Search results for: performance-based questionnaire

Authors: Khlif Hamadi

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The principal aim of our research is to analyze the impact of the adoption of e-management approach on the performance of Tunisian firms. The method of structural equation was adopted to conduct our exploratory and confirmatory analysis. The results arising from the questionnaire sent to 155 E-managers affirm that the adoption of e-management approach influences the performance of Tunisian firms. The results of the questionnaire show that e-management favors the deployment of ICT usage and contributes enormously to the performance of the modern enterprise. The theoretical and practical implications of the study, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.

Keywords: e-management, ICT Deployment, organizational performance, e-manager

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Authors: Ibrahim Alreshidi, Aseel Albrekeit, Ruaa Alharthi

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Background: As a result of the spread of COVID-19 at the beginning of 2020, many governments, including Saudi Arabia, have suspended operations in many agencies. Most dermatologists have restricted their practice, including cosmetic procedures, to ensure social distancing. On the 7th of May 2020, Saudi authorities reduced the restriction of COVID-19 virus preventative measures, allowing clinics to start accepting patients following the ministry of health protocols. Objectives: Evaluation of the public's perception and willingness to undergo cosmetic procedures during COVID-19 outbreaks in Saudi Arabia. Materials and methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was carried out among the individuals who lack typical symptoms of COVID-19 infection in Saudi Arabia. A self-designed web-based questionnaire was developed; content face validity and a pilot study were done. The questionnaire was distributed electronically from the 8th of May until the 31st of May 2020. Results: A total of 656 individuals who lack typical symptoms of COVID-19 infection were included in this analysis. Only 10.5% of participants expressed their will to do cosmetic procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 90% of the participants believed that the COVID-19 pandemic was either somewhat serious (52.9%) or very serious (38.7%). The willingness to do cosmetic procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic remained unaltered when the price was discounted (p<0.001) and when infection control measures were ensured (p<0.001). Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the practice of cosmetic dermatology. Fear of transferring the infection to a beloved home member is the main reason to avoid these procedures. Generating well-structured safety guidelines to decrease the risk of this unusual virus transmission in dermatology practice and creating financial incentives may help increase the public willingness to do these cosmetic procedures during this pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, cosmetic procedures, questionnaire, dermatology

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Authors: Abdullah Karaman, Kursad Sayin

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In this research, which information technologies are used in small hotel businesses, and the information technologies-performance perception of the managers are pointed out. During the research, the questionnaire was prepared and the small scale hotel managers were interviewed face to face and they filled out the questionnaire and the answers acquired were evaluated. As the result of the research, it was obtained that the managers do not care much about the information technologies usage in practice even though they accepted that the information technologies are important in terms of performance.

Keywords: information technologies, managers, performance, small hotels

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Authors: Dorottya Horváth, Andras Lang, Diana Varro-Horvath

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This research activity and study is part of a major research effort to gain an integrative, neuropsychological, and personality psychological understanding of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and thus improve the specification of diagnostic and therapeutic care. In the past, the neuropsychology section has investigated working memory, executive function, attention, and behavioural manifestations in children. Currently, we are looking for personality psychological protective factors for ADHD and its symptomatic exacerbation. We hypothesise that secure attachment, adaptive emotion regulation, and high resilience are protective factors. The aim of this study is to measure and report the results of a Hungarian sample of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children (CERQ-k) because before studying groups with different developmental differences, it is essential to know the average scores of groups with neurotypical devel-opment. Until now, there was no Hungarian version of the above test, so we used our own translation. This questionnaire has been developed to assess children's thoughts after experiencing negative life events. It consists of 4-4 items per subscale, for a total of 36 items. The response categories for each item range from 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always). The subscales were self-blame, blaming others, acceptance, planning, positive refocusing, rumination or thought-focusing, positive reappraisal, putting into perspective, and catastrophizing. The data for this study were collected from 120 children aged 9-14 years. It was analysed using descriptive statistical analysis, where the mean and standard deviation values for each age group, as well as the Cronbach's alpha value, were significant in testing the reliability of the questionnaire. The results showed that the questionnaire is a reliable and valid measuring instrument also on a Hungarian sample. These developments and results will allow the use of a version of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for children in Hungarian and pave the way for the study of different developmental groups such as children with learning disabilities and/or with ADHD.

Keywords: neurotypical development, emotion regulation, negative life events, CERQ-k, Hungarian average scores

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Authors: Kanupriya Rawat, Aleksandra Błachnio, Paweł Izdebski

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Achievement motivation, which drives a person to strive for success, is an important construct in sports psychology. This systematic review aims to analyze the methods of measuring achievement motivation used in previous studies published over the past four decades and to find out which method of measuring achievement motivation is the most prevalent and the most effective by thoroughly examining measures of achievement motivation used in each study and by evaluating most highly cited achievement motivation measures in sport. In order to understand this latent construct, thorough measurement is necessary, hence a critical evaluation of measurement tools is required. The literature search was conducted in the following databases: EBSCO, MEDLINE, APA PsychARTICLES, Academic Search Ultimate, Open Dissertations, ERIC, Science direct, Web of Science, as well as Wiley Online Library. A total of 26 articles met the inclusion criteria and were selected. From this review, it was found that the Achievement Goal Questionnaire- Sport (AGQ-Sport) and the Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ) were used in most of the research, however, the average weighted impact factor of the Achievement Goal Questionnaire- Sport (AGQ-Sport) is the second highest and most relevant in terms of research articles related to the sport psychology discipline. Task and Ego Orientation in Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ) is highly popular in cross-cultural adaptation but has the second last average IF among other scales due to the less impact factor of most of the publishing journals. All measures of achievement motivation have Cronbach’s alpha value of more than .70, which is acceptable. The advantages and limitations of each measurement tool are discussed, and the distinction between using implicit and explicit measures of achievement motivation is explained. Overall, both implicit and explicit measures of achievement motivation have different conceptualizations of achievement motivation and are applicable at either the contextual or situational level. The conceptualization and degree of applicability are perhaps the most crucial factors for researchers choosing a questionnaire, even though they differ in their development, reliability, and use.

Keywords: achievement motivation, task and ego orientation, sports psychology, measures of achievement motivation

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Authors: Jina Hong, Seongeun Ryu, Sungeun You

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Suicide rate among homeless people are much higher than one in the general population. The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of PTSD and aggression in the relationship between childhood physical abuse and suicidal behavior among homeless people. One hundred one homeless were recruited from street and shelters in Korea. Face-to-face interviews were conducted by master’s level graduate students or facility employees of shelters. All participants completed the Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R), Life History of Aggression Questionnaire (LHAQ), Primary Care PTSD (PC-PTSD), and Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ). The average age of homeless people participated in the study was 55.2 years (SD = 10.7) with the age range of 30 to 87. Results indicated that PTSD symptoms and aggression fully mediated the relationship between childhood physical abuse and suicidal behavior among the homeless. These findings suggest the need for trauma-informed care for the homeless, and warrant the need for psychological services for PTSD and aggression in order to reduce suicide risk among homeless people.

Keywords: aggression, homeless, PTSD, suicidal behavior

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Authors: Mehravar Javid, James Sexton, Farzaneh Amani, Kainaz Patravala

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Self-expansion is a procedure through which people expand the dimensions of their self-concept by incorporating novel content into their sense and experience of identity. Greater self-expansion predicts positive consequences for individuals and romantic relationships. The self-expansion questionnaire (SEQ) originally developed by Lewandowski & Aron (2002) assumes that self-expansion is constituted of key components from the self-expansion model. This study aimed to confirm the factor structure of SEQ and adapt the questions of the scale to the Iranian culture. The sample included 190 participants who responded to 14 items and were selected by simple random sampling. Using Amos-21 and SPSS-21, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were calculated. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for total SEQ items was 0.92. Results of CFA supported the factor structure SEQ [RMSEA=0.08, GFI=0.88 and CFI=0.92] that showed the model has a good fit and also all the items of SEQ, have a high correlation and have a direct and significant relationship. So, the SEQ demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties in Tehran University students. Looking forward, it would be interesting and exciting to see the implications of the scale as applied to romantic relationships.

Keywords: validity, reliability, confirmatory factor analysis, self-expansion questionnaire

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Authors: Ala Rakhshandeh, Zahra Ashkar, Solmaz Dehghani Dolatabadi, Hossein Bayat

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The present study has been conducted to investigate the role of family emotional climate and emotional expression style in the academic well-being of students with military parents. Children, including 280 female students of Shahriar police officers, were selected by random sampling method, and they have been investigated through Alfred B. Hillburn's family emotional climate questionnaire (1964), King and Ammon's emotional expression questionnaire (1990), and Pitrinen, Sweeney, and Falto's academic well-being questionnaire (2014). The data were analyzed using statistical methods of correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression under the SPSS23 program. The results reveal that the variables of family emotional climate and emotional expression can explain 36.4% of the variance in academic well-being. This finding reveals that with an increase of standard deviation on the scores of family emotional climate and emotional expression, 0.513 and 0.155 standard deviations are added to the scores of academic well-being, respectively. The emotional climate of the family has a superior distinctive role in predicting the educational well-being of female students. Thus, the emotional climate of the family and the style of emotional expression play a meaningful role in the academic well-being of students with the military parent.

Keywords: emotional climate, family, emotional expression style, academic well-being

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Authors: Ahmed Amin Mousa, Tamer M. Ismail, M. Abd El Salam

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This work presents a robot called Conceptual Robotic Cube, CR-Cube. The robot can be used as an educational tool for children from the age of three. It has a cube shape attached with a camera colours sensor. In addition, it contains four wheels to move smoothly. The researchers prepared a questionnaire to measure the efficiency of the robot. The design and the questionnaire was presented to 11 experts who agreed that the robot is appropriate for learning numbering and colours for preschool children.

Keywords: CR-Cube, robotic cube, conceptual robot, conceptual cube, colour concept, early childhood education

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Authors: Albert Perez-Bellmunt, Eila Rivera, Aida Valls, Berta Estragues, Sara Ortiz, Roberto Seijas, Pedro Alvarez

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INTRODUCTION: Physical and sports activity on a regular basis present numerous health benefits such as the prevention of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Also, there is a relation between sport and the psychological or the cognitive process of children and young people. The objective of the present study is to know if the sports practice has any positive influence on the university academic performance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The level of the physical activity of 220 students of different degrees in health science was evaluated and compared with the academic results (grades). To assess the level of physical and sports activity, the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire (to calculate the sporting level in a general way) and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (to estimate the physical activity carried out during the days leading up to the academic exams) were used. RESULTS: The students that realized an average level of sports activity the days before the exam obtained better grades than the rest of their classmate and the result was statistically significant. Controversially, if the sports level was analyzed in a general way, no relationship was observed between academic performance and the level of sport realized. CONCLUSION: A moderate physical activity, on the days leading up to an assessment, can be a positive factor for the university academic performance. Despite the fact that a regular sports activity improves many cognitive and physiological processes, the present study did not observe a direct relationship between sport/physical activity and academic performance.

Keywords: academic performance, academic results, global physical activity questionnaire, physical activity questionnaire, sport, sport practice

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Authors: Morfaw Bernice Njinju

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The contribution of exporting and small businesses to an economy cannot be overemphasized. However, small firms in developing economies are characterized by resource deficiencies, which hinders their exporting abilities. As a result, export promotion programs are designed by the government as external resources that small firms can access to overcome export barriers and improve their exporting. Nevertheless, doubts still exist as to whether firms are aware of these programs and the extent to which they are utilizing it. To analyse the level of awareness and usage of these programs, the questionnaire was developed from the review of the literature. A pilot study was conducted to determine the ease of completing the questionnaire by respondent before incorporating feedback to produce the final questionnaire. Data were collected from 200 small businesses in Cameroon in the manufacturing and agricultural sector through random sampling and analysed using regression analysis. The results indicated that different programs had different levels of awareness than others. Programs to provide training to improve product quality was found to have the highest level of awareness while those providing findings had low levels of awareness. Despite these different levels of awareness, usage was very low, as firms do not want to open up to government scrutiny of their business. Implications to policy, practice, and direction for further research are also discussed.

Keywords: export promotion programs, exporting, small businesses, Cameroon

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Authors: Philomena Ibuh Adzongo, Margaret U. Oluwole, Justina Nguveren Jor.

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This paper investigated the need for the development of entrepreneurial skills for Benue State University students. The population consisted of all 1,500 final year students in Benue State University. A sample of 100 students was selected using simple random sampling. A 12-item self-constructed and content validated questionnaire by research experts titled, the Need for the Development of Entrepreneurial Skills in Benue State University Students (NDECBSUS) was used to collect the data. The questionnaire items were rated using a 4-point modified rating scale of Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree, assigned the following scores of 4,3,2 and 1, respectively. The questionnaire was administered by the researcher with the help of two research assistants through the primary source. Simple percentages and chi-square were used to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses, respectively. The findings revealed that in business management, business management skills, personal skills, and technical skills need to be developed in students for them to become effective and efficient entrepreneurs and concluded that the acquisition of these skills will reduce the challenge of unemployment. The study recommended that funds should be made available by all education stakeholders for such programmes to remain functional.

Keywords: entrepreneurial skill, entrepreneurship, need for development, university students

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Authors: İsmail Seçer

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Although depression and anxiety disorders are considered to be adult disorders, the evidence obtained from several studies conducted recently shows that the roots of depression and anxiety disorders go back to childhood years. Thus, it is thought that analyzing depressive symptoms and anxiety disorders observed in the childhood is an important necessity. In the direction of the problem status of the study, the purpose of this study is to adapt anxiety and depression questionnaire for children into Turkish culture and analyze the psychometric characteristics of it on clinical and nonclinical samples separately. The study is a descriptive survey research. The study was conducted on two different sample groups, clinical and nonclinical. The clinical sample is formed of 205 individuals and the nonclinical sample is formed of 630 individuals. Through the study, anxiety and depression questionnaire for children, anxiety sensitivity index and obsessive compulsive disorder questionnaire for children were used. Experts’ opinions were asked to provide language validity of the scale. Confirmatory factor analysis and criterion-related validity to analyze construct validity and internal consistency and split-half reliability analyses were done for reliability. In the direction of experts’ opinions, construct validity of the scale was analyzed with simple confirmatory factor analysis and it was determined that the model fit of the two-factor structure of the scale gives good fit on both the clinical and nonclinical samples after determining that the language validity of the scale is provided. In criterion-related validity, it was determined that there are positive and significant relations between anxiety and depression questionnaire for children and anxiety sensitivity and obsessive compulsive disorder. The results of internal consistency and half-split reliability analyses also show that the scale has adequate reliability value. It can be said that depression and anxiety questionnaire for children which was adapted to determine depressive symptoms and anxiety disorders observed in childhood has adequate reliability and validity values and it can be used in future studies. It can be recommended that the psychometric characteristics of the scale can be analyzed and reported on new samples in the future studies.

Keywords: scale adapting, construct validity, confirmatory factor analysis, childhood depression

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Authors: Xuling Zhang, Yong Wang, Xingyun Liu, Shuangxue Xu

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Based on positive psychology, this study presented a mediated moderation model in which character strengths moderated the relationship between interpersonal relationship, job satisfaction and subjective well-being, with job satisfaction taking the mediation role among them. A total of 912 teachers participated in four surveys, which include the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, Values in Action Inventory of Strengths, job satisfaction questionnaire, and the interpersonal relationship questionnaire. The results indicated that: (1) Taking interpersonal relationship as a typical work environmental variable, the result shows that it is significantly correlated to subjective well-being. (2) The character strengths of "kindness", “authenticity” moderated the effect of the teachers’ interpersonal relationship on subjective well-being. (3) The teachers’ job satisfaction mediated the above mentioned moderation effects. In general, this study shows that the teachers’ interpersonal relationship affects their subjective well-being, with their job satisfaction as mediation and character strengths of “kindness” and “authenticity” as moderation. The managerial implications were also discussed.

Keywords: character strength, subjective well-being, job satisfaction, interpersonal relationship

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Authors: Hao-Hsi Tseng, Hsin-Yun Lee, Yu-Cheng Kuo

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In order to understand whether there is a better than the learning function of learning methods and improve the CAD Courses for enterprise’s design human resource development, this research is applied in learning practical learning computer graphics software. In this study, Revit building information model for learning content, design of two different modes of learning curriculum to learning, learning functions, respectively, and project learning. Via a post-test, questionnaires and student interviews, etc., to study the effectiveness of a comparative analysis of two different modes of learning. Students participate in a period of three weeks after a total of nine-hour course, and finally written and hands-on test. In addition, fill in the questionnaire response by the student learning, a total of fifteen questionnaire title, problem type into the base operating software, application software and software-based concept features three directions. In addition to the questionnaire, and participants were invited to two different learning methods to conduct interviews to learn more about learning students the idea of two different modes. The study found that the ad hoc short-term courses in learning, better learning outcomes. On the other hand, functional style for the whole course students are more satisfied, and the ad hoc style student is difficult to accept the ad hoc style of learning.

Keywords: development, education, human resource, learning

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Authors: Farhad Shafiepour Motlagh, Narges Salehi

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The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between inspirational leadership style and perceived social capital through the mediation of organizational knowledge resource development. The research method was descriptive-correlational. The statistical population consisted of all 3537 secondary school teachers in Isfahan. Sample selection was based on Cochran's formula volume formula for 338 people and multi-stage random sampling. The research instruments included a researcher-made inspirational leadership style questionnaire, a perceived social capital questionnaire (Putnam, 1999), and a researcher-made questionnaire of perceived organizational knowledge resources. Kolmogorov statistical tests, Pearson correlation, stepwise multiple regression, and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data. In general, the results showed that there is a significant relationship between inspirational leadership style and the use of perceived social capital at the level of P <0.05. Also, the development of organizational knowledge resources mediates the relationship between inspirational leadership style and the use of perceived social capital at the level of P <0.05.

Keywords: inspirational leadership style, perceived social capital, perceived organizational knowledge

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Authors: Niloofar Fathizaviyehkord

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Just as two hands cannot make a good boxer, knowing two or more languages cannot make a skillful interpreter. Interpreting, either consecutive or simultaneous, is a cognitively demanding task requiring not only linguistic and discourse knowledge but also strategic competence. Moreover, experience level can play a very crucial role in the strategies interpreters may employ since translation and interpretation quality is a matter of experience, besides other factors, as well. With regard to the significance of strategic competence, this study investigated what strategies are mainly employed by interpreters, what strategies are employed more frequently, and whether experience level can affect the choice of strategies by interpreters or not. To collect the necessary data, the first retrospective interviews were held with 20 interpreters experienced more or less in simultaneous and consecutive interpretation to see what strategies other than those classified in the literature are employed by interpreters. Then, several classifications of strategies in literature were merged with those emerging from the retrospective interviews to come up with a comprehensive questionnaire on interpreting strategies. After seeking five experts’ opinions regarding the wording/content of the questionnaire, it was given to 60 interpreters. The statistical analysis of the questionnaire data and experience level through ANOVA showed experience level could affect the choice of strategies. This study closes with the theoretical/practical implications of the findings for interpreter training.

Keywords: experience level, consecutive and simultaneous, interpretation strategies, translation

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Authors: Farzaneh Noori

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Entrepreneurs face different sort of difficulties especially with customers, organizations and employees. Emotional intelligence which is the ability to understand and control the emotions is an important factor to help entrepreneurs end up challenges to the result they prefer. Thus, it is assumed that entrepreneurs especially those who have passed the first challenging years of starting a new business, have high emotional intelligence. In this study the Iranian established entrepreneurs have been surveyed. According to Iran Gem 2014 report the percentage of established entrepreneur in Iran is 10.92%. So by using Cochran sample formula (1%) 96 Iranian established entrepreneurs have been selected and Emotional intelligence appraisal questionnaire distributed to them. The SPSS19 result shows high emotional intelligence in Iranian established entrepreneurs.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, emotional intelligence appraisal questionnaire, entrepreneurs, Iran

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Authors: Charles Okon Effiong

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This paper is a sociolinguistic analysis of the semantics of students’ slang in Akwa Ibom State College of Education, Afaha Nsit, Nigeria. The descriptive survey design was deployed for the study and data were collected from one hundred and fifty (150) students through a series of instruments such as questionnaire, interviews and observations. The questionnaire was administered randomly to levels 200, 300 and Extra Time students only. Interviews and observations were also conducted on the students. These categories of students were selected because they had spent a longer time in the college and were thought to be familiar with campus slang. A total of ninety two (92) slang expressions were taken from the questionnaire and out of this number, twenty six (26) slang expressions were peculiar to the college while sixty six (66) were those slang terms also used in the society. The study proves the notion that every speaker handles a variety of registers and tends to choose among them in accordance with the social situation in which he finds himself. The study shows campus slang as a sociolect which facilitates communication among the students in a different sense. The slang expressions are fully intelligible to the students and this unique and elaborate lexicon serves to achieve group identity among other social implications.

Keywords: communication, slang, social relationship, sociolinguistics

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Authors: Ozlem Karabulutlu, Kiymet Yesilcicek Calik, Nazli Akar

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Objectives: To examine fear of childbirth according to parity, gestational age, prenatal education, and obstetric history. Methods: The study was performed as a questionnaire design in a State Hospital in Kars, Turkey with 403 unselected pregnant who were recruited from the delivery unit. The data were collected via 3 questionnaires; the first with sociodemographic and obstetric features, the second with Wijma Delivery Expectance/Experience Questionnaire (W-DEQ) scale, and the third with the scale of Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Results: The W-DEQ and BAI scores were higher in nulliparous than multiparous woman (W-DEQ 67.08±28.33, 59.87±26.91, P=0.039<0.05, BAI 18.97±9.5, 16.65±11.83, P=0.0009<0.05 respectively). Moreover, W-DEQ and BAI scores of pregnant whose gestational week was ≤37 / ≥41 and who didn’t receive training and had vaginal delivery was higher than those whose gestational week was 38-40 weeks and who received prenatal training and had cesarean delivery (W-DEQ 67.54±29.20, 56.44±22.59, 69.72±25.53 p<0.05, BAI 21.41±9.07; 15.77±11.20, 18.36±10.57 p<0.05 respectively). Both in nulliparous and multiparous, as W-DEQ score increases BAI score increases too (r=0.256; p=0.000<0.05). Conclusions: Severe fear of childbirth and anxiety was more common in nulliparous women, preterm and post-term pregnancy and who did not receive prenatal training and had vaginal delivery.

Keywords: Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), fear of birth, parity, pregnant women, Wijma Delivery Expectance/Experience Questionnaire (W-DEQ)

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Authors: Leila Mohammadi

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This paper presents the impact of persuasive communication implemented by fertility clinics websites, and how this information influences women at their decision-making for undertaking this procedure. The influential factors for women decisions to do social egg freezing (SEF) are analyzed from a framing theory perspective, with a specific focus on the impact of persuasive information on women’s decision making. This study follows a quantitative approach. A two-phase survey has been conducted to examine the interest rate to undertake SEF. In the first phase, a questionnaire was available during a month (May 2015) to women to answer whether or not they knew enough information of this process, with a total of 230 answers. The second phase took place in the two last weeks of July 2015. All the respondents were invited to a seminars called ‘All about egg freezing’ and afretwards they were requested to answer the second questionnaire. After the seminar, in which they were given an extensive amount of information about egg freezing, a total of 115 women replied the questionnaire. The collected data during this process were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Most of the respondents changed their opinion in the second questionaire which was after receiving information. Although in the first questionnaire their self-evaluation of having knowledge about this process and the implemented technologies was very high, they realized that they still need to access more information from different sources in order to be able to make a decision. The study reached the conclusion that persuasive and framed information by clinics would affect the decisions of these women. Despite the reasons women have to do egg freezing and their motivations behind it, providing people necessary information and unprejudiced data about this process (such as its positive and negative aspects, requirements, suppositions, possibilities and consequences) would help them to make a more precise and reasonable decision about what they are buying.

Keywords: decision making, fertility clinics, framing theory, persuasive information, social egg freezing

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Authors: Behnaz Farahani, Razieh Sotoudeh, Ali Vahdani, Hamed Abdi

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Individual differences in eating behavior can cause underweight or overweight and obesity. Thus influencing factors on children’s eating behavior such as mothers’ feeding practices are needed to be more investigated. The goals of this survey are to evaluate the association of (i) parental pressure and children’s food avoidant tendency, (ii) parental restriction and children’s food approach tendency, (iii) modeling of healthy eating in front of children and their children’s eating behavior. 760 mothers of children aged 7-10 from schools in Isfahan were asked to complete questionnaires including Child Feeding Questionnaire, Children’s Eating Behavior Questionnaire, Modeling Questionnaire, and self-administered demographic questionnaire in which mothers reported their children’s height and weight as well. Of those mothers, 745 completed the questionnaires for the children’s index (mean age: 8.513±1.112) during the 2011-2012 school year. The results of this quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional analysis indicated that “parental restriction” was positively associated with child food responsiveness (P,0.000) and food enjoyment (P,0.000) and surprisingly, it was positively associated with Food Fussiness(0.000) .Parental pressure to eat was positively associated with child satiety responsiveness (P,0.000), slowness (P,0.000), and fussiness (P,0.00) and negatively associated with Food responsiveness(p,0.000)and Enjoyment of food (p,0.002), modeling of healthy eating were positively associated with Enjoyment of food / q (p,0.000) and negatively with food fussiness (P,0.000). The results of this survey will improve interventions and maternal guidance on their feeding practices and their association with children’s eating behavior and weight.

Keywords: feeding practices, eating behavior, pressure to eat, restriction, modeling, satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, food fussiness, food responsiveness, enjoyment of food

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Authors: Yu H. Chen, Li C. Chen, Hsiang Y. Wu, Wan Y. Chen, Yin S. Lai, Sarah S. Chen

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Little has been done to customize an appropriate program on gratitude for nurses, who work in high-stress environments. The purpose of this study is to design an appropriate program on gratitude for nurses and to investigate the effects of the program. Based on research done by Kaohsiung Medical University’s Positive Psychology Center, the only one of its kind in Taiwan, one of the top five strengths of nurses is gratitude. Instead of adapting from an older model created from past research, the Gratitude Workshop is developed from a quasi-experimental approach and designed with five additional dimensions that emphasize gratitude: thanking others, thanking one's surroundings, cherishing what one has, appreciating hardships, and appreciating the present. A sample of 84 nurses was randomly selected from the Kaohsiung Municipal Ta-Tung Hospital; 43 of who participated in the nine-hour Gratitude Workshop that spanned over three weeks, while the other 41 were part of the waitlist control group. The pretest and posttest included five questionnaires: Inventory of Undergraduates' Gratitude, The Gratitude Questionnaire-6, Mental Health Continuum‐Short Form, Perceived Stress Scale, and the Stress Coping Strategies Questionnaire. Results of the research showed that the Gratitude Workshop elevates gratitude, well-being, and perceived stress on the nurses; however, it was also found in the Stress Coping Strategies Questionnaire that the Gratitude Workshop only heightened the regulation of emotions.

Keywords: gratitude, nurses, positive psychology, well-being

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Authors: Abraham Rotich

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The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of relationship banking on the financial performance of SMEs. The paper attempted to establish the link between the constructs of relationship banking and SME performance. The study was guided by relationship lending, relationship monitoring, relationship risk sharing and bundle of products as independent variables while financial performance will be the dependent variable. The study used a quasi experimental design with population being the 620 SMEs who have a relationship banking arrangement with banks in Nairobi. The study used stratified sampling to pick a sample of 235. The population of interest will be the CEOs of the respective companies. The basis of stratification is the sectors in which the SMEs operate in. The study will use a questionnaire to collect data. The questionnaire will have both open and close ended questions. A pilot study will be conducted to test reliability and validity of questionnaire. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Regression analysis was employed to test if there is a relationship between the dependent and the independent variable. The study found evidence that relationship banking positively impacts on financial performance of SMEs. Specifically, the study established that each component of relationship banking in this study i.e relationship lending, monitoring, bundle of products and risk sharing positively affects financial performance.

Keywords: relationship banking, SMEs, financial performance, entrepreneurial orientation

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Authors: Ferdağ Çulhan, Emine Gaye Çontay

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Geometric thinking levels created by Van Hiele are used to determine students' progress in geometric thinking. Many studies have been conducted on geometric thinking levels and they have taken their place in teaching curricula over time. It is thought that geometric thinking levels, which have become so important in teaching, can be examined in depth. In order to make an in-depth analysis, it was decided that the most appropriate management was discourse analysis. In this study, the focus is on examining the geometric thinking levels of 8th grade students from a discursive point of view. Sfard (2008)'s "Commognitive" theory will be used to conduct discursive analysis. The "Global Van Hiele Questionnaire" created by Patkin (2014) and translated into Turkish for this research will be used in the research. The "Global Van Hiele Questionnaire" contains questions from the sub-learning domain of triangles and quadrilaterals, circles and geometric objects. It has a wider scope than many "Van Hiele Questionnaires". “Global Van Hiele Questionnaire” will be applied to 8th grade students. Then, the geometric thinking levels of the students will be determined and interviews will be held with two students from each of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd levels. The interviews will be recorded and the students' discourses will be examined. By evaluating the relations between the students' geometric thinking levels and their discourses, it will be examined how much their discourse reflects their level of thinking. In this way, it is thought that students' geometric thinking processes can be better understood.

Keywords: mathematical discourses, commognitive framework, geometric thinking levels, van hiele

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Authors: Zainab Alghali Elsaid Muhammed

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Background : IBS is a gastrointestinal disorder characterized by a variety of symptoms that occur concurrently. It is very common and is associated with high levels of psychiatric comorbidities, all of which have a negative impact on the patient's quality of life. Abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, excess gas, and bloating are common symptoms of IBS. Objectives : The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of IBS among medical students and intern doctors in Sudan, as well as the risk factors associated with it. Study design: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Sudan from April to July 2022. All participants completed a six-part online questionnaire. The ROME IV criteria questionnaire was used to make an IBS diagnosis. Participants completed the hospital anxiety and depression questionnaire in order to be diagnosed with anxiety and depression. Results : 600 participants filled out the questionnaire. The overall prevalence of IBS was found to be 42%, with females being the most affected. Intern doctors had higher IBS rates (30.0%) than medical students, but this was not statistically significant. Single status (p =0.079), good GPAs (p =0.00), had significant associations with IBS occurrence. Other significantly associated habits were sleeping less than 8 hours (p =0.013), two cups or less of coffee per day (p = 0.109), No smoking (p =0.001), and No exercise (p =0.00, IBS participants were also found to have a significant relationship with abnormal anxiety (p =0.00) and borderline depression (p=0.0156). Conclusion : The high prevalence of IBS in this study suggests that medical students and interns are unable to recognize their symptoms. The main IBS predictors in this study were suffering from anxiety or depression, having an insufficient income, sleeping less than 8 hours per day, working/ studying more than 8 hours per day, and not performing any type of exercise.

Keywords: irritable bowel syndrome, sudan, HADS, rome IV, medical students

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Authors: Diana Santiago, Tania Lisboa, Sophie Lee, Alexander P. Demos, Monica C. S. Vasconcelos

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Memorization has long been recognized as an arduous and anxiety-evoking task for musicians, and yet, it is an essential aspect of performance. Research shows that musicians are often not taught how to memorize. While memorization and practice strategies of professionals have been studied, little research has been done to examine how student musicians learn to practice and memorize music in different cultural settings. We present the process of developing and testing a questionnaire of music memorization and musical practice for student musicians in the UK and Brazil. A survey was developed for a cross-cultural research project aiming at examining how young orchestral musicians (aged 7–18 years) in different learning environments and cultures engage in instrumental practice and memorization. The questionnaire development included members of a UK/US/Brazil research team of music educators and performance science researchers. A pool of items was developed for each aspect of practice and memorization identified, based on literature, personal experiences, and adapted from existing questionnaires. Item development took the varying levels of cognitive and social development of the target populations into consideration. It also considered the diverse target learning environments. Items were initially grouped in accordance with a single underlying construct/behavior. The questionnaire comprised three sections: a demographics section, a section on practice (containing 29 items), and a section on memorization (containing 40 items). Next, the response process was considered and a 5-point Likert scale ranging from ‘always’ to ‘never’ with a verbal label and an image assigned to each response option was selected, following effective questionnaire design for children and youths. Finally, a pilot study was conducted with young orchestral musicians from diverse learning environments in Brazil and the United Kingdom. Data collection took place in either one-to-one or group settings to facilitate the participants. Cognitive interviews were utilized to establish response process validity by confirming the readability and accurate comprehension of the questionnaire items or highlighting the need for item revision. Internal reliability was investigated by measuring the consistency of the item groups using the statistical test Cronbach’s alpha. The pilot study successfully relied on the questionnaire to generate data about the engagement of young musicians of different levels and instruments, across different learning and cultural environments, in instrumental practice and memorization. Interaction analysis of the cognitive interviews undertaken with these participants, however, exposed the fact that certain items, and the response scale, could be interpreted in multiple ways. The questionnaire text was, therefore, revised accordingly. The low Cronbach’s Alpha scores of many item groups indicated another issue with the original questionnaire: its low level of internal reliability. Several reasons for each poor reliability can be suggested, including the issues with item interpretation revealed through interaction analysis of the cognitive interviews, the small number of participants (34), and the elusive nature of the construct in question. The revised questionnaire measures 78 specific behaviors or opinions. It can be seen to provide an efficient means of gathering information about the engagement of young musicians in practice and memorization on a large scale.

Keywords: cross-cultural, memorization, practice, questionnaire, young musicians

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Authors: Mohamed Abduelmula, Martin Birkett, Chris Connor

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Lean Manufacturing has developed from being a set of tools and methods to becoming a management philosophy which can be used to remove or reduce waste in manufacturing processes and so enhance the operational productivity of an enterprise. Several enterprises around the world have applied the lean manufacturing system and gained great improvements. This paper investigates the barriers and obstacles that face Libyan manufacturing companies to implement lean manufacturing. A mixed-method approach is suggested, starting with conducting a questionnaire to get quantitative data then using this to develop semi-structured interviews to collect qualitative data. The findings of the questionnaire results and how these can be used further develop the semi-structured interviews are then discussed. The survey was distributed to 65 manufacturing companies in Libya, and a response rate of 64.6% was obtained. The results showed that these are five main barriers to implementing lean in Libya, namely organizational culture, skills and expertise, and training program, financial capability, top management, and communication. These barriers were also identified from the literature as being significant obstacles to implementing Lean in other countries industries. Having an understanding of the difficulties that face the implementation of lean manufacturing systems, as a new and modern system and using this to develop a suitable framework will help to improve the manufacturing sector in Libya.

Keywords: lean manufacturing, barriers, questionnaire, Libyan manufacturing companies

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Authors: Reiko Yamamoto

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This paper reports on a project to integrate Japanese (as a first language) and English (as a second language) education. This study focuses on the mutual effects of the two languages on the linguistic proficiency of elementary school students. The research team consisted of elementary school teachers and researchers at a university. The participants of the experiment were students between 3^rd and 6^th grades at an elementary school. The research process consisted of seven steps: 1) specifying linguistic proficiency; 2) developing the cross-curriculum of L1 and L2; 3) forming can-do statements; 4) creating a self-evaluation questionnaire; 5) executing the self-evaluation questionnaire at the beginning of the school year; 6) instructing L1 and L2 based on the curriculum; and 7) executing the self-evaluation questionnaire at the beginning of the next school year. In Step 1, the members of the research team brainstormed ways to specify elementary school students’ linguistic proficiency that can be observed in various scenes. It was revealed that the teachers evaluate their students’ linguistic proficiency on the basis of the students’ utterances, but also informed by their non-verbal communication abilities. This led to the idea that competency for understanding others’ minds through the use of physical movement or bodily senses in communication in L1 – to sympathize with others – can be transferred to that same competency in communication in L2. Based on the specification of linguistic proficiency that L1 and L2 have in common, a cross-curriculum of L1 and L2 was developed in Step 2. In Step 3, can-do statements based on the curriculum were also formed, building off of the action-oriented approach from the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) used in Europe. A self-evaluation questionnaire consisting of the main can-do statements was given to the students between 3^rd grade and 6^th grade at the beginning of the school year (Step 4 and Step 5), and all teachers gave L1 and L2 instruction based on the curriculum to the students for one year (Step 6). The same questionnaire was given to the students at the beginning of the next school year (Step 7). The results of statistical analysis proved the enhancement of the students’ linguistic proficiency. This verified the validity of developing the cross-curriculum of L1 and L2 and adapting it in elementary school. It was concluded that elementary school students do not distinguish between L1 and L2, and that they just try to understand others’ minds through physical movement or senses in any language.

Keywords: cross curriculum of L1 and L2, elementary school education, language proficiency, sympathy with others

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Authors: Mohammadreza Kolaei, Vahid Ghasemi, Ebrahim Ansari

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This research was carried out with the aim of investigating the relationship between social capital and aggressive behavior of students (Case study: male students of middle school in Isfahan). In terms of methodology, this research is an applied research which is done by descriptive-analytical method and survey method. The instrument for collecting the data was a questionnaire consisting of: questionnaire for measuring aggressive behavior and social capital questionnaire, which was used after the validity and reliability of this questionnaire. On the other hand, the statistical population of the study consisted of all students in the guidance school of Isfahan in the academic year of 2016. For determining the sample size, the Kerjesy and Morgan tables were used and the sampling method of this multi-stage random sampling was used. After collecting the data, they were analyzed by SPSS software. The findings of the research showed that at 95% confidence level, the student's social capital increases, reducing his aggressiveness. Also, the amount of student aggression is estimated at 4% according to its social capital. Also, with increasing social capital of the school, the student's student aggression is reduced, with the student's student aggression's exposure to her social capital being estimated at 3%. On the other hand, increasing the amount of mother's presence in the home decreases the amount of student aggression. Also, the amount of student aggression is estimated at 1% according to the amount of mother's presence in her home. Ultimately, the amount of student aggression decreases with increasing presence of father at home. Also, the amount of student aggression is estimated at 2% according to the variable of father's presence in his home.

Keywords: investigating, social capital, aggressive behavior, students, middle school, Isfahan

Procedia PDF Downloads 285