Search results for: children with special education needs

Authors: Emiljan Karma

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One of the major problems of the present is young people who are not concerned with employment, education, or training (NEETs). Unfortunately, this group of people in Albania is a considerable part of working-age people, and despite the measures taken, they remain a major problem. NEETs in Albania are very heterogeneous. This is since youth unemployment and inactivity rate are at a very high level (Albania has the highest NEET rate among EU candidates/potential candidates’ countries and EU countries); the high level of NEET rate in Albania means that government agencies responsible for labour market regulation and other social actors interested in the phenomenon (representatives of employees, representatives of employers, non-governmental organizations, etc.) did not effectively materialize the policies in the field of youth employment promotion. The National Agency for Employment and Skills (NAES) delivers measures specifically designed to target unemployed youth, being the key stakeholder in the implementation of employment policies and skills development in Albania. In the context of identifying and assisting NEETs, this role becomes even stronger. The experience of different EU countries (e.g., Youth Guarantee) indicates that there are different policy-making structures and various outreach mechanisms for constraining the youth NEET phenomenon. The purpose of this research is to highlight: (1) The identification of NEETs feature in Albania; (2) The identification of tailored and efficient outreach mechanisms to assist vulnerable NEETs; (3) The fundamental importance of stakeholders’ partnership at central and regional level.

Keywords: labor market, NEETs, non-registered NEETs, unemployment

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Authors: Dike Felix Okechukwu

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Studies and reports from authoritative sources such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have stated that to effectively solve environmental sustainability challenges such as pollution, inappropriate waste disposal, and unsustainable consumption, there is a need for more research to seek solutions towards environmentally sustainable behavior. However, literature thus far reports only sporadic developments of TL in Environmental Sustainability because there are scarce reports showing the reliable process(es) to produce TL - for sustainability projects or otherwise. Nonetheless, a recently published article demonstrates how TL can be used to help young adults gain transformed mindsets and habits toward environmental sustainability behaviors and practices. This study, however, does not demonstrate, on a repeated basis, the dependability of the method or reliability of the procedures in using its proposed methodology to help young adults achieve transformed habits towards environmental sustainability behaviors, especially in diverse contexts. In this study, it is demonstrated, through repeated measures, a reliable process that can be used to achieve transformations in habits and mindsets toward environmental sustainability behaviors. To achieve this, the design adopted is multiple case studies and a thematic analysis techniques. Five cases in diverse contexts were used to analyze pieces of evidence of Transformative Learning Outcomes toward environmentally sustainable behaviors. Results from the study offer fresh perspectives on a reliable methodology that can be adopted to achieve Transformations in Habits and mindsets toward environmental sustainability behaviors.

Keywords: environmental sustainability, transformative learning, behaviour, learning, education

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Authors: Magdalena Maria Rost-Roszkowska, Alina Chachulska-Żymełka, Monika Tarnawska, Maria Augustyniak, Alina Kafel, Agnieszka Babczyńska

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The digestive system of insects is composed of three distinct regions: fore-, mid- and hingut. The middle region (the midgut) is treated as one of the barriers which protects the organism against any stressors which originate from external environment, e.g. toxic metals. Such factors can activate the cell death in epithelial cells to preserve the entire tissue/organs against the degeneration. Different mechanisms involved in homeostasis maintenance have been described, but the studies of animals under field conditions do not give the opportunity to conclude about potential ability of subsequent generation to inherit the tolerance mechanisms. It is possible only by a multigenerational strain of an animal led under laboratory conditions, exposed to a selected toxic factor, present also in polluted ecosystems. The main purpose of the project was to check if changes, which appear in the midgut epithelium after Cd treatment, can be fixed during the following generations of insects with the special emphasis on apoptosis. As the animal for these studies we chose 5th larval stage of the beet armyworm Spodoptera exigua Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), which is one of pest of many vegetable crops. Animals were divided into some experimental groups: K, Cd, KCd, Cd1, Cd2, Cd3. A control group (K) fed a standard diet, and was conducted for XX generations, a cadmium group (Cd), fed on standard diet supplemented with cadmium (44 mg Cd per kg of dry weight of food) for XXX generations. A reference Cd group (KCd) has been initiated: control insects were fed with Cd supplemented diet (44 mg Cd per kg of dry weight of food). Experimental groups Cd1, Cd2, Cd3 developed from the control one: 5 mg Cd per kg of dry weight of food, 10 mg Cd per kg of dry weight of food, 20 mg Cd per kg of dry weight of food. We were interested in the activation of apoptosis during following generations in all experimental groups. Therefore, during the 1st year of the experiment, the measurements were done for 6 generations in all experimental group. The intensity and the course of apoptosis have been examined using transmission electron microscope (TEM), confocal microscope and flow cytometry. During apoptosis the cell started to shrink, extracellular spaces appeared between digestive and neighboring cells, the nucleus achieved a lobular shape. Eventually, the apoptotic cells was discharged into the midgut lumen. A quantitative analysis revealed that the number of apoptotic cells depends significantly on the generation, tissue and cadmium concentration in the insect rearing medium. In the following 6 generations, we observed that the percentage of apoptotic cells in the midguts from cadmium-exposed groups decreased gradually according to the following order of strains: Cd1, Cd2, Cd3 and KCd. At the same time, it was still higher than the percentage of apoptotic cells in the same tissues of the insects from the control and multigenerational cadmium strain. The results of our studies suggest that changes caused by cadmium treatment were preserved during 6-generational development of lepidopteran larvae. The study has been financed by the National Science Centre Poland, grant no 2016/21/B/NZ8/00831.

Keywords: cadmium, cell death, digestive system, ultrastructure

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Authors: Salami Ayobami Taofeek, Ajayi Adeola

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Rural tourism entrepreurship is a tourist industry which revolutionizes businesses and prompting economic development across the globe. It encompasses huge range activities, natural or man-made attractions, amenities and facilities, transportation, marketing and information systems. It is also an important export for 83% of the developing countries and the main export for one third of them. In 2000, developing countries recorded 142.6 million international arrivals an increase of 95% compared to the figures of 1990. However, only developing countries with effective natural and man-made tourism supporting and enhancing infrastructure have been able to develop their tourism sector and seize the attendance advantages. Rural areas of Nigeria possess some distinctive peculiarities which can be transformed into attractive tourist centers. In spite of all these, rural tourism areas are still faced with myriad problems which include poor finance inadequate awareness and education, lack of progress in developing the rural of progress in developing the rural tourism potentials inadequate legislation, insecurity, entrepreneurial inertness, over-dependent on oil among others. This paper focuses on the impact and challenges of rural tourism entrepreneurship as strategy for economic development in Nigeria. It reviews literature rural tourism, tourism entrepreneurship potentials and classifications of Nigerians tourism potential’s destinations. The paper concludes that Nigeria Government should encourage rural based tourism entrepreneurship development by addressing the challenges facing rural tourism entrepreneurship in the country.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, economic development, rural tourism, tourism destinations tourism potentials

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Authors: Mohammed Abubakar Ndanusa, A. A. Hassan, R. W. Gimba, A. M. Alfa, M. T. Abari

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This study investigated the Impact of Mathematical Modeling on Mathematics Achievement, Attitude and Interest of Pre-Service Teachers in Niger States, Nigeria. It was an attempt to ease students’ difficulties in comprehending mathematics. The study used randomized pretest, posttest control group design. Two Colleges of Education were purposively selected from Niger State with a sample size of eighty-four 84 students. Three research instruments used are Mathematical Modeling Achievement Test (MMAT), Attitudes Towards Mathematical Modeling Questionnaire (ATMMQ) and Mathematical Modeling Students Interest Questionnaire (MMSIQ). Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) formula was used for MMAT and Alpha Cronbach was used for ATMMQ and MMSIQ to determine their reliability coefficient and the values the following values were obtained respectively 0.76, 0.75 and 0.73. Independent t-test statistics was used to test hypothesis One while Mann Whitney U-test was used to test hypothesis Two and Three. Findings revealed that students taught Mathematics using Mathematical Modeling performed better than their counterparts taught using lecture method. However, there was a significant difference in the attitude and interest of pre-service mathematics teachers after being exposed to mathematical modeling. The strategy, therefore, was recommended to be used by Mathematics teachers with a view to improving students’ attitude and interest towards Mathematics. Also, modeling should be taught at NCE level in order to prepare pre-service teachers towards real task in the field of Mathematics.

Keywords: achievement, attitude, interest, mathematical modeling, pre-service teachers

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Authors: Daniela Manila Bianchi, Samantha Lupi, Elisa Barcucci, Sandra Fragassi, Clara Tramuta, Lucia Decastelli

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Introduction: The undeclared allergens detection in food products plays a fundamental role in the safety of the allergic consumer. The protection of allergic consumers is guaranteed, in Europe, by Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament, which governs the consumer's right to information and identifies 14 food allergens to be mandatorily indicated on food labels: among these, an egg is included. An egg can be present as an ingredient or as contamination in raw and cooked products. The main allergen egg proteins are ovomucoid, ovalbumin, lysozyme, and ovotransferrin. This study presents the results of a survey conducted in Northern Italy aimed at detecting the presence of undeclared egg proteins in food matrices in the latest ten years (2011-2021). Method: In the period January 2011 - October 2021, a total of 1205 different types of food matrices (ready-to-eat, meats, and meat products, bakery and pastry products, baby foods, food supplements, pasta, fish and fish products, preparations for soups and broths) were delivered to Food Control Laboratory of Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale of Piemonte Liguria and Valle d’Aosta to be analyzed as official samples in the frame of Regional Monitoring Plan of Food Safety or in the contest of food poisoning. The laboratory is ISO 17025 accredited, and since 2019, it has represented the National Reference Centre for the detection in foods of substances causing food allergies or intolerances (CreNaRiA). All samples were stored in the laboratory according to food business operator instructions and analyzed within the expiry date for the detection of undeclared egg proteins. Analyses were performed with RIDASCREEN®FAST Ei/Egg (R-Biopharm ® Italia srl) kit: the method was internally validated and accredited with a Limit of Detection (LOD) equal to 2 ppm (mg/Kg). It is a sandwich enzyme immunoassay for the quantitative analysis of whole egg powder in foods. Results: The results obtained through this study showed that egg proteins were found in 2% (n. 28) of food matrices, including meats and meat products (n. 16), fish and fish products (n. 4), bakery and pastry products (n. 4), pasta (n. 2), preparations for soups and broths (n.1) and ready-to-eat (n. 1). In particular, in 2011 egg proteins were detected in 5% of samples, in 2012 in 4%, in 2013, 2016 and 2018 in 2%, in 2014, 2015 and 2019 in 3%. No egg protein traces were detected in 2017, 2020, and 2021. Discussion: Food allergies occur in the Western World in 2% of adults and up to 8% of children. Allergy to eggs is one of the most common food allergies in the pediatrics context. The percentage of positivity obtained from this study is, however, low. The trend over the ten years has been slightly variable, with comparable data.

Keywords: allergens, food, egg proteins, immunoassay

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Authors: Chaiwat Tantarangsee

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The purposes of this study are 1) to study the frequent English writing errors of students registering the course: Reading and Writing English for Academic Purposes II, and 2) to find out the results of writing error correction by using coded indirect corrective feedback and writing error treatments. Samples include 28 2nd year English Major students, Faculty of Education, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. Tool for experimental study includes the lesson plan of the course; Reading and Writing English for Academic Purposes II, and tool for data collection includes 4 writing tests of short texts. The research findings disclose that frequent English writing errors found in this course comprise 7 types of grammatical errors, namely Fragment sentence, Subject-verb agreement, Wrong form of verb tense, Singular or plural noun endings, Run-ons sentence, Wrong form of verb pattern and Lack of parallel structure. Moreover, it is found that the results of writing error correction by using coded indirect corrective feedback and error treatment reveal the overall reduction of the frequent English writing errors and the increase of students’ achievement in the writing of short texts with the significance at .05.

Keywords: coded indirect corrective feedback, error correction, error treatment, English writing

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Authors: Zoltan Abram

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Background: In the last time it was hardly increased the prevalence of psychical diseases and disorders which reduce work capacity, life quality and life expectancy. Objectives: The aim of our research is to study the psychical health state of the Romanian adults living in the middle part of the country and the role of some economical, psychological and social factors, especially in relationship with depression. Methods: The study is based on a complex anonymous questionnaire, including Beck depressive scale, which was completed by a representative sample among adult population. The applied method was a combination between stratification and more-steps sampling. Results: After our results depression is the most common psychical illness with 9,1% diagnosis, but the tendency to depression, the existence of depressive symptoms is much higher than the treated illness. The percentage of suicide attempt among the studied population was 2,9%. It is analysed how gender, age, professional and social status, living and working conditions and different social factors are influencing the health state. According to Beck score, it was established a significant difference in the favour of female, elderly people, lower educational level, urban population. Conclusions: In our study it is underlined the importance of health promotion and education. It is concluded that improving living standards, modifying in a proper way the lifestyle of the population, we can positively influence the physical and mental health state of the Romanian adult population.

Keywords: Beck scale, depression, psychological aspects, suicide attempt

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Authors: Theresa Bacon-Baguley, Martina Reinhold

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Introduction: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance of both formative and summative evaluation of a Physician Assistant (PA) program with a distant campus delivered through Interactive Television (ITV) to assure equity of educational experiences. Methodology: A needs assessment utilizing a case-control design determined the need and interest in expanding the existing PA program to northern Michigan. A federal grant was written and funded, which supported the hiring of two full-time faculty members and support staff at the distant site. The strengths and weaknesses of delivering a program through ITV were evaluated using weekly formative evaluation, and bi-semester summative evaluation. Formative evaluation involved discussion of lecture content to be delivered, special ITV needs, orientation of new lecturers to the system, student concerns, support staff updates, and scheduling of student/faculty traveling between the two campuses. The summative evaluation, designed from a literature review of barriers to ITV, included 19 statements designed to evaluate the following items: quality of technology (audio, video, etc.), confidence in the ITV system, quality of instruction and instructor interaction between the two locations, and availability of resources at each location. In addition, students were given the opportunity to write qualitative remarks for each course delivered between the two locations. This summative evaluation was given to all students at mid-semester and at the end of the semester. The goal of the summative evaluation was to have 80% or greater of the students respond favorably (‘Very Good’ or ‘Good’) to each of the 19 statements. Results: Prior to the start of the first cohort at the distant campus, the technology was tested. During this time period, the formative evaluations identified key components needing modification, which were rapidly addressed: ability to record lectures, lighting, sound, and content delivery. When the mid-semester summative survey was given to the first cohort of students, 18 of the 19 statements in the summative evaluation met the goal of 80% or greater in the favorable category. When the summative evaluation statements were stratified by the two cohorts, the summative evaluation identified that students at the home location responded that they did not have adequate access to printers, and students at the expansion location responded that they did not have adequate access to library resources. These results allowed the program to address the deficiencies through contacting informational technology for additional printers, and to provide students with knowledge on how to access library resources. Conclusion: Successful expansion of programs to a distant site utilizing ITV technology requires extensive monitoring using both formative and summative evaluation. The formative evaluation allowed for quick identification of issues that could immediately be addressed, both at the planning and developing stage, as well as during implementation. Through use of the summative evaluation the program is able to monitor the success/ effectiveness of the expansion and identify specific needs of students at each location.

Keywords: assessment, distance learning, formative feedback, interactive television (ITV), student experience, summative feedback, support

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Authors: John W. Travis

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There is an epidemic of couples separating after a child is born into a family, generally with the father leaving emotionally or physically in the first few years after birth. This separation creates high levels of stress for both parents, especially the primary parent, leaving her (or him) less available to the infant for healthy attachment and nurturing. The deterioration of the couple’s bond leaves parents increasingly under-resourced, and the dependent child in a compromised environment, with an increased likelihood of developing an attachment disorder. Objectives: To understand the dynamics of a couple, once the additional and extensive demands of a newborn are added to a nuclear family structure, and to identify effective ways to support all members of the family to thrive. Qualitative studies interviewed men, women, and couples after pregnancy and the early years as a family, regarding key destructive factors, as well as effective tools for the couple to retain a strong bond. In-depth analysis of a few cases, including the author’s own experience, reveal deeper insights about subtle factors, replicated in wider studies. Using a self-assessment survey, many fathers report feeling abandoned, due to the close bond of the mother-baby unit, and in turn, withdrawing themselves, leaving the mother without support and closeness to resource her for the baby. Fathers report various types of abandonment, from his partner to his mother, with whom he did not experience adequate connection as a child. The study identified a key destructive factor to be unrecognized wounding from childhood that was carried into the relationship. The study culminated in the naming of Male Postpartum Abandonment Syndrome (MPAS), describing the epidemic in industrialized cultures with the nuclear family as the primary configuration. A growing family system often collapses without a minimum number of adult caregivers per infant, approximately four per infant (3.87), which allows for proper healing and caretaking. In cases with no additional family or community beyond one or two parents, the layers of abandonment and trauma result in the deterioration of a couple’s relationship and ultimately the family structure. The solution includes engaging community in support of new families. The study identified (and recommends) specific resources to assist couples in recognizing and healing trauma and disconnection at multiple levels. Recommendations include wider awareness and availability of resources for healing childhood wounds and greater community-building efforts to support couples for the whole family to thrive.

Keywords: abandonment, attachment, community building, family and marital functioning, healing childhood wounds, infant wellness, intimacy, marital satisfaction, relationship quality, relationship satisfaction

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Authors: Karthikeyan Srinivasan, Ranjana Singh, Yatin Talwar, Karthikeyan Srinivasan

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Healthcare services play a vital role in the life of human being. The Setup of Hospital varies in wide spectrum of cost, technology, and access. Hospital’s of Public sector satisfies need of a common man to poorer, which can differ at private owned hospitals on cost and treatment. Patient assessing hospital frequently assumes spending time at the hospital is miserable and not aware of what is happening around them. Mostly they are queued up round the clock waiting to be admitted on hospital beds. The idea here is to highlight the role in admitting patient population of Outdoor as well as Emergency entering the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh with available hospital beds. This study emphasizes the trend forecasting and acquiring beds needed. The conception “if patient population increases’ likewise increasing hospital beds advertently perceived. If tend to increase the hospital beds, thereby exploring budget, Manpower, space, and infrastructure make compulsion. This survey ideally draws out planning and forecasting beds to cater patient population in and around neighboring state of Chandigarh for admission at territory healthcare and research institute on available hospital beds. Executing healthcare services for growing population needs to know Roemer’s law indicating "in an insured population, a hospital bed built is a filled bed".

Keywords: admissions, average length of stay, bed days, hospital beds, occupancy rates

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Authors: Claudeline D. Cellan

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Development is multifaceted, and efforts to hasten growth in all these facets have been gaining traction in recent years. Thus, producing a composite index that is reflective of these multidimensional impacts captures the interests of policymakers. The problem lies in going through a mixture of theoretical, methodological and empirical decisions and complexities which, when done carelessly, can lead to inconsistent and unreliable results. This study looks into index computation from a different and less complex perspective. Borrowing the idea of archetypes or ‘pure types’, archetypal analysis looks for points in the convex hull of the multivariate data set that captures as much information in the data as possible. The archetypes or 'pure types' are estimated such that they are convex combinations of all the observations, which in turn are convex combinations of the archetypes. This ensures that the archetypes are realistically observable, therefore achievable. In the sense of composite indices, we look for the best among these archetypes and use this as a benchmark for index computation. Its straightforward and simplistic approach does away with aggregation and substitutability problems which are commonly encountered in index computation. As an example of the application of archetypal analysis in index construction, the country data for the Human Development Index (HDI 2017) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is used. The goal of this exercise is not to replicate the result of the UNDP-computed HDI, but to illustrate the usability of archetypal analysis in index construction. Here best is defined in the context of life, education and gross national income sub-indices. Results show that the HDI from the archetypal analysis has a linear relationship with the UNDP-computed HDI.

Keywords: archetypes, composite index, convex combination, development

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Authors: Tsebe Wilfred Molotja, Mahlapahlapane Themane, Kgetja Maruma

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It is globally accepted that reading in the primary schools serves as a foundational basis for good reading skills. This is evident in the students’ academic success throughout their studying life. However, the PIRLS (2016) report on Literacy performance found that primary school learners are not able to read as fluently as expected. The results from ANA (2012) also indicated that South African learners achieved the lowest as compared to other global ones. The purpose of this study is to investigate the approaches employed by educators in developing learners’ reading and writing skills and to workshop them on the best reading and writing approaches to be implemented. The study adopted an explorative qualitative design where 27 educators from primary schools around the University of Limpopo were purposefully sampled to participate in this study. Data was collected through interviews and classroom observation during class visits facilitated by research assistants. The study found that teachers are aware of different approaches to developing learners’ reading and writing skills even thou these are not aligned with the curriculum. However, the problem is with implementation, as the conditions in the classrooms are not conducive for such. The study recommends that more workshops on capacitating teachers with the pedagogical approaches to teaching reading be held. The appeal is also made to the Department of Basic Education that it makes the classrooms to be conducive for teaching and learning to take place.

Keywords: academic success, reading and writing, community based, approaches

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Authors: Kelvin Mwaba, Nicole Strickland

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Background and Objectives: Overexploitation and illegal fishing have been identified as the primary cause of the global decline in the fish stock. While commercial companies and small-scale fishing sectors are strictly regulated in South Africa, recreational anglers are not. The underlying assumption seems to be that recreational anglers can self-regulate. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship that recreational anglers have with nature and how this relationship can predict unlawful fishing practices. Methods: Using a survey design, 99 self-identified recreational anglers were recruited through convenient sampling. The anglers were accessed from fishing tackle shops around False Bay in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire that consisted of pro-environmental behavior survey and the Nature Relatedness Scale. Results: Data analyses indicated that significant differences with regard to nature relatedness on the basis of participants’ age and level of education. Older and more educated anglers scored higher on nature relatedness than younger and less educated anglers. Logistic regression analysis showed that nature relatedness was a significant predictor of pro-environmental behaviors (R²= 0.061). Discussion and Conclusion: The findings of the present study provide support regarding the importance of encouraging healthy and sustainable relationships between humans and nature. Combating harmful fishing practices can achieve through understanding and promoting human care for nature among anglers and others involved in fishing.

Keywords: pro-environmental, behavior, anglers, South Africa

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Authors: Rudolf Egger

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This article shows some results of an ongoing project in Kosova. This project deals with the meaning of social transformation processes in the life-courses of Kosova people. One goal is to create an oral history archive in this country. In the last seven years we did some interpretative work (using narrative interviews) concerning the experiences and meanings of social changes from the perspective of life course. We want to reconstruct the individual possibilities in creating one's life in new social structures. After the terrible massacres of ethnical-territorially defined nationalism in former Yugoslavia it is the main focus to find out something about the many small daily steps which must be done, to build up a kind of “normality” in this country. These steps can be very well reconstructed by narrations, by life stories, because personal experiences are naturally linked with social orders. Each individual story is connected with further stories, in which the collective history will be negotiated and reflected. The view on the biographical narration opens the possibility to analyze the concreteness of the “individual case” in the complexity of collective history. Life stories contain thereby a kind of a transition character, that’s why they can be used for the reconstruction of periods of political transformation. For example: In the individual story we can find very clear the national or mythological character of the Albanian people in Kosova. The shown narrations can be read also as narrative lines in relation to the (re-)interpretation of the past, in which lived life is fixed into history in the so-called collective memory in Kosova.

Keywords: biographical learning, adult education, social change, post war societies

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Authors: Marc Gärtner, Monika Huesmann, Katharina Schiederig

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While workplace flexibility provides opportunities to better balance work and family care, careers in management are still predominantly based on physical presence, blurred boundaries and a culture of availability at the workplace. Thus, carers (mostly women) still experience disadvantages and stalled careers. In a multi-case study, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, success factors and barriers of flexible work arrangements in five big organizations, including three of the largest German companies, have been identified. Using qualitative interview methods, the working models of 10 female and male users of flexible work arrangements like part time, home office and job sharing have been studied. The study group applied a 360-degree approach with focus groups, covering the users’ themselves, their superiors, colleagues and staff as well as in-house human resource managers. The group interviews reveal that success of flexible models is mainly built on three factors: (a) the inclusiveness of the organizational culture, (b) the commitment of leaders and especially the supervisors, and (c) the fitting of the model and the user(s). Flexibilization of time and space can indeed contribute to a better work-life balance. This is, however, not a necessary outcome, as the interviews suggest, but depends on the right implementation of the right model in the particular work environment. Beyond the actual study results, the presentation will also assess the methodological approach.

Keywords: flexible work, leadership, organizational culture, work-life balance

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Authors: Saeed Alshahri

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Introduction: Our study aims to estimate the characteristics & causes of TSCI at King Fahad Medical City (KFMC) in Riyadh city in order to hypothesize strategy for primary prevention of traumatic spinal cord injury. Method: Cross-sectional, retrospective study was conducted on all TSCI patients who aged 14 and above and who were admitted to rehabilitation center of King Fahad Medical City from January 2012 to December 2015. Furthermore, a descriptive analysis was conducted while considering factors including age, gender, marital status, educational level and causes of injury and characteristics of injury. Results: Total of 216 patients were admitted during this period, mean age was 28.94, majority of patients were male (86.5%), 71.7% of total patients were high school level of education or less, 68% were single, RTA was the main cause with 90.7% and the main result of TSCI was complete paraplegia 37%. Furthermore, statistically, we found that males are at a low risk of having incomplete paraplegia compared to female (p = 0.035, RRR=0.35). Conclusion: The rate of TSCI related to RTA has increased in Saudi Arabia in previous years despite the government’s efforts to decrease RTA. It’s clear that we need TSCI registry data developed on the basis of international data standards to have a clear idea about the exact etiology of TSCI in Saudi Arabia. This will assist in planning for primary prevention.

Keywords: traumatic spinal cord injury, road traffic accident, Saudi Arabia, spinal cord injury

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Authors: Sung Ryong Kim, Hyung Sup Han, Jae-Yup Kim

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Many engineering students feel uncomfortable in solving the industry related problems. There are many ways to strengthen the engineering student’s ability to solve the assigned problem when they get a job. Korea National University of Transportation has developed an industry-oriented undergraduate research program (URP). An URP program is designed for engineering students to provide an experience of solving a company’s research problem. The URP project is carried out for 6 months. Each URP team consisted of 1 company mentor, 1 professor, and 3-4 engineering students. A team of different majors is strongly encouraged to integrate different perspectives of multidisciplinary background. The corporate research projects proposed by companies are chosen by the major-related student teams. A company mentor gives the detailed technical background of the project to the students, and he/she also provides a basic data, raw materials and so forth. The company allows students to use the company's research equipment. An assigned professor has adjusted the project scope and level to the student’s ability after discussing with a company mentor. Monthly meeting is used to check the progress, to exchange ideas, and to help the students. It is proven as an effective engineering education program not only to provide an experience of company research but also to motivate the students in their course work. This program provides a premier interdisciplinary platform for undergraduate students to perform the practical challenges encountered in their major-related companies and it is especially helpful for students who want to get a job from a company that proposed the project.

Keywords: company mentor, industry oriented, interdisciplinary platform, undergraduate research program

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Authors: Xingxing Peng

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With the development of society, there are more and more online communication scenarios such as teleconference and online education. In the process of conference communication, the quality of voice communication is a very important part, and noise may cause the communication effect of participants to be greatly reduced. Therefore, voice noise reduction has an important impact on scenarios such as voice calls. This research focuses on the key technologies of the sound transmission process. The purpose is to maintain the audio quality to the maximum so that the listener can hear clearer and smoother sound. Firstly, to solve the problem that the traditional speech enhancement algorithm is not ideal when dealing with non-stationary noise, an adaptive speech noise reduction algorithm is studied in this paper. Traditional noise estimation methods are mainly used to deal with stationary noise. In this chapter, we study the spectral characteristics of different noise types, especially the characteristics of non-stationary Burst noise, and design a noise estimator module to deal with non-stationary noise. Noise features are extracted from non-speech segments, and the noise estimation module is adjusted in real time according to different noise characteristics. This adaptive algorithm can enhance speech according to different noise characteristics, improve the performance of traditional algorithms to deal with non-stationary noise, so as to achieve better enhancement effect. The experimental results show that the algorithm proposed in this chapter is effective and can better adapt to different types of noise, so as to obtain better speech enhancement effect.

Keywords: speech noise reduction, speech enhancement, self-adaptation, Wiener filter algorithm

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Authors: Despina Giannadaki, Jos Lelieveld, Andrea Pozzer, John Evans

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Outdoor air pollution by fine particles ranks among the top ten global health risk factors that can lead to premature mortality. Epidemiological cohort studies, mainly conducted in United States and Europe, have shown that the long-term exposure to PM2.5 (particles with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5μm) is associated with increased mortality from cardiovascular, respiratory diseases and lung cancer. Fine particulates can cause health impacts even at very low concentrations. Previously, no concentration level has been defined below which health damage can be fully prevented. The World Health Organization ambient air quality guidelines suggest an annual mean PM2.5 concentration limit of 10μg/m3. Populations in large parts of the world, especially in East and Southeast Asia, and in the Middle East, are exposed to high levels of fine particulate pollution that by far exceeds the World Health Organization guidelines. The aim of this work is to evaluate the implementation of recent air quality standards for PM2.5 in the EU, the US and other countries worldwide and estimate what measures will be needed to substantially reduce premature mortality. We investigated premature mortality attributed to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) under adults ≥ 30yrs and children < 5yrs, applying a high-resolution global atmospheric chemistry model combined with epidemiological concentration-response functions. The latter are based on the methodology of the Global Burden of Disease for 2010, assuming a ‘safe’ annual mean PM2.5 threshold of 7.3μg/m3. We estimate the global premature mortality by PM2.5 at 3.15 million/year in 2010. China is the leading country with about 1.33 million, followed by India with 575 thousand and Pakistan with 105 thousand. For the European Union (EU) we estimate 173 thousand and the United States (US) 52 thousand in 2010. Based on sensitivity calculations we tested the gains from PM2.5 control by applying the air quality guidelines (AQG) and standards of the World Health Organization (WHO), the EU, the US and other countries. To estimate potential reductions in mortality rates we take into consideration the deaths that cannot be avoided after the implementation of PM2.5 upper limits, due to the contribution of natural sources to total PM2.5 and therefore to mortality (mainly airborne desert dust). The annual mean EU limit of 25μg/m3 would reduce global premature mortality by 18%, while within the EU the effect is negligible, indicating that the standard is largely met and that stricter limits are needed. The new US standard of 12μg/m3 would reduce premature mortality by 46% worldwide, 4% in the US and 20% in the EU. Implementing the AQG by the WHO of 10μg/m3 would reduce global premature mortality by 54%, 76% in China and 59% in India. In the EU and US, the mortality would be reduced by 36% and 14%, respectively. Hence, following the WHO guideline will prevent 1.7 million premature deaths per year. Sensitivity calculations indicate that even small changes at the lower PM2.5 standards can have major impacts on global mortality rates.

Keywords: air quality guidelines, outdoor air pollution, particulate matter, premature mortality

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Authors: Sara Herrero Jaén, José María Santamaría García, María Lourdes Jiménez Rodríguez, Jorge Luis Gómez González, Adriana Cercas Duque, Alexandra González Aguna

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Background: Health concept has evolved throughout history. The health level is determined by the own individual perception. It is a dynamic process over time so that you can see variations from one moment to the next. In this way, knowing the health of the patients you care for, will facilitate decision making in the treatment of care. Objective: To design a technological tool that calculates the people health level in a sequential way over time. Material and Methods: Deductive methodology through text analysis, extraction and logical knowledge formalization and education with expert group. Studying time: September 2015- actually. Results: A computational tool for the use of health personnel has been designed. It has 11 variables. Each variable can be given a value from 1 to 5, with 1 being the minimum value and 5 being the maximum value. By adding the result of the 11 variables we obtain a magnitude in a certain time, the health level of the person. The health calculator allows to represent people health level at a time, establishing temporal cuts being useful to determine the evolution of the individual over time. Conclusion: The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) allow training and help in various disciplinary areas. It is important to highlight their relevance in the field of health. Based on the health formalization, care acts can be directed towards some of the propositional elements of the concept above. The care acts will modify the people health level. The health calculator allows the prioritization and prediction of different strategies of health care in hospital units.

Keywords: calculator, care, eHealth, health

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Authors: Eliziane Fernanda Navarro, Aparecida Eleonora Sitta

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Child of the Dark is the work of the Brazilian author Carolina Maria de Jesus, published at the first time by Ática and Francisco Alves in 1960. It is, mostly, a story of lack of rights. It lacks to men who live in the slums what is essential in order to take advantage of the privilege of rationality to develop themselves as civilized humans. It is, therefore, in the withholding of the basic rights that inequality finds space to build itself to be the main misery on Earth. Antonio Candido, a Brazilian sociologist claims that it is the right to literature has the ability to humanize men, once the aptitude to create fiction and fable is essential to the social balance. Hence, for the forming role that literature holds, it must be thought as the number of rights that assure human dignity, such as housing, education, health, freedom, etc. When talking about her routine, Carolina puts in evidence something that has great influence over the formation of human beings, contributing to the way they live: the slum. Even though it happens in a distinct way and using her own linguistics variation, Carolina writes about something that will only be discussed later on Brazil’s Cities Statute and Erminia Maricato: the right to the city, and how the slums are, although inserted in the city, an attachment, an illegal city, a dismissing room. It interests ourselves, for that matter, in this work, to analyse how the deprivation of the rights to the city and literature, detailed in Carolina’s journal, conditions human beings to a life where the instincts overcome the social values.

Keywords: Child of the Dark, slum, literature, architecture and urbanism, fundamental rights, Brazil

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Authors: Murat Erdoğdu, Mehmet Öçalan

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The main aim of this study is to find out the effects of the concepts of the brand awareness and the brand loyalty of teenagers (13-18) on their criteria to buy the products that attract high interest in the groups that do sports actively and vice versa. The training shoes that are thought to have high interests of teenagers were chosen in the study (because every student uses training shoes at least in physical education lessons) and searching the criteria to choose these products is one of the aims of this study. The sample of the research consisted of 775 teenagers doing sports (218 females, 557 males) and 752 teenagers not doing sports (399 females, 353 males) from the primary and secondary schools in the center of Ankara. 1527 students in total voluntarily participated in the study. When the effects of the brand functions perceived about the sample on the brand awareness was analyzed, it was found out that all of three function types have a positive and significant effect on the brand awareness. It was found out that there was a positive and average relationship between the dependence on a brand and the brand loyalty. It was understood that there was a positive and weak relationship between the brand loyalty and the general brand awareness in training shoes among teenagers. The groups of the teenagers doing sports and of the teenagers not doing sports showed significant differences in their preferences about training shoes. The effects of the criteria to buy training shoes on the brand loyalty showed significant differences in the groups. In addition, it was determined that according to their variables of doing sports actively, the teenagers doing sports actively have significantly higher brand awareness and brand loyalty than the teenagers not doing sports.

Keywords: brand awareness, brand loyalty sports marketing, teenagers, the level of doing sports

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Authors: Mehrshad Khosraviani, Faramarz Abbaspour Leyl Abadi

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The fundamental component of the computer network of modern information society will be considered. These networks are connected to the network of the internet generally. Due to the fact that the primary purpose of the Internet is not designed for, in recent decades, none of these networks in many of the attacks has been very important. Today, for the provision of security, different security tools and systems, including intrusion detection systems are used in the network. A common diagnosis system based on artificial immunity, the designer, the Adhasaz Foundation has been evaluated. The idea of using artificial safety methods in the diagnosis of abnormalities in computer networks it has been stimulated in the direction of their specificity, there are safety systems are similar to the common needs of m, that is non-diagnostic. For example, such methods can be used to detect any abnormalities, a variety of attacks, being memory, learning ability, and Khodtnzimi method of artificial immune algorithm pointed out. Diagnosis of the common system of education offered in this paper using only the normal samples is required for network and any additional data about the type of attacks is not. In the proposed system of positive selection and negative selection processes, selection of samples to create a distinction between the colony of normal attack is used. Copa real data collection on the evaluation of ij indicates the proposed system in the false alarm rate is often low compared to other ir methods and the detection rate is in the variations.

Keywords: artificial immune system, abnormality detection, intrusion detection, computer networks

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Authors: Priyadharshini Ahrumugam

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Cooperative groups through much research have been recognized to churn remarkable achievements instead of solitary or individualistic efforts. Based on Johnson and Johnson’s model of cooperative learning, the five key components of cooperation are positive interdependence, face-to-face promotive interaction, individual accountability, social skills and group processing. In 2011, the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) introduced the Holistic Student Development policy with the aim to develop morally sound individuals equipped with lifelong learning skills. The Community Service project was included in the improvement initiative. The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship of team-based learning in facilitating particularly students’ positive interdependence and face-to-face promotive interaction. The research methods involve in-depth interviews with the team leaders and selected team members, and a content analysis of the undergraduate students’ reflective journals. A significant positive relationship was found between students’ progressive outlook towards teamwork and the highlighted two components. The key findings show that students have gained in their individual learning and work results through teamwork and interaction with other students. The inclusion of Community Service as a MOHE subject resonates with cooperative learning methods that enhances supportive relationships and develops students’ social skills together with their professional skills.

Keywords: community service, cooperative learning, positive interdependence, teamwork

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Authors: Amnah Moghees, Saima Abbas Dar, Muniba Saeed

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Teaching a second language to deaf learners has always been a challenge in Pakistan. Different approaches and strategies have been followed, but they have been resulted into partial or complete failure. The study aims to investigate the language problems faced by adult deaf learners of English as second language in mainstream classrooms. Moreover, the study also determines the factors which are very much involved in language teaching and learning in mainstream classes. To investigate the language problems, data will be collected through writing samples of ten deaf adult learners and ten normal ESL learners of the same class; whereas, observation in inclusive language teaching classrooms and interviews from five ESL teachers in inclusive classes will be conducted to know the factors which are directly or indirectly involved in inclusive language education. Keeping in view this study, qualitative research paradigm will be applied to analyse the corpus. The study figures out that deaf ESL learners face severe language issues such as; odd sentence structures, subject and verb agreement violation, misappropriation of verb forms and tenses as compared to normal ESL learners. The study also predicts that in mainstream classrooms there are multiple factors which are affecting the smoothness of teaching and learning procedure; role of mediator, level of deaf learners, empathy of normal learners towards deaf learners and language teacher’s training.

Keywords: deaf English language learner, empathy, mainstream classrooms, previous language knowledge of learners, role of mediator, language teachers' training

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Authors: Regis Pochon, Nicolas Stefaniak, Veronique Baltazart, Pamela Gobin

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Anxiety is known to have an impact on working memory. In reasoning or memory tasks, individuals with anxiety tend to show longer response times and poorer performance. Furthermore, there is a memory bias for negative information in anxiety. Given the crucial role of working memory in lexical learning, anxious students may encounter more difficulties in learning to read and spell. Anxiety could even affect an earlier learning, that is the activation of phonological representations, which are decisive for the learning of reading and writing. The aim of this study is to compare the access to phonological representations of beginning readers and writers according to their level of anxiety, using an auditory lexical decision task. Eighty students of 6- to 9-years-old completed the French version of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale and were then divided into four anxiety groups according to their total score (Low, Median-Low, Median-High and High). Two set of eighty-one stimuli (words and non-words) have been auditory presented to these students by means of a laptop computer. Stimuli words were selected according to their emotional valence (positive, negative, neutral). Students had to decide as quickly and accurately as possible whether the presented stimulus was a real word or not (lexical decision). Response times and accuracy were recorded automatically on each trial. It was anticipated a) longer response times for the Median-High and High anxiety groups in comparison with the two others groups, b) faster response times for negative-valence words in comparison with positive and neutral-valence words only for the Median-High and High anxiety groups, c) lower response accuracy for Median-High and High anxiety groups in comparison with the two others groups, d) better response accuracy for negative-valence words in comparison with positive and neutral-valence words only for the Median-High and High anxiety groups. Concerning the response times, our results showed no difference between the four groups. Furthermore, inside each group, the average response times was very close regardless the emotional valence. Otherwise, group differences appear when considering the error rates. Median-High and High anxiety groups made significantly more errors in lexical decision than Median-Low and Low groups. Better response accuracy, however, is not found for negative-valence words in comparison with positive and neutral-valence words in the Median-High and High anxiety groups. Thus, these results showed a lower response accuracy for above-median anxiety groups than below-median groups but without specificity for the negative-valence words. This study suggests that anxiety can negatively impact the lexical processing in young students. Although the lexical processing speed seems preserved, the accuracy of this processing may be altered in students with moderate or high level of anxiety. This finding has important implication for the prevention of reading and spelling difficulties. Indeed, during these learnings, if anxiety affects the access to phonological representations, anxious students could be disturbed when they have to match phonological representations with new orthographic representations, because of less efficient lexical representations. This study should be continued in order to precise the impact of anxiety on basic school learning.

Keywords: anxiety, emotional valence, childhood, lexical access

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Authors: Szerena Vajkovszki

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Among the relatively large volume of literature, the role and perception of women in Buddhism have been examined from various perspectives such as theology, history, anthropology, and feminism. When Buddhism spread to the West, women had a major role in its adaption and development. The meeting of different cultures and social structures had the fruit of a necessity to change. As Buddhism gained attention in the West, it produced a Buddhist feminist identity across national and ethnic boundaries. So globalization produced a contemporary cross-cultural Buddhist Women. The aim of the research is to find out the new role of such a Buddhist woman in aging societies. More precisely to understand what effect this contemporary Buddhist religion may have, direct or indirect, on fertility. Our worldwide aging society, especially in developed countries, including members of EU, raise sophisticated sociological and economic issues and challenges to be met. As declining fertility has outstanding influence underlying this trend, numerous studies have attempted to identify, describe, measure and interpret contributing factors of the fertility rate, out of which relatively few revealed the impact of religion. Among many religious guidelines, we can separate two major categories: direct and indirect. The aim of this research was to understand what are the most crucial identified (family values, gender related behaviors, religious sentiments) and not yet identified most influential contributing contemporary Buddhist religious factors. Above identifying these direct or indirect factors, it is also important to understand to what extent and how do they influence fertility, which requires a wider (inter-discipline) perspective. As proved by previous studies religion has also an influential role in health, mental state, well-being, working activity and many other components that are also related to fertility rates. All these components are inter-related, hence direct and indirect religious effects can only be well understood, if we figure out all necessary fields and their interaction. With the help of semi-structured opened interviews taking place in different countries, it was showed that indeed Buddhism has significant direct and indirect effect on fertility, hence the initial hypothesis was proved. However, the interviews showed an overall positive effect, the results could only serve for a general understanding about how Buddhism affects fertility. Evolution of Buddhism’s direct and indirect influence may vary in different nations and circumstances according to their specific environmental attributes. According to the local patterns, with special regard to women’s position and role in the society, outstandingly indirect influences could show diversifications. So it is advisory to investigate more for a deeper and clearer understanding of how Buddhism function in different socioeconomic circumstances. For example, in Hungary after the period of secularization more and more people tended to be attracted toward some transcendent values which could be an explanation for the rising number of Buddhists in the country. The present research could serve as a general starting point or a common basis for further specific national investigations how contemporary Buddhism affects fertility.

Keywords: contemporary Buddhism, cross-cultural woman, fertility, gender roles, religion

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Authors: Manasi Mahanty

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In the current phase of globalization, the mobility of capital facilitates outsourcing and subcontracting of production processes to the developing economies for cheap and flexible labour force. In such process, the globalization of production networks operates at multi-locational points within the nation. Under the new quota regime in the globalization period, the Indian manufacturing exporters came under the influence of corporate buyers and large retailers from the importing countries. As part of such process, the garment manufacturing sector is expected to create huge employment opportunities and to expand the export market in the country. While following these, expectations, the apparel and garment industries mostly target to hire female migrant workers with a purpose of establishing more flexible industrial relations through the casual nature of employment contract. It leads to an increasing women’s participation in the labour market as well as the rise in precarious forms of female paid employment. In the context, the main objective of the paper is to understand the wider dynamics of globalization of production and its link with informalization, feminization of labour force and internal migration process of the country. For this purpose, the study examines the changing labour relations in the KINFRA Apparel Park at Kerala’s Special Economic Zone which operates under the scheme ‘Apparel Parks for Export’ (APE) of the Government of India. The present study was based on both quantitative and qualitative analysis. In the first, the secondary sources of data were collected from the source location (SEAM centre) and destination (KINFRA Park). The official figures and data were discussed and analyzed in order to find out the various dimensions of labour relations under globalization of production. In the second, the primary survey was conducted to make a comparative analysis of local and migrant female workers. The study is executed by taking 100 workers in total. The local workers comprised of 53% of the sample whereas the outside state workers were 47%. Even personal interviews with management staff, and workers were also made for collecting the information regarding the organisational structure, nature, and mode of recruitment, work environment, etc. The study shows the enormous presence of rural women migrant workers in KINFRA Apparel Park. A Public Private Partnership (PPP) arranged migration system is found as Skills for Employment in Apparel Manufacturing (SEAM) from where young women and girls are being sent to work in garment factories of Kerala’s KINFRA International Apparel Park under the guise of an apprenticeship based recruitment. The study concludes that such arrangements try to avoid standard employment relationships and strengthen informalization, casualization and contractualization of work. In this process, the recruitment of women migrant workers is to be considered as best option for the employers of private industries which could be more easily hired and fired.

Keywords: female migration, globalization, informalization, KINFRA apparel park

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Authors: Abd Aziz Bin Abd Shukor, Eftah Binti Moh Hj Abdullah

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This case study aims to identify teachers’ perception as regards integrity in School-Ba sed Assessment (PBS) practice. This descriptive study involved 9 teachers from 4 secondary schools in 3 districts in the state of Perak. The respondents had undergone an integrity in PBS Practice interview using a focused group discussion method. The overall findings showed that the teachers believed that integrity in PBS practice could be achieved by adjusting the teaching methods align with learning objectives and the students’ characteristics. Many teachers, parents and student did not understand the best practice of PBS. This would affect the integrity in PBS practice. Teachers did not emphasis the principles and ethics. Their integrity as an innovative public servant may also be affected with the frequently changing assessment system, lack of training and no prior action research. The analysis of findings showed that the teachers viewed that organizational integrity involving the integrity of PBS was difficult to be implemented based on the expectations determined by Malaysia Ministry of Education (KPM). A few elements which assisted in the achievement of PBS integrity were the training, students’ understanding, the parents’ understanding of PBS, environment (involving human resources such as support and appreciation and non-human resources such as technology infrastructure readiness and media). The implications of this study show that teachers, as the PBS implementers, have a strong influence on the integrity of PBS. However, the transformation of behavior involving PBS integrity among teachers requires the stabilisation of support and infrastructure in order to enable the teachers to implement PBS in an ethical manner.

Keywords: assessment integrity, integrity, perception, school-based assessment

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