Search results for: attitude

Authors: Sasha Goodwin

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Sex offenders are often viewed as a homogenous group, but they encompass a diverse range of individuals with varying characteristics and offenses. The principal aim of this study was to ascertain how members of the Australian public perceive and define a sex offender while also investigating the emotional underpinnings associated with these attitudes and definitions. To assess public attitude, this study used the innovative utilization of visual methodologies to assess the public's perception of sex offenders. The study employed the iSquare approach, a visual methodology framework that offers unique viewpoints and insights into public attitudes toward sex offenders. Through the utilization of this approach, this study established an academic foundation for a deeper understanding of the public's perception of sex offenders. The data analysis revealed that most participants associated sex offenders with strong negative emotions, primarily disgust and anger. The findings of this research point towards the potential for fostering a social environment characterized by evidence-based discussions instead of reactionary punitive responses. Promoting a comprehensive understanding of the diverse nature of sexual offenders aims to broaden perceptions, fostering constructive attitudes.

Keywords: visual methodologies, public perception, sex offenders, offender characteristics, emotional attitudes, isquare approach, attitudes

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Authors: Anna Romanova, Mojtaba Mahmoodian, Upul Chandrasekara, Morteza A. Alani

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Corrosion of concrete sewer pipes induced by sulphuric acid attack is a recognised problem worldwide, which is not only an attribute of countries with hot climate conditions as thought before. The significance of this problem is by far only realised when the pipe collapses causing surface flooding and other severe consequences. To change the existing post-reactive attitude of managing companies, easy to use and robust models are required to be developed which currently lack reliable data to be correctly calibrated. This paper focuses on laboratory experiments of establishing concrete pipe corrosion rate by submerging samples in to 0.5 pH sulphuric acid solution for 56 days under 10ºC, 20ºC and 30ºC temperature regimes. The result showed that at very early stage of the corrosion process the samples gained overall mass, at 30ºC the corrosion progressed quicker than for other temperature regimes, however with time the corrosion level for 10ºC and 20ºC regimes tended towards those at 30ºC. Overall, at these conditions the corrosion rates of 10 mm/year, 13,5 mm/year, and 17 mm/year were observed.

Keywords: sewer pipes, concrete corrosion, sulphuric acid, concrete coupons, corrosion rate

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Authors: Jiaqi Zhang, Zhi Dong, Pan Xing

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With the continuous development of urban agglomerations, higher demands are placed on intercity public transport travel services. To improve these services, it is necessary to comprehensively understand the views and evaluations of travelers. Taking the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration in China as the object, this study explores subjective attitude indicators from self-administrated survey data and examines the relationship among perceived accessibility, preference, and satisfaction for intercity public transport using a structural equation model. The results show that perceived service quality has a direct positive impact on perceived accessibility and satisfaction. Perceived accessibility and preference significantly affect satisfaction. In addition, perceived accessibility mediates the effect of service quality on satisfaction. This study provides valuable insights from a policy perspective to improve the subjective evaluation of intercity public transport travelers while emphasizing the importance of subjective variables in transport system evaluation and advocates for their subdivision to more comprehensively improve the travel experience.

Keywords: intercity public transport, perceived accessibility, satisfaction, structural equation model

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Authors: Tanju Deveci

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It appears that the speech act of complaint has not received as much attention as other speech acts. However, the face-threatening nature of this speech act requires a special attention in multicultural contexts in particular. The teaching context in the UAE universities, where a big majority of teaching staff comes from other cultures, requires investigations into this speech act in order to improve communication between students and faculty. This session will outline the results of a study conducted with this purpose. The realization of complaints by Freshman English students in Communication courses at Petroleum Institute was investigated to identify communication patterns that seem to cause a strain. Data were collected using a role-play between a teacher and students, and a judgment scale completed by two of the instructors in the Communications Department. The initial findings reveal that the students had difficulty putting their case, produced the speech act of criticism along with a complaint and that they produced both requests and demands as candidate solutions. The judgement scales revealed that the students’ attitude was not appropriate most of the time and that the judges would behave differently from students. It is concluded that speech acts, in general, and complaint, in particular, need to be taught to learners explicitly to improve interpersonal communication in multicultural societies. Some teaching ideas are provided to help increase foreign language learners’ sociolinguistic competence.

Keywords: speech act, complaint, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, language teaching

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Authors: Shams Ul Hussain Zaheer, Bakht Rahman, Shehla Shams, Bibi Alia

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Arabic literature, from the very past, is divided into two basic parts: prose and poetry. It will not be wrong if it is said that this division of literature is found even in the era of ignorance (before-Islam). In this period, prose was given a kind of ignorance while poetry was given much significance since people showed deeper interest in its melodious impact while listening and singing as compared to prose writing. Because poetry was directly appealing to the emotions of the people, it was celebrated as universal genre and prose remained in a subordinate position due to its diction. Despite this attitude towards the genre of prose, some of the prosaic arts were orally transmitted from one generation to another during the era of ignorance. Later on, in the Omayyad and Abbasside periods, when literature was properly classified, this art was given its proper placement in the history. In this connection, there are three important aspects of this genre i.e. will, tales, and sacerdotal words. This paper traces the historical background of these categories and how they contributed to the modern understanding of literature in terms of its diction, themes, and kinds of prose writing. This is a descriptive and qualitative research which will add insight into the role these terms can play in understanding the thinking and inclination of people in the days of ignorance.

Keywords: Arabic literature, era of ignorance, prose, special arts, analysis

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Authors: Elham A. Alsadoon, Hamadah B. Alsadoon

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Educators try to design learning environments that are preferred by their students. With the wide-spread adoption of cell phones surpassing any other technology, educators should not fail to invest in the power of such technology. This study aimed to explore the current use of cell phones in education among Saudi students in Saudi universities and how students perceive such use. Data was collected from 237 students at King Saud University. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the data. A T-test for independent groups was used to examine whether there was a significant difference between males and females in their perception of using cell phones in education. Findings suggested that students have a positive attitude toward the use of cell phones in education. The most accepted use was for sending notification to students, which has already been experienced through the Twasel system provided by King Saud University. This electronic system allows instructors to easily send any SMS or email to their students. The use of cell phone applications came in the second rank of using cell phones in education. Students have already experienced the benefits of having these applications handy wherever they go. On the other hand, they did not perceive using cell phones for assessment as practical educational usage. No gender difference was detected in terms of students’ perceptions toward using cell phones in education.

Keywords: cell phone, mobile learning, educational sciences, education

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Authors: Mengmeng Du, Noboru Noguchi, Hiroshi Okamoto, Noriko Kobayashi

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This paper introduced a topographic mapping system with time-saving and simplicity advantages based on integration of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data and Post Processing Kinematic Global Positioning System (PPK GPS) data. This topographic mapping system used a low-altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) as a platform to conduct land survey in a low-cost, efficient, and totally autonomous manner. An experiment in a small-scale sugarcane farmland was conducted in Queensland, Australia. Subsequently, we synchronized LiDAR distance measurements that were corrected by using attitude information from gyroscope with PPK GPS coordinates for generation of precision topographic maps, which could be further utilized for such applications like precise land leveling and drainage management. The results indicated that LiDAR distance measurements and PPK GPS altitude reached good accuracy of less than 0.015 m.

Keywords: land survey, light detection and ranging, post processing kinematic global positioning system, precision agriculture, topographic map, unmanned aerial vehicle

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Authors: Aliffaizi Arsat, Nur Ida Fatihah, Che Shalifullizam

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Malaysia is well known as a Muslim country and is quickly becoming a Global Halal-hub of Halal business in promoting Halal food products in both Muslim countries and non-Muslim countries. The objective of this study is to analyse the Muslim consumer purchased behaviour on doubtful Halal packed food by using theory of planned behaviour, to examine the mediating effects between certification, and Muslim consumer purchased behaviour on doubtful Halal packed food. The relevant questionnaires have been distributed in Kuala Selangor. Among the 300 Muslim participants from Kuala Selangor, Selangor, Malaysia, only 107 of them have returned the questionnaire with complete answers. The respondent’s rate was discovered to be at 35.67%. The data have been analysed by using SPSS version 22 and Structural equation modelling Partial Least Square SEM-PLS. There are three dimensions needed to identify Muslim consumer purchased behaviour on doubtful Halal packed food. They are attitude towards behaviour, subjective norm and perceived behavioural. All the results from this study show that the hypothesis has been supported. However, subjective norm had shown that there is a negative relationship towards Muslim consumer purchased behaviour on doubtful Halal packed food.

Keywords: Muslim consumer purchase behaviour, theory planned behaviour, doubtful Halal, certification

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Authors: Magdalena Kostova-Panayotova, Neda-Maria Panayotova

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The article is focused on a problem that tends to be extremely characteristic and essential to European literature – the relations between the Balkan Peninsula and Europe and the stereotypes the Balkans evoke – a melting pot, a powder keg, a bridge, a crossroads, along with other negative definitions. The stereotypes and visions are examined as the layered images of a particular nation. The work deals with the Balkan writers’ way of confronting stereotypes by reversing the image of the ‘dark’ Balkans and the ‘bright’ Europe and thus establishing the Balkans as a place of beauty, music, and poetry. In many aspects, the European image of the Balkans (the so-called Balkanism) is comparable to the European attitude to the Orient (the so-called Orientalism). On the basis of the analysis of specific texts by Balkan authors, the article proves that the identity of the person of the late 20th and early 21st century is something individual and much more complicated than a patriotic self-definition because the identity of the contemporary person is multilayered. It is not flattering to be a bridge, a crossroads or a corner. However, a person is a creature of transition. Our idea demonstrates that the state of transition always brings both weakness and strength – it is the Balkans that connect Europe to the world.

Keywords: image, Slavs, Balkans, identity of the modern Balkan person

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Authors: Seyed Hamidreza Hejazi Dehghani, Neda Khounsari

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Quick growth of electronic commerce in developed countries means that developing nations must change in their commerce strategies fundamentally. Most organizations are aware of the impact of the Internet and e-Commerce on the future of their firm, and thus, they have to focus on organizational factors that have an effect on the deployment of an e-Commerce strategy. In this situation, it is essential to identify organizational factors such as the organizational culture, human resources, size, structure and product/service that impact an e-commerce strategy. Accordingly, this research specifies the effects of organizational factors on applying an e-commerce strategy in the Namakin food industry. The statistical population of this research is 95 managers and employees. Cochran's formula is used for determination of the sample size that is 77 of the statistical population. Also, SPSS and Smart PLS software were utilized for analyzing the collected data. The results of hypothesis testing show that organizational factors have positive and significant effects of applying an e-Commerce strategy. On the other hand, sub-hypothesizes show that effectiveness of the organizational culture and size criteria were rejected and other sub-hypothesis were accepted.

Keywords: electronic commerce, organizational factors, attitude of managers, organizational readiness

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Authors: S. J. Yune, K. H. Park

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The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of medical students in volunteer activities and to draw implications for medical education. For this purpose, the questionnaire and the reflection essay on the volunteer experience of 54 students in the first year and 57 students in the second year were analyzed and analyzed. As a result, the participation of the students in the volunteer activities was the highest in the first semester and once a month in the second grade. Activities were mostly through volunteer organizations. The essence of the volunteering activities experience revealed through reflection essays was 'I want to avoid with fear' and 'I feel far away' in the recognition before volunteering activities. In terms of knowledge after participating in volunteer activities, 'breaking eggs and getting to know the world' and 'intellectual growth through social experience' appeared. In terms of attitude, it revealed 'deep reflection on me and others', 'understanding of service life'. And in terms of behavior, 'Begin preparing for a life of service' appeared. The results of this study revealed that volunteering activities provide students with opportunities for growth and development. In order to obtain more meaningful results, consciousness education related to social service should be done in advance.

Keywords: volunteering activity, pre-medical school student, reflection essay, qualitative analysis

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Authors: Hee-Jung Seo, Yunjung Lee, Areum Han, Heeyoung Park, Se-Hyuk Park

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The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between happiness and depression among people with disabilities and to analyze the social phenomenon of leisure activities among them to promote physical and leisure activities for people with disabilities. The research methods included analyzing differences in happiness according to depression classification. A total of 281 people with disabilities were analyzed using SPSS WIN Ver. 29.0. In addition, the SumTrend platform was used to analyze terms related to 'leisure activities for the disabled.' The findings can be summarized into two main points: First, there were significant differences in happiness according to depression classification. Second, there were 20 mentions before COVID-19, 34 mentions after COVID-19, and currently 43 mentions, with high positive rates observed in each period. Based on these results, the following conclusions were drawn: First, measures for people with disabilities include strengthening online resources and services, social distancing response policies, improving accessibility, and providing support and financial assistance. Second, measures for non-disabled individuals emphasize the need for education and information provision, promoting dialogue and interaction, ensuring accessibility, and promoting inclusive cultural awareness and attitude change.

Keywords: leisure activities, individuals with disabilities, COVID-19 pandemic, depression

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Authors: Talha Sareshwala

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The purpose of this research paper is to revise the skills of an entrepreneur in the making and to guide future Entrepreneurs into a promising future. The study presents a broader review of entrepreneurship, starting from its definition and antecedents. A well-developed original set of guidelines can help budding entrepreneurs and practitioners seeking an answer to being successful as an entrepreneur. It is a journey full of excitement, experiences, rewards, and learning. Dedication, work ethics and a never-say-die attitude will largely contribute to the success as a businessman and an entrepreneur. This paper is sharing an experience of how an entrepreneur can act as a catalyst for young minds while ensuring them that ethics and principles do pay in business when followed in true spirit and action. It is very important for an entrepreneur to enhance his product or services, marketing skills, and market share, along with providing customer satisfaction and opportunities for teams to improve their leadership qualities. To have strong employee loyalty and job satisfaction among its employees. Based on Research objectives, primarily in-depth interviews and focused group interviews were conducted as a qualitative research method. And to support this survey, questionnaires were used as a qualitative research method to explore how Indian Entrepreneurs face the challenge of the changing, volatile socio-political environment in India.

Keywords: entrepreneur, business ethics, sales, marketing

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Authors: Sulaiman D. Al Sabei, Amy M. Ross, Christopher S. Lee

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Nurse leaders play a fundamental role in transforming healthcare system and improving quality of patient care. Several healthcare organizations have called to increase the number of nurse leaders across all levels and in every practice setting. Identification of factors influencing nurses’ willingness to lead can inform healthcare leaders and policy makers of potentially illuminating strategies for establishing favorable work environments that motivate nurses to engage in leadership roles. The aim of this study was to investigate determinants of nurses’ willingness to engage in future leadership roles. The study was conducted at a public hospital in the Sultanate of Oman. A total of 171 registered nurses participated. A multilevel modeling was conducted. Findings revealed that 80% of nurses were likely to seek out opportunities to engage in leadership roles. The quality of the nurse-physician collegial relationships was a significant predictor of nurses’ willingness to lead. Establishing a work environment’s culture of positive nurse-physician relationships is critical to enhance nurses’ work attitude and engage them in leadership roles.

Keywords: interprofessional relationship, leadership, motivation, nurses

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Authors: Supranee Wattanasin

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This research study was a qualitative documentary research by using an in-depth interview with many experts in the field who has both knowledge and experience to provide information to create a strategic plan to enhance the students’ ethics. The findings revealed that there were five areas that require an attention. The five areas included honesty, accurate fact, human right, speed, and responsibility. The development of the strategic plan to enhance the ethics for students who major in communication arts can be concluded as follows. First, the government, private, and religion sectors need to come up together and set up the activities to promote the ethical standard in schools, universities, and organizations. Second, it is important to cultivate the knowledge that ethics is important of the professional jobs, especially in the mass communication and media. Third, the Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy should be brought to explain to students in order for them to have some immunity to the negative attitude such as drinking alcohol, gambling, cut classes, and cheating at exams. Fourth, experts in the field of ethics should be found to provide more knowledge to students and allow students to participate in activities that will increase their experience and knowledge of the real world problem.

Keywords: communication arts, ethics, mass communication, media, strategy

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Authors: Yujie Zhang

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There are debates around the legitimacy of capital punishment, i.e., whether death could serve as a proper execution in our legal system or not. Different arguments have been raised. However, none of them seem able to provide a determined answer to the issue; this results in a lack of instruction in the legal practice. This article, therefore, devotes itself to the effort to find such an answer. It takes the perspective of rights, through interpreting the concept of right to life, which capital punishment appears to be in confliction with in the two traditional approaches, to reveal a possibly best account of the right and its conclusion on capital punishment. However, this effort is not a normative one which focuses on what ought to be. It means the article does not try to work out which argument we should choose and solve the hot debate on whether capital punishment should be allowed or not. It, again, does not propose which perspective we should take to approach this issue or generally which account of right must be better; rather, it is more a thought experiment. It attempts to raise a new perspective to approach the issue of the legitimacy of capital punishment. Both its perspective and conclusion therefore are tentative: what if we view this issue in a way we have never tried before, for example the different accounts of right to life? In this sense, the perspective could be defied, while the conclusion could be rejected. Other perspectives and conclusions are also possible. Notwithstanding, this tentative perspective and account of the right still could not be denied from serving as a potential approach, since it does have the ability to provide us with a determined attitude toward capital punishment that is hard to achieve through existing arguments.

Keywords: capital punishment, right to life, theories of rights, the choice theory

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Authors: Qurat Ul Ain Bashir

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Since the inception of Pakistan Tourism industry was not on developed level but afterwards 9/11 the tourism has declined rapidly in the country. Despite Northern areas full potential, rich historical and cultural heritage, natural beauty, museums, art galleries, hiking tracks, tourism is not getting that response in Pakistan, which it deserves. In fact Pakistan has been blessed with all the features that could make her a tourist destination. On the other side the attitude of the local people, socio-political condition, lack of facilities of international standards, media’s way of reporting about country, governments’ negligence etc has more adversely affected the international tourism than domestic tourism. From 2013 onward some developments in the said industry has been shown but that is not much encouraging. In 2017 approximately two million tourist visited Pakistan in comparison to 1.75 million in 2016. In the light of above debate the paper attempts to diagnose the causes which are not allowing the reasonable growth of tourism in Pakistan and suggests steps which must be taken to develop the industry through a large scale campaign and long term planning. The methodology about this research is quantitative with reference to description, analysis and recommendations. The material would be collected from the government publications, articles, surveys, tourist accounts, books, internet, magazines.

Keywords: tourism, terrorism, barriers, infrastructure, culture, northern areas

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Authors: Münevver Başman, Ezel Tavşancıl

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Making the right decisions about students depends on teachers’ use of the assessment and evaluation techniques effectively. In order to do that, teachers should have positive attitudes and adequate self-efficacy perception towards assessment and evaluation. The purpose of this study is to investigate relationship between self-efficacy perception and the attitudes of prospective teachers towards assessment and evaluation and what kind of differences these issues have in terms of a variety of demographic variables. The study group consisted of 277 prospective teachers who have been studying in different departments of Marmara University, Faculty of Education. In this study, ‘Personal Information Form’, ‘A Perceptual Scale for Measurement and Evaluation of Prospective Teachers Self-Efficacy in Education’ and ‘Attitudes toward Educational Measurement Inventory’ are applied. As a result, positive correlation was found between self-efficacy perceptions and the attitudes of prospective teachers towards assessment and evaluation. Considering different departments, there is a significant difference between the mean score of attitudes of prospective teachers and between the mean score of self-efficacy perceptions of them. However, considering variables of attending statistics class and the class types at the graduated high school, there is no significant difference between the mean score of attitudes of prospective teachers and between the mean score of self-efficacy perceptions of them.

Keywords: attitude, perception, prospective teacher, self-efficacy

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Authors: Manar Aslan, Ayse Yildiz

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The study was conducted descriptively to assess their hospital institutionalization of upper and mid-level managers of 18 hospitals affiliated to Public Hospitals Association. In its simplest form institutionalization is whatever the subject matter, is dominated by the rules of articulated and determined behavior in all kinds of business, interaction, and communication. Hospital service is a type of service carried out chained together. It should not be forgotten that this kind of services is carried out without barrier, and who and what to do with definite lines, hospital management is a process, and this process can be achieved through institutionalization. With the establishment of the Public Hospitals Unions in Turkey, all the state hospitals in the provinces have been gathered under this roof. One of the goals is to establish control mechanisms to ensure that hospitals reach pre-determined financial, medical, and administrative standards. In this way, the preparations for the institutionalization of units and hospital enterprises will be completed. The data of the study were collected by institutionalization management attitude scale (cronbach alpha: 0.98) of composed of 5 sub-dimensions and 52 questions in 18 hospitals’ managers (N=310) in the largest province in Turkey. The results of the study revealed that the total score taken by managers at the institutionalization scale was 200.80, and this was close to the maximum score. In addition, it was determined that the difference between the mean score of the scale and its sub-dimensions with the gender, the hospitals, and the management position.

Keywords: institutionalization, hospital, manager, evaluation

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Authors: Mohammad Ayub Khan

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With increased market segmentation and competition in the hotel industry, a hotel’s ability to constantly renovate its services and amenities is a business practice that can be termed as an attitude that is not only flexible but also malleable as a result of which a hotel/property is continually poised to face the ever-changing nature of the hospitality industry and upgrades that keep the hotel or brand in competition with current competitors. One such challenge is to competitively and creatively market value-added amenities, upgraded technology, and marketing all of these as a package to not only stay relevant in the market but also to retain and enhance revenues to ensure the future financial health of a hotel. This delicate balance between staying relevant and financially viable is a crucial challenge that this poster will explore, analyze, and present by specifically looking at the ability of a hotel/brand to effectively translate its theoretical need and practice of constantly staying updated, including strategically renovating, upgrading, modifying its services, into a tangible business practice. In what ways do hotels face this challenge? In what areas of the hotel is this business concept/action most effective and profitable are just some questions that this paper will attempt to answer.

Keywords: hospitality theory, renovations, value-added amenities, strategic planning

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Authors: Armel Mbon

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This paper examines the ‘success’ of George Bernard Shaw's main character Professor Higgins' motivation in teaching Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower girl, how to speak 'correct' English in no time in Pygmalion. Notice should be given that Shaw in whose writings, language issues feature prominently, does not believe there is such a thing as perfectly correct English, but believes in the varieties of spoken English as a source of its richness. Indeed, along with his fellow phonetician Colonel Pickering, Henry Higgins succeeds in teaching Eliza that he first judges unfairly, the dialect of the upper classes and Received Pronunciation, to facilitate her social advancement. So, after six months of rigorous learning, Eliza's speech and manners are transformed, and she is able to pass herself off as a lady. Such is the success of Professor Higgins’ motivation in linguistically transforming his learner in record time. On the other side, his motivation is unsuccessful since, by the end of the play, he cannot have Eliza he believes he has shaped to his so-called good image, for wife. So, this paper aims to show, in support of the psychological approach, that in motivation, feelings, pride and prejudice cannot be combined, and that one has not to pre-judge someone’s attitude based purely on how well they speak English.

Keywords: teaching, speak, in no time, success

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Authors: Paria Koraei, Meysam Ahmadzadeh, Reza Shahriarirad, Keivan Ranjbar, Farzane Farahmand

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The rapid spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has enlisted dental offices in high-risk places. A cross-sectional survey was carried out among the general population aged 17 and above in Shiraz, Fars, Iran. The patients' demographic features were recorded and analyzed against questions regarding fear, anxiety, and attitude toward dental appointments. The Dental Anxiety Scale (DAS) questionnaire was used for the evaluation of anxiety levels. Among a total of 760 participants, the average age was 32.33±11.27 years, while 242 (31.8%) were male and 357 (47%) were single. Based on the anxiety scores, 336 (44.2%) participants had mild anxiety, 215 (28.3%) had moderate anxiety, 74 (9.7%) had high, and 135 (17.8%) had severe anxiety. The majority of participants used masks (93.8%) and disinfectants (79.9%) during dental visits, and the most emphasized policies during dental visits were using disposable face masks by the personnel (83.6%) and controlling the number of visitors in the office (81.8%). Only 226 (29.7%) reported that they hadn’t postponed their dental visits. Our findings demonstrated that anxiety in people increases toward dental treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in decreased dental appointments. Dentally anxious people were more likely to be female and married couples. Being female and older age are possible risk factors for developing a fear of dental procedures.

Keywords: Covid-19, anxiety, fear, dentistry, dental care

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Authors: Josephine Mutwale-Ziko, Nonde Lushinga, Inonge Akakandelwa

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The study discusses the effectiveness of health and safety induction practices on construction sites against the background of the Zambian construction industry experience. The research design included the literature review of relevant literature. Questionnaires and interviews were administered to regulatory bodies, health, and safety personnel. Observation was also employed on construction sites to assess the health and safety practices being used. Health and safety in the construction industry are not something to be ignored or overlooked. The construction industry needs to take heed of the serious consequences of inadequate health and safety induction practices. The implications of inadequate health and safety induction procedures included among others threats to profitability, corporate social responsibility and increased turnover of the workforce leading to poor productivity. Adequate health and safety practices can improve the health and wellbeing of employees, reduce financial implications on firms and encourage productivity on construction sites. Despite this, accidents are still prevalent on construction sites in Zambia. The overall result of this research denotes that the implementation of health and safety induction practices is inadequate, as indicated by the negligent and non-adherent attitude to health and safety induction aspects on the sites by most stakeholders on construction sites. Therefore, health and safety induction practices are ineffective as preventive measures for reduction of accidents on construction sites in Zambia.

Keywords: accidents, health and safety, inadequate, induction

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Authors: Maciej Kozlowski, Agnieszka Piotrowska-Piatek

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Purpose: This article analyses the most important financial participation programmes (FPP) in Poland to show the relationship between the programmes applied and the socio-economic results of enterprises and assesses the impact of participation on these results and the impact of selected factors on the introduction of FPP. Methodology: The research has been based on a questionnaire answered by senior management of listed Polish companies that had at least one out of three major FPPs in operation, namely share ownership, profit-sharing, or a stock option scheme. Findings: The results of the empirical study conducted indicate the existence of some peculiar relationships. The vast majority of schemes in Polish public companies are aimed at the participation of the management personnel; these programmes are narrow-based (only for management) and rather hermetic, with a high concentration of stocks or shares in the hands of the management. Conclusion: FPPs generally have a positive influence on enterprise functioning. However, the effects are more social than economic (no significant economic improvement after programme implementation). The paper contributes to the debate about financial participation and suggests actions to popularize these programmes on a wider scale.

Keywords: financial participation, profit sharing, stock options, worker attitude, worker ownership

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Authors: T. A. Ajiboye

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This study examines the effects of health education programme on knowledge and prevention of cerebrovascular disease among hypertensive patients in University College Hospital, Ibadan. A quasi-experimental design was adopted for the study. 100 hypertensive patients were conveniently selected from general outpatient department in UCH. Data generated were analyzed using ANOVA at 0.05 alpha levels. The findings of the study revealed that health education programme significantly influenced both the knowledge of hypertensive patients (F=22.70; DF=1/99; p < .05) and their attitude (F=10.377; DF=1/99; p < .05) on cerebrovascular disease. Findings also discovered that health education programme significantly reduce the complication of hypertension to cerebrovascular disease (F= 16.41; DF=7/286; p < 0.05) among the hypertensive patients at UCH. Based on the findings, it is recommended that hypertensive patients should relieve themselves from stress, engage themselves on regular exercises, compliance with drug and diet regimes coupled with keeping up of regular appointment. Government should design health information that will center on hypertension and cerebrovascular disease so as to keep health and community development problems to the barest minimum. Finally, there should be provision of social amenities and recreational centers, as this will prevents hypertension problems.

Keywords: cerebrovascular disease, effectiveness, health education, hypertension, knowledge, prevention

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Authors: Nureni Asafe Yekini, Olawale Nasiru Lawal, Bola Dada, Gabriel Adeyemi Okunlola

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This study is focused on the strengths and challenges associated with using the online social network as a rapidly evolving medium in marketing tourism services and businesses among the youths in Nigeria. The paper examines the Nigerian tourists’ attitude, mainly towards three aspects: application of Internet for travel and tourism; usage of online social networks in sharing travel and tourism experiences; and trust in electronic-media for marketing tourism businesses and services. The aim of this research is to determine the level of application of internet tools in marketing tourism businesses and services in Nigeria. This study reports an empirical analysis based on data obtained from a survey among 1004 Nigerian tourists. The outcome confirms the research hypothesis and points to crucial importance of introducing online social network site for marketing tourism businesses and services in Nigeria, and increasing the awareness for Nigeria as a tourist destination. Moreover, the paper strongly recommends the use of online social network as a tool for marketing tourism businesses and services, and the need for identifying effective framework for application of ICT tools in marketing tourism businesses and services in Nigeria at large.

Keywords: tourism business, internet, online social networks, tourism services, ICT

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Authors: Ratri A. Benedictus, Felicia M. Yolanda

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Public transport is a crucial issue for capital city in developing country, such as Jakarta. Inadequate number and low quality of public transport services resulting personal vehicles as the main option. As a result, traffic jams are getting worse in Jakarta. The low quality of public transport, particularly buses, compounded by the risk behavior of the driver. Traffic accidents involving public bus in Jakarta were often the case, even result in fatality. The purpose of this study is to get a description of risk behavior among the public bus drivers in Jakarta. 132 bus drivers become respondent of this study. Risky Driving Behavior scale of Dorn were used. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. 51.5% of respondents felt often showing risky behavior while on driving. The highest type of risky driving behavior is still using the unsafe bus (62%). Followed by trespass the bus line (30%), over speed (21%), violate the road signs (15%) and driving with unhealthy physical condition (4%). Results of this study suggested that high understanding of the bus drivers on their risk behaviors have not lead to the emergence of safe driving behavior. Therefore, together with technical engineering and instrumentation work intervention over this issue, psychological aspects also need to be considered, such as: risk perception, safety attitude,safety culture, locus of control and Fatalism.

Keywords: bus driver, psychological factors, public transportation, risky driving behavior

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Authors: Nkatow Mafany Christian

Abstract:

According to UNHCR’s annual Database, humanitarian crises have globally been on the increase since the beginning of the 21st Century, especially in the Middle East and in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cameroon is one of the countries that has suffered tremendously from humanitarian challenges in recent years, especially with crises in the Far North, the East and its Two English-speaking Regions. These have been a result of failed mechanisms in conflict resolution peacebuilding by the government. The paper draws from this basic premise to argue that the failure to reach a consensus in order to curb internal conflicts has largely been due to the government’s attachment to the domineering attitude which emphasizes an imposition of peace terms by a superordinate (government) agency on the subordinate (aggrieved) entities. This has stalled peace efforts that have so far been engaged to address the dreaded armed conflicts in the North and South West Regions, leading to the persistence of the armed conflict. The paper exploits written, oral and online sources to sustain its argument. It suggests that an eclectic approach to resolving conflicts, which emphasizes open and frank dialogue as well as a review of the root causes, can go a long way not only to build trust but also to address the Anglophone-Cameroonian problems in Cameroon.

Keywords: conflict, conflict resolution, peace building, humanitarian crisis

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Authors: Sona Lorencova, Beata Hornickova

Abstract:

Compulsory pre-school education in Slovakia will be established by the Education Act for all five-year-old children from September 2021. The implementation of this law will change pre-school education in our country from optional to compulsory, and children will be able to complete this education either in institutional form school facilities or in the form of individual education at the request of the parent. The primary purpose of this change is that all children achieve pre-school education before entering primary school, thus eliminating differences between children before entering primary school. The benefits of introducing compulsory pre-school education are obvious to the professional public. However, as this fundamental change in children's education is perceived by parents who have a prime position in the upbringing and education of their children, research pays minimal attention. The aim of the study is to interpret the findings of quantitatively oriented research, which was focused on finding out the attitudes of parents to the planned introduction of compulsory preschool education in Slovakia. The data were obtained through questionnaires primarily intended for parents of preschool children. In the distributed questionnaire, the degree of agreement or disagreement with individual items could be expressed on a 5-point Likert scale. The results of the research present how perceived compulsory pre-school education is perceived by the parental public in Slovakia and what perspectives and limitations parents anticipate after its introduction.

Keywords: compulsory pre-school education, education act, childs' learning and development, kindergarten, parents' perspectives

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Authors: Mehran Memari, Bita Asadi

Abstract:

Second language (L2) classrooms in academic contexts usually consist of learners with diverse L2 proficiency levels. One solution for managing such heterogeneous classes and addressing individual needs of students is to improve learner autonomy by using technological innovations such as blogging. The focus of this study is on investigating the effects of blogging on improving the quality of Iranian university students' writings. For this aim, twenty-six Iranian university students participated in the study. Students in the experimental group (n=13) were required to blog daily while the students in the control group (n=13) were asked to write a daily schedule using paper and pencil. After a 3-month period of instruction, the five last writings of the students from both groups were rated by two experienced raters. Also, students' attitudes toward the traditional method and blogging were surveyed using a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. The research results showed evidences in favor of the students who used blogging in their writing program. Also, although students in the experimental group found blogging more demanding than the traditional method, they showed an overall positive attitude toward the use of blogging as a way of improving their writing skills. The findings of the study have implications for the incorporation of computer-assisted learning in L2 academic contexts.

Keywords: blogging, computer-assisted learning, paper and pencil, writing

Procedia PDF Downloads 402