x 2 = 39.73, P < 0.0001) and side effects were observed. A logistic regression model using the adjusted results for this association are reported – depression [OR = 1.9 (1.03 – 3.57), p = 0.04], anxiety [OR = 1.5 (1.22 – 1.77), p = < 0.001], and stress [OR = 1.3 (1.02 – 1.71), p = 0.04]. Side effects significantly increased the probability of individuals to be non-adherent [OR = 4.84 (95% CI 1.07 – 1.85), p = 0.04] with social factors, media influences and attitudes of primary caregivers further explaining this relationship. The personal adoption of medication modifying strategies, espousing the use of complementary and alternative treatments, and interventions made by clinicians were the main forms of coping with side effects. Conclusions: Results from this study show that contrary to a biomedical approach, the experience of side effects has biological, social and psychological interrelations. The result offers more support for the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to healthcare where all forms of expertise are incorporated into health provision and patient care. Additionally, medication side effects should be considered as a possible cause of non-adherence among hypertensive patients, thus addressing this problem from a Biopsychosocial perspective in any intervention may improve adherence and invariably control blood pressure.

Keywords: biopsychosocial, hypertension, medication adherence, psychological disorders

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Authors: Nazeema Ahmed

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Mental health in higher education has received increasing attention over the past few decades. The high academic demands of the engineering degree, coupled with students’ mental health challenges, have led to higher education institutions offering psychotherapeutic services to students. This paper discusses an evaluation of the psychotherapy service at the University of Cape Town. The aim was to determine (i) the efficacy of the service; and (ii) the impact of race, gender, and language of the therapist on the students’ therapeutic process. An online survey was sent to 109 students who attended psychotherapy. The majority expressed favorable experiences of psychotherapy, with reports of increased capacity to engage with their academic work. Most students did not experience the gender, race, or language of the psychologists to be barriers to their therapy. The findings point to a need for ongoing psychological support for students.

Keywords: psychotherapy, efficacy, engineering, education

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Authors: Ali N. Suri, Ahmad A. Al-Makhlufi

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In this paper the problem of buckling of plates on foundation of finite length and with different side support is studied. The Finite Strip Method is used as tool for the analysis. This method uses finite strip elastic, foundation, and geometric matrices to build the assembly matrices for the whole structure, then after introducing boundary conditions at supports, the resulting reduced matrices is transformed into a standard Eigenvalue-Eigenvector problem. The solution of this problem will enable the determination of the buckling load, the associated buckling modes and the buckling wave length. To carry out the buckling analysis starting from the elastic, foundation, and geometric stiffness matrices for each strip a computer program FORTRAN list is developed. Since stiffness matrices are function of wave length of buckling, the computer program used an iteration procedure to find the critical buckling stress for each value of foundation modulus and for each boundary condition. The results showed the use of elastic medium to support plates subject to axial load increase a great deal the buckling load, the results found are very close with those obtained by other analytical methods and experimental work. The results also showed that foundation compensates the effect of the weakness of some types of constraint of side support and maximum benefit found for plate with one side simply supported the other free.

Keywords: buckling, finite strip, different sides support, plates on foundation

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Authors: Bhavani Veasuvalingam

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Case-based learning (CBL) is a popular instructional method aimed to bridge theory to clinical practice. This study aims to explore CBL mixed modality curriculum in influencing students’ learning styles and strategies that support learning. An explanatory sequential mixed method study was employed with initial phase, 44-itemed Felderman’s Index of Learning Style (ILS) questionnaire employed across year one medical students (n=142) using convenience sampling to describe the preferred learning styles. The qualitative phase utilised three focus group discussions (FGD) to explore in depth on the multimodal learning style exhibited by the students. Most students preferred combination of learning stylesthat is reflective, sensing, visual and sequential i.e.: RSVISeq style (24.64%) from the ILS analysis. The frequency of learning preference from processing to understanding were well balanced, with sequential-global domain (66.2%); sensing-intuitive (59.86%), active- reflective (57%), and visual-verbal (51.41%). The qualitative data reported three major themes, namely Theme 1: CBL mixed modalities navigates learners’ learning style; Theme 2: Multimodal learners active learning strategies supports learning. Theme 3: CBL modalities facilitating theory into clinical knowledge. Both quantitative and qualitative study strongly reports the multimodal learning style of the year one medical students. Medical students utilise multimodal learning styles to attain the clinical knowledge when learning with CBL mixed modalities. Educators’ awareness of the multimodal learning style is crucial in delivering the CBL mixed modalities effectively, considering strategic pedagogical support students to engage and learn CBL in bridging the theoretical knowledge into clinical practice.

Keywords: case-based learning, learnign style, medical students, learning

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Authors: Zhiwei Yan, Jong-Hyouk Lee, Yong-Jin Park, Xiaodong Lee

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In this paper, we analyze NEtwork MObility (NEMO) supporting problems in Content-Centric Networking (CCN), and propose the CCN-NEMO which can well support the deployment of the content-centric paradigm in large-scale mobile Internet. The CCN-NEMO extends the signaling message of the basic CCN protocol, to support the mobility discovery and fast trigger of Interest re-issuing during the network mobility. Besides, the Mobile Router (MR) is extended to optimize the content searching and relaying in the local subnet. These features can be employed by the nested NEMO to maximize the advantages of content retrieving with CCN. Based on the analysis, we compare the performance on handover latency between the basic CCN and our proposed CCN-NEMO. The results show that our scheme can facilitate the content-retrieving in the NEMO scenario with improved performance.

Keywords: NEMO, CCN, mobility, handover latency

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Authors: Burak Erkayman, Emin Gundogar, Hayrettin Evirgen, Murat Sarı

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With the increasing competition in recent years, airline companies tend to manage their operations aiming fewer losses in a robust manner. Airline operations are complex operations and have the necessity of being performed just in time and more knock-on relevant elements in the event of a disruption. In this study a knowledge based decision support system is suggested and software is developed. The developed software includes knowledge bases which are based on expert experience and government regulations, model bases and data bases. The results of the suggested approach are presented and improvable aspects of the approach are discussed.

Keywords: knowledge based systems, irregular operations, decision support systems, flight disruptions management

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Authors: Ufuk Cebeci, Onur Doğan

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New product becomes critical in competitive environment shortening a product's lifecycle due to the rapidly changing technology and increasing consumer requirements. Quality Function Deployment is one of the first steps of NPD process. The study presents an intelligent QFD application in metal plating industry. For application, an intelligent decision support system was developed. By intelligent system, house of quality was drawn and some calculations were shown. According to the results, some recommendations are given to end user. One of the purposes of this system is to give some advices to firms which do not know technical details of QFD and guide them about first steps of the new product development process.

Keywords: intelligent decision support systems, metal plating, quality function deployment, QFD software, new product development

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Authors: D. I. Yani, S. Isaramalai, C. Kritpracha

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Adherence to health behaviors is essential to achieve successful TB treatment. This study aimed to examine the effect of a family-based DOTS support program on adherence to health behaviors in patients with pulmonary TB. Sixty TB patients and their families were selected using cluster randomization of community health centers. The subjects were assigned into a control group, who received the routine care, and an experimental group, who received both routine care and care from the family-based DOTS support program. Paired t-test and the independent t-test were applied. The total score of adherence to health behaviors in the experimental group was significantly higher after receiving care from the family-based DOTS support program than the pretest score (t = -10.34, p < .001). Suggestions were made to expand the application of this program in various contexts and to extend knowledge for nursing practices and research.

Keywords: self-care deficit nursing theory, family-based DOTS program, pulmonary tuberculosis, adherence, health behaviors

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Authors: Wiwat Kittinaraporn, Napat Harnpornchai, Sutja Boonyachut

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This paper deals with the application of a novel neural network technique, so-called Support Vector Machine (SVM). The objective of this study is to explore the variable and parameter of forecasting factors in the construction industry to build up forecasting model for construction quantity in Thailand. The scope of the research is to study the non-residential construction quantity in Thailand. There are 44 sets of yearly data available, ranging from 1965 to 2009. The correlation between economic indicators and construction demand with the lag of one year was developed by Apichat Buakla. The selected variables are used to develop SVM models to forecast the non-residential construction quantity in Thailand. The parameters are selected by using ten-fold cross-validation method. The results are indicated in term of Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE). The MAPE value for the non-residential construction quantity predicted by Epsilon-SVR in corporation with Radial Basis Function (RBF) of kernel function type is 5.90. Analysis of the experimental results show that the support vector machine modelling technique can be applied to forecast construction quantity time series which is useful for decision planning and management purpose.

Keywords: forecasting, non-residential, construction, support vector machines

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Authors: Bahman Gorjian

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The notorious COVID-19 is known as an illness that is caused by a novel coronavirus. Since its breakthrough, most governments have decided to temporarily close educational institutions in an attempt to reduce the spread of this disease. Distance education in Iran, like other countries, started from the beginning of the pandemic and caused the closure of schools and universities as an immediate response to control the spread of the virus. The present study followed two aims: First, to investigate if Iraqi M.A students majoring in TEFL who have been studying in Iranian universities during the pandemic believe that COVID-19 had negative/positive effects on their educational achievement; and second, to find how frequently these Iraqi M.A students have experienced psychological problems (e.g., anxiety, numbness, nightmares, nervousness) during the COVID-19. The participants were both male and female students who were admitted for M.A. TEFL courses at 4 Iranian Universities (Abadan Brach, Ahvaz Branch, Science and Research Branch, and Shiraz Branch of Islamic Azad University) for the winter academic term of 2020. The start of their classes coincided with the global outbreak of COVID-19. They were invited to take part in the present study through snowball sampling and were asked to provide their views on two questionnaires. The instruments used for gathering the data were the educational achievement questionnaire and self-rating anxiety scale. The results of the analysis suggested that the participants believed in the negative effects of COVID-19 on their education; the results also suggested COVID-19 affected participants’ psychological states. The discussed findings may have implications for international students and experts interested in the online education system.

Keywords: COVID-19, distance education, Iraqi M.A. students, teaching English as a foreign language, educational impacts, psychological impacts

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Authors: Michel Zaitouni, Mohamed Nassar

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The purpose of this study is first, to explore the effect of employees’ perception of justice on trust in the supervisor in the context of performance appraisal; Second, to assess the role of perceived supervisor support as a mediator between organizational justice and trust in the supervisor in a non-western society such as Kuwait.The survey data consisted of 415 employees working at different hierarchical levels in three major banks in Kuwait. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the research hypotheses. Results supported hypothesized relationships between distributive, informational and interpersonal justice and trust in the supervisor but failed to support that procedural justice positively and significantly relate to trust in the supervisor. Moreover, results found that this relationship is partially mediated by perceived supervisor support. A potential limitation of this study is that data were obtained from the same industry which limits the generalizability of this study to other industries. Moreover, a longitudinal research will be helpful to strengthen the mediating relationship. The findings provide valuable information for the development of common perspectives regarding the perception of justice in the context of performance appraisal between the western and non-western societies. The paper has the privilege to explore additional relationships related to justice perceptions in the Kuwaiti banking sector, whereas previous research focused mainly on procedural and distributive justice as predictors of trust in the supervisor.

Keywords: Kuwait, organizational justice, perceived supervisor support, trust in the supervisor

Procedia PDF Downloads 293