Search results for: attention deficits hyperactive disorder

Authors: O. V. Vyazovska

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Behavioral efficiency is one of the main principles to be successful in nature. Accuracy of visual discrimination is determined by the attention, learning experience, and memory. In the experimental condition, pigeons’ responses to visual stimuli presented on the screen of the monitor are behaviorally manifested by pecking or not pecking the stimulus, by the number of pecking, reaction time, etc. The higher the probability of rewarding is, the more likely pigeons will respond to the stimulus. We trained 8 pigeons (Columba livia) on a stagewise go/no-go visual discrimination task.16 visual stimuli were created from all possible combinations of four binary dimensions: brightness (dark/bright), size (large/small), line orientation (vertical/horizontal), and shape (circle/square). In the first stage, we presented S+ and 4 S-stimuli: the first that differed in all 4-dimensional values from S+, the second with brightness dimension sharing with S+, the third sharing brightness and orientation with S+, the fourth sharing brightness, orientation and size. Then all 16 stimuli were added. Pigeons rejected correctly 6-8 of 11 new added S-stimuli at the beginning of the second stage. The results revealed that pigeons’ behavior at the beginning of the second stage was controlled by probabilities of rewarding for 4 dimensions learned in the first stage. More or fewer mistakes with dimension discrimination at the beginning of the second stage depended on the number S- stimuli sharing the dimension with S+ in the first stage. A significant inverse correlation between the number of S- stimuli sharing dimension values with S+ in the first stage and the dimensional learning rate at the beginning of the second stage was found. Pigeons were more confident in discrimination of shape and size dimensions. They made mistakes at the beginning of the second stage, which were not associated with these dimensions. Thus, the received results help elucidate the principles of dimensional stimulus control during learning compound multidimensional visual stimuli.

Keywords: visual go/no go discrimination, selective attention, dimensional stimulus control, pigeon

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Authors: Kateryna Kulyk

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Anti-corruption education is an integral element of the corruption prevention mechanism of any state. Effective implementation of anti-corruption policy is impossible without awareness-raising activities. Information campaigns should target different social groups and aim to reduce tolerance to any form of corruption. Today, Ukraine and Lithuania have all the necessary infrastructure to actively work in this direction. Anti-corruption measures and building a society resistant to corruption are particularly important in the context of martial law in Ukraine and the state of emergency in Lithuania, as these conditions increase the risks of corrupt practices. To implement this area of activity, it is recommended to actively involve all state and local authorities, business representatives, non-governmental organisations, and all interested citizens. As of today, educational institutions, specialised anti-corruption bodies, and the public are already involved in this process. The purpose of the research is to draw public attention to the need and importance of obtaining basic knowledge on combating and preventing corruption, even in a state of emergency or martial law. This topic remains relevant even during the period of a state of emergency or martial law, as the risk of corrupt practices increases during these periods. The study is based on a comprehensive analysis of the anti-corruption policies of Ukraine and Lithuania, sociological research, and our own survey of anti-corruption experts. Legislation, reports of anti-corruption bodies and civil society organisations were analysed. We also conducted an anonymous survey of 13 anti-corruption experts on the most important anti-corruption measures in the countries studied. The main contribution of the research is to draw attention to the problem of low awareness of the population of countries about the importance of anti-corruption education as one of the necessary conditions for reducing corruption practices.

Keywords: corruption, prevention and combating of corruption, education, anti-corruption education, martial law, state of emergency

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Authors: Sarita Magu, Deepak Singh

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Study Design: This prospective study was conducted at the department of Radio Diagnosis, at Pt B.D. Sharma PGIMS, Rohtak in 57 patients of spine injury on radiographs or radiographically normal patients with neurological deficits presenting within 72 hours of injury. Aims: Evaluation of the role of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in Spinal Trauma Patients and to compare MRI findings with clinical profile and neurological status of the patient and to correlate the MRI findings with neurological recovery of the patient and predict the outcome. Material and Methods: Neurological status of patients was assessed at the time of admission and discharge in all the patients and at long term interval of six months to one year in 27 patients as per American spine injury association classification (ASIA). On MRI cord injury was categorized into cord hemorrhage, cord contusion, cord edema only, and normal cord. Quantitative assessment of injury on MRI was done using mean canal compromise (MCC), mean spinal cord compression (MSCC) and lesion length. Neurological status at admission and neurological recovery at discharge and long term follow up was compared with various qualitative cord findings and quantitative parameters on MRI. Results: Cord edema and normal cord was associated with favorable neurological outcome. Cord contusion show lesser neurological recovery as compared to cord edema. Cord hemorrhage was associated with worst neurological status at admission and poor neurological recovery. Mean MCC, MSCC, and lesion length values were higher in patients presenting with ASIA A grade injury and showed decreasing trends towards ASIA E grade injury. Patients showing neurological recovery over the period of hospital stay and long term follow up had lower mean MCC, MSCC, and lesion length as compared to patients showing no neurological recovery. The data was statistically significant with p value <.05. Conclusion: Cord hemorrhage and higher MCC, MSCC and lesion length has poor prognostic value in spine injury patients.

Keywords: spine injury, cord hemorrhage, cord contusion, MCC, MSCC, lesion length, ASIA grading

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Authors: Charlotte K. Lee, Henrique R. N. Aguiar, Ralph Smith, James Baldock, Sam Botchey

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Background: Femoral neck stress fractures (FNSF) are uncommon, making up 1 to 7.2% of stress fractures in healthy subjects. FNSFs are prevalent in young women, military recruits, endurance athletes, and individuals with energy deficiency syndrome or female athlete triad. Presentation is often non-specific and is often misdiagnosed following the initial examination. There is limited research addressing the return–to–activity time after FNSF. Previous studies have demonstrated prognostic time predictions based on various imaging techniques. Here, (1) OxSport clinic FNSF practice standards are retrospectively reviewed, (2) FNSF cohort demographics are examined, (3) Regression models were used to predict return–to–activity prognosis and consequently determine bone stress risk factors. Methods: Patients with a diagnosis of FNSF attending Oxsport clinic between 01/06/2020 and 01/01/2020 were selected from the Rheumatology Assessment Database Innovation in Oxford (RhADiOn) and OxSport Stress Fracture Database (n = 14). (1) Clinical practice was audited against five criteria based on local and National Institute for Health Care Excellence guidance, with a 100% standard. (2) Demographics of the FNSF cohort were examined with Student’s T-Test. (3) Lastly, linear regression and Random Forest regression models were used on this patient cohort to predict return–to–activity time. Consequently, an analysis of feature importance was conducted after fitting each model. Results: OxSport clinical practice met standard (100%) in 3/5 criteria. The criteria not met were patient waiting times and documentation of all bone stress risk factors. Importantly, analysis of patient demographics showed that of the population with complete bone stress risk factor assessments, 53% were positive for modifiable bone stress risk factors. Lastly, linear regression analysis was utilized to identify demographic factors that predicted return–to–activity time [R2 = 79.172%; average error 0.226]. This analysis identified four key variables that predicted return-to-activity time: vitamin D level, total hip DEXA T value, femoral neck DEXA T value, and history of an eating disorder/disordered eating. Furthermore, random forest regression models were employed for this task [R2 = 97.805%; average error 0.024]. Analysis of the importance of each feature again identified a set of 4 variables, 3 of which matched with the linear regression analysis (vitamin D level, total hip DEXA T value, and femoral neck DEXA T value) and the fourth: age. Conclusion: OxSport clinical practice could be improved by more comprehensively evaluating bone stress risk factors. The importance of this evaluation is demonstrated by the population found positive for these risk factors. Using this cohort, potential bone stress risk factors that significantly impacted return-to-activity prognosis were predicted using regression models.

Keywords: eating disorder, bone stress risk factor, femoral neck stress fracture, vitamin D

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Authors: Pius Marthin, Nihal Ata Tutkun

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Survival analysis has become one of the paramount procedures in the modeling of time-to-event data. When we encounter complex survival problems, the traditional approach remains limited in accounting for the complex correlational structure between the covariates and the outcome due to the strong assumptions that limit the inference and prediction ability of the resulting models. Several studies exist on the deep learning approach to survival modeling; moreover, the application for the case of complex survival problems still needs to be improved. In addition, the existing models need to address the data structure's complexity fully and are subject to noise and redundant information. In this study, we design a deep learning technique (CmpXRnnSurv_AE) that obliterates the limitations imposed by traditional approaches and addresses the above issues to jointly predict the risk-specific probabilities and survival function for recurrent events with competing risks. We introduce the component termed Risks Information Weights (RIW) as an attention mechanism to compute the weighted cumulative incidence function (WCIF) and an external auto-encoder (ExternalAE) as a feature selector to extract complex characteristics among the set of covariates responsible for the cause-specific events. We train our model using synthetic and real data sets and employ the appropriate metrics for complex survival models for evaluation. As benchmarks, we selected both traditional and machine learning models and our model demonstrates better performance across all datasets.

Keywords: cumulative incidence function (CIF), risk information weight (RIW), autoencoders (AE), survival analysis, recurrent events with competing risks, recurrent neural networks (RNN), long short-term memory (LSTM), self-attention, multilayers perceptrons (MLPs)

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Authors: Saziye Darendeli

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Motivation has a significant impact on a second/foreign language learning process, so it plays a vital role while achieving the learning goal. As it is defined by Simon (1967, p. 29), motivation is “a goal terminating mechanism, permitting goals to be processed serially.”AccordingtoSimon, if a learning goal is activated and enough attention is given, the learner starts learning. In connection with this view, the more attention is given on a subject, and the more activation takes place on it, the quicker learning will occur. Moreover, today almost every teacher is familiar with the term “distance education” regardless of their student's age group. As it is stated by Visser (2002), when compared to the traditional classrooms, in distance education, the rate and success of language learningdecreasesandone of the most essential reasons is that motivating students in distance education contexts, in which interaction is lower, is much more challenging than face-to-face training especially with young learners(Lim& Kim, 2003). Besides, there are limited numbers of studies conducted on motivational strategies for young learners in distance education contexts since we have been experiencing full time the online schooling process recently, yet online teaching seems to be permanent in our lives with the new technological era. Therefore, there appears to be a need for various strategies to motivate young learners in distance education, and the current study aims to find out the strategies that young learners’ teachers use to increase their students’ motivation level in distance education. To achieve this aim, a qualitative research approach and a phenomenological method with an interpretive design will be used. The participants, who are teachers of young learners, will be interviewed using a structured interview format consisting of 7 questions. As the participants are young learners’teacherswhohavebeenexperiencingteaching online, exploring thestrategiesthattheyusetoincreasetheirstudents’ motivationlevelwillprovidesomesuggestionsaboutthemotivationalstrategiesforfuture online classes. Also, in this paper, I will move beyond the traditional classrooms that have face-to-face lessons and discuss the effective motivational strategies for young learners in distance education.

Keywords: motivation, distance education, young learners, strategies

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Authors: Sumaiyya Ali, Humaira Jamshed

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Selfie culture has become increasingly prevalent in recent years, with young adults being one of the most active demographics when it comes to taking and sharing selfies. While some argue that selfies can be a harmless way to express oneself, connect with others, and boost self-esteem, others have raised concerns about the potential negative effects of selfie culture on mental health. This study investigated the complex relationship between selfie culture, social media use, self-image, and mental well-being among young adults. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with over 75 participants aged 18–30. The results of the study showed that there is a positive relationship between selfie culture and social media use and that both of these factors are associated with lower self-esteem, higher self-consciousness, and increased appearance anxiety among young adults. Additionally, the study found that selfie culture was associated with increased narcissistic traits among young adults. The findings of this study suggest that selfie culture may have some negative effects on the mental health of young adults. However, it is important to note that the study was cross-sectional, which means that it cannot establish causality. Future research is needed to further investigate the relationship between selfie culture and mental health. In addition to the findings of the study, it is also important to consider the motivation behind selfie-taking. The study identified four main motivations for taking selfies: to communicate with others, to promote oneself, to express oneself, and to seek attention. It is likely that the negative effects of selfie culture are more pronounced for individuals who take selfies for narcissistic or attention-seeking reasons. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that selfie culture is a complex phenomenon with both positive and negative potential effects on the mental health of young adults. It is important to be aware of the potential risks associated with selfie culture, and to use it in a healthy and balanced way.

Keywords: selfie, social media, psychology, mental health

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Authors: Umbreen Javaid

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Pakistan’s experience with nascent, yet to be evolved democratic institutions inherited from the British Empire, has not been a pleasant one when evaluated in terms of good governance, development, and success of anti-corruption mechanisms. The country has remained entangled in a vicious circle of accumulating large budget deficits, dwindling economy, low foreign direct investment, political instability, and rising terrorism. It is thus not surprising that no account of the state aimed at analyzing the six-decade journey since her inception is replete with negative connotations like dysfunctional, failed, fragile or weak state. The limited pool of experience of handling democratic institutions and lack of political will be on the part of country’s political elite to transform the society on democratic footings have left Pakistan as a “limited access order” state. The widespread illiteracy becomes a double edge sword when a largely illiterate electorate elects representatives who mostly come from a semi-educated background with the limited understanding of democratic minutiae and little or no proclivity to resist monetary allures. The prevalence of culture of patronage with widespread poverty coupled with absence of a comprehensive system of investigating, prosecuting and adjudicating cases of corruption encourage the practice that has been eroding the state’s foundations since her inception owing to the unwillingness of the traditional elites who have been strongly resistant towards any attempts aimed at disseminating powers. An analytical study of the historical, political, cultural, economic and administrative hurdles that have been at work in impeding Pakistan’s transition to a democratic, accountable society would be instrumental in understanding the issue of widespread plague of corruption and state’s inefficiency to cope with it effectively. The issue of corruption in Pakistan becomes more important when seen in the context of her vulnerability to terrorism and religious extremism. In this regard, Pakistan needs to learn a lot from developed countries in order to evolve a comprehensive strategy for combating and preventing this pressing issue.

Keywords: Pakistan, corruption, anti-corruption, limited access order

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Authors: Imen Aribi Ben Amor

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The aim of the present study is to analyze the performance of requests in emails among a group of Tunisian postgraduate students. It also seeks to determine the influence of the social factors on the participants’ requests performance. For this purpose, the data were collected using a discourse completion test (DCT). Accordingly, 42 Tunisian postgraduate students were asked to respond in English to eight different situations in which they carried out the speech act of request in emails. The data were analyzed based on the degree of directness. A detailed analysis of the head acts found in the DCT revealed that Tunisian Postgraduate students use a varied repertoire of request strategies (direct, conventionally indirect and non-conventionally indirect) but at the same time rely heavily on direct request strategies. They tended to address their requestees directly except for distant superiors. DCT results suggest that the participants are to some extent aware of the influence of the ranking of imposition and social distance but fail to acknowledge the weight of social power when performing requests in emails. The preference of the participants to use direct strategies may be the result of the effect of Tunisian culture and the negative transfer of Tunisian communicative strategies. Accordingly, this study suggests some pedagogical implications and suggestions for Tunisian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) instructors. They are required to pay closer attention to the pragmalinguistic nuances of the ways in which requests in emails are realized. Teachers can also help students understand academic email etiquettes by explicitly explaining what they expect in the student email. Thus, EFL teachers and syllabus designers should devote more attention to developing EFL learners’ pragmatic competence through teaching L2 pragmatics.

Keywords: directness, ranking of imposition, request strategies, social distance, social power

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Authors: Sarah Elshahat, Tina Moffat

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Suboptimal mental health is a considerable global public health challenge that leads to considerable inequalities worldwide. Newcomers are at elevated risk for developing mental health issues as a result of social exclusion, stigmatization, racism, unequal employment opportunities, and discrimination. The problem can be especially serious amongst Arabic-speaking immigrants and refugees (ASIR) whose mental wellness may have already been affected by exposure to political violence, persecution, hunger or war in their countries of origin. A scoping review was conducted to investigate pre- and post-migration mental health determinants amongst ASIR in North America (the U.S. and Canada), who are a rapidly growing population in both regions. Pertinent peer-reviewed papers and grey literature were located through a systematic search of five electronic databases (Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, Anthropology Plus, and Sociology Database). A stakeholder consultation was implemented to validate the analyzed findings of the included 44 studies. About 80% of the studies were carried out in the US, underscoring a lack of Canadian ASIR-mental health research. A gap in qualitative, mixed-method, and longitudinal research was detected, where approximately two-thirds of the studies adopted a cross-sectional method. Pre-migration determinants of mental health were related to the political unrest, violence and armed conflict in the Arab world, increasing post-traumatic stress disorder and psychological distress levels among ASIR. English language illiteracy and generational variations in acculturation patterns were major post-migration mental health triggering factors. Exposure to domestic violence, stigmatization, poverty, racialization, and harassment were significant post-migration mental health determinants that stem from social inequalities, triggering depression, and distress amongst ASIR. Family conflicts linked to child-rearing and gendered norms were considered as both pre- and post-migration mental health triggering factors. Most post-migration mental health protective factors were socio-culturally related and included the maintenance of positive ethnic identity, faith, family support, and community cohesion. Individual resilience, articulated as self-esteem and hope, was a significant negative predictor of depression and psychological distress among ASIR. Community-engaged, mixed-methods, and longitudinal studies are required to address the current gap in mental health research among ASIR in North America. A more thorough determination of potential mental health triggers and protective factors would help inform the development of mental wellness and resilience-promoting programs that are culturally sensitive to ASIR. On the policy level, the Health in All Policies framework of the World Health Organization can be potentially useful for addressing social and health inequalities among ASIR, reducing mental health challenges.

Keywords: depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychological distress, resilience

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Authors: Catarina Cruz, Ana Breda

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Tiling problems have been capturing the attention of many mathematicians due to their real-life applications. In this study, we deal with tilings of Zⁿ by Lee spheres, where n is a positive integer number, being these tilings related with error correcting codes on the transmission of information over a noisy channel. We focus our attention on the question ‘for what values of n and r does the n-dimensional Lee sphere of radius r tile Zⁿ?’. It seems that the n-dimensional Lee sphere of radius r does not tile Zⁿ for n ≥ 3 and r ≥ 2. Here, we prove that is not possible to tile Z⁷ with Lee spheres of radius 2 presenting a proof based on a combinatorial method and faithful to the geometric idea of the problem. The non-existence of such tilings has been studied by several authors being considered the most difficult cases those in which the radius of the Lee spheres is equal to 2. The relation between these tilings and error correcting codes is established considering the center of a Lee sphere as a codeword and the other elements of the sphere as words which are decoded by the central codeword. When the Lee spheres of radius r centered at elements of a set M ⊂ Zⁿ tile Zⁿ, M is a perfect r-error correcting Lee code of word length n over Z, denoted by PL(n, r). Our strategy to prove the non-existence of PL(7, 2) codes are based on the assumption of the existence of such code M. Without loss of generality, we suppose that O ∈ M, where O = (0, ..., 0). In this sense and taking into account that we are dealing with Lee spheres of radius 2, O covers all words which are distant two or fewer units from it. By the definition of PL(7, 2) code, each word which is distant three units from O must be covered by a unique codeword of M. These words have to be covered by codewords which dist five units from O. We prove the non-existence of PL(7, 2) codes showing that it is not possible to cover all the referred words without superposition of Lee spheres whose centers are distant five units from O, contradicting the definition of PL(7, 2) code. We achieve this contradiction by combining the cardinality of particular subsets of codewords which are distant five units from O. There exists an extensive literature on codes in the Lee metric. Here, we present a new approach to prove the non-existence of PL(7, 2) codes.

Keywords: Golomb-Welch conjecture, Lee metric, perfect Lee codes, tilings

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Authors: Paresh Patel, Harshit Patel

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Superficial fungal skin infection is among the most common skin disease. The drug administration through skin has received attention due to several advantages: Avoidance of significant pre-systemic metabolism, drug levels within the therapeutic window, drugs with short biological half-lives, decreased side effects, the non-invasive character, and very high acceptance.

Keywords: transdermal spray, ketoconazole, Eudragit® RLPO, therapeutic window

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Authors: Anuradha Maharaj, Adrian Cashman

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The cross-cutting nature of water as a resource translates into the need for a better understanding of its movement, storage and loss at all points in the hydro-socioeconomic cycle. An integrated approach to addressing the issue of sustainability means quantitatively understanding: the linkages within this cycle, the role of water managers in resource allocation, and the critical factors influencing its scarcity. The Water Evaluation and Planning Tool (WEAP) is an integrative model that combines the catchment-scale hydrologic processes with a water management model, driven by environmental requirements and socioeconomic demands. The concept of demand priorities is included to represent the areas of greatest use within a given catchment. Located on Barbados’ West Coast, Speightstown and the surrounding areas encompass a well-developed tourist, residential and agricultural area. The main water resource for this area, and the rest of the island, is that of groundwater. The availability of groundwater in Barbados may be adversely affected by the projected changes in climate, such as reduced wet season rainfall. Economic development and changing sector priorities together with climate related changes have the potential to affect water resource abundance and by extension the allocation of resources for example in the Speightstown area. In order to investigate the potential impacts on the Speightstown area specifically, a WEAP Model of the study area was developed to estimate the present available water (baseline reference scenario 2000-2010). From this baseline scenario, it is envisioned that an exploration into projected changes in availability in the near term (2035-2045) and medium/long term (2065-2075) time frames will be undertaken. The generated estimations can assist water managers to better evaluate the status of and identify trends in water use and formulate adaptation measures to offset future deficits.

Keywords: water evaluation and planning system (WEAP), water availability, demand and supply, water allocation

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Authors: Naim Izet Kajtazi

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Context: Increased intracranial pressure and associated symptoms such as headache, papilledema, motor or sensory deficits, seizures, and conscious disturbance are well-known in acute CVT. However, visual loss is not commonly associated with this disease, except in the case of secondary IIH associated with it. Process: We report a case of a 40-year-old male with Behçet’s disease and cerebral venous thrombosis, and other multiple comorbidities admitted with a four-day history of increasing headache and rapidly progressive visual loss bilaterally. The neurological examination was positive for bilateral papilledema of grade 3 with light perception on the left eye and counting fingers on the right eye. Brain imaging showed old findings of cerebral venous thrombosis without any intraparenchymal lesions to suggest a flare-up of Behçet’s disease. The lumbar puncture, followed by the lumbar drain insertion, gave no benefit in headache or vision. However, he completely lost sight. The right optic nerve sheath fenestration did not result in vision improvement. The acute spinal shock complicated the lumbar drain removal due to epidural hematoma. An urgent lumbar laminectomy with hematoma evacuation undertook. Intra-operatively, the neurosurgeon noted suspicious abnormal vessels at conus medullaris with the possibility of an arteriovenous malformation. Outcome: In a few days following the spinal surgery, the patient vision started to improve. Further improvement was achieved after plasma exchange sessions followed by cyclophosphamide. In the recent follow-up in the clinic, he reported better vision, drove, and completed his Ph.D. studies. Relevance: Visual loss in patients with Behçet’s disease should always be anticipated and taken reasonable care of, ensuring that they receive well-combined immunosuppression with anticoagulation and agents to reduce intracranial pressure. This patient’s story is significant for a high disease burden and complicated hospital course by acute spinal shock due to spinal lumbar drain removal with a possible underlying spinal arteriovenous malformation.

Keywords: Behcet disease, optic neuritis, IIH, CVT

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Authors: Alireza Pirkhaefi

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Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the most common diseases of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). Given the importance of cognitive disorders in patients with multiple sclerosis, the present study was in order to compare cognitive functions (Working memory, Attention and Centralization, and Visual-spatial perception) in patients with relapsing- remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS). Method: Present study was performed as a retrospective study. This research was conducted with Ex-Post Facto method. The samples of research consisted of 60 patients with multiple sclerosis (30 patients relapsing-retrograde and 30 patients secondary progressive), who were selected from Tehran Community of MS Patients Supported as convenience sampling. 30 normal persons were also selected as a comparison group. Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA) was used to assess cognitive functions. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance. Results: The results showed that there were significant differences among cognitive functioning in patients with RRMS, SPMS, and normal individuals. There were not significant differences in working memory between two groups of patients with RRMS and SPMS; while significant differences in these variables were seen between the two groups and normal individuals. Also, results showed significant differences in attention and centralization and visual-spatial perception among three groups. Conclusions: Results showed that there are differences between cognitive functions of RRMS and SPMS patients so that the functions of RRMS patients are better than SPMS patients. These results have a critical role in improvement of cognitive functions; reduce the factors causing disability due to cognitive impairment, and especially overall health of society.

Keywords: multiple sclerosis, cognitive function, secondary-progressive, normal subjects

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Authors: Gobena D. Bayisa, A. Mekonen, Megersa O. Dinka, Tilahun H. Nebi, M. Boja

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Crop production in arid and semi-arid regions of Ethiopia is largely limited by water availability. Changing climate conditions and declining water resources increase the need for appropriate approaches to improve water use and find ways to increase production through reduced and more reliable water supply. In the years 2021/22 and 2022/23, a field experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of limited irrigation water use on bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production, water use efficiency, and financial benefits. Five irrigation treatments, i.e., full irrigation (100% ETc/ control), 85% ETc, 70% ETc, 55% ETc, and 40% ETc, were evaluated using a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replicates in the semi-arid climate condition of Awash basin of Ethiopia. Statistical analysis showed a significant effect of irrigation levels on wheat grain yield, water use efficiency, crop water response factor, economic profit, wheat grain quality, aboveground biomass, and yield index. The highest grain yield (5085 kg ha⁻¹) was obtained with 100% ETc irrigation (417.2 mm), and the lowest grain yield with 40% ETc (223.7 mm). Of the treatments, 70% ETc produced the higher wheat grain yield (4555 kg ha⁻¹), the highest water use efficiency (1.42 kg m⁻³), and the highest yield index (0.43). Using the saved water, wheat could be produced 23.4% more with a 70% ETc deficit than full irrigation on 1.38 ha of land, and it could get the highest profit (US$2563.9) and higher MRR (137%). The yield response factor and crop-water production function showed potential reductions associated with increased irrigation deficits. However, a 70% ETc deficit is optimal for increasing wheat grain yield, water use efficiency, and economic benefits of irrigated wheat production. The result indicates that deficit irrigation of wheat under the typical arid and semi-arid climatic conditions of the Awash Basin can be a viable irrigation management approach for enhancing water use efficiency while minimizing the decrease in crop yield could be considered effective.

Keywords: crop-water response factor, deficit irrigation, water use efficiency, wheat production

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Authors: Maryam Ghavam Sadri, Maryam Shahrooz

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Background: Nowadays the prevalence of metabolic syndrome (Mets) has taken on a growing trend. Studies have shown the relationship between vitamin D deficiency (VDD) status and Mets in children. Also studies have recorded that exerting strategies for vitamin D status improvement can help prevent Mets in children. This study investigated multiple strategies of prevention of Mets resulting from VDD in children. Methods: This review study has been done by using keywords related to the topic and 54 articles were found (2000-2015) that 25 were selected according to the indicators of Mets, supplementation and fortification of foods with vitamin D and attention to children environment and life style. Results: Studies have suggested the correlation between serum levels of vitamin D with waist circumference (p < 0.0001), systolic blood pressure (p=0.01), HOMA-IR (p=0.001) and HDL cholesterol (p < 0.0001). An inverse correlation between serum 25 (OH) D and HOMA-IR (p = 0.006) and insulin (P = 0.002) has been proved in overweight group. Higher HOMASDS and triglycerides found in vitamin D deficient obese children compared to control group without VDD (p=0.04). After supplementation with vitamin D, serum TG concentration decreases significantly (p=0.04), and improves insulin resistance (p=0.02). The prevalence of VDD is associated with time of watching TV (P < 0.01), hours of physical activity per week (P = 0.01), skipping breakfast (P < 0.001) soda intake (P < 0.001), and milk intake per day (P < 0.01). Conclusion: According to the beneficial role of vitamin D in prevention of Mets and proven relationship between serum levels of vitamin D and Mets indicators, we can prevent childhood Mets through the application of appropriate strategies such as supplementation and food fortification with vitamin D and positive changes in children life style with especial attention to physical activity in exposure of sunlight and their environment condition.

Keywords: children, metabolic syndrome, prevention strategies, vitamin D

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Authors: Salma Hussein, Hadia Aziz

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Entrepreneurship plays a significant and imperative role in economic and social growth, and therefore, is stimulated and encouraged by governments and academics as a mean of creating job opportunities, innovation, and wealth. Indicative of its importance, it is essential to identify factors that encourage and promote entrepreneurial behavior. This is particularly true for developing countries where the need for entrepreneurial development is high and the resources are scarce, thus, there is a need to maximize the outcomes of investing in entrepreneurial development. Entrepreneurial education has been the center of attention and interest among researchers as it is believed to be one of the most critical factors in promoting entrepreneurship over the long run. Accordingly, the urgency to encourage entrepreneurship education and develop an enterprise culture is now a main concern in Egypt. Researchers have postulated that cognition has the potential to make a significant contribution to the study of entrepreneurship. One such contribution that future studies need to consider in entrepreneurship research is the cognitive processes that occur within the individual such as cognitive style. During the past decade, there has been an increasing interest in cognitive style among researchers and practitioners specifically in innovation and entrepreneurship field. Limited studies pay attention to study the antecedent dynamics that fuel entrepreneurial cognition to better understand its role in entrepreneurship. Moreover, while many studies were conducted on entrepreneurship education, scholars are still hesitant regarding the teachability of entrepreneurship due to the lack of clear evidence of its impact. Furthermore, the relation between cognitive style and entrepreneurial intentions, has yet to be discovered. Hence, this research aims to test the impact of entrepreneurship education on cognitive style and subsequent intention in order to evaluate whether student’s and potential entrepreneur’s cognitive styles are affected by entrepreneurial education and in turn affect their intentions. Understanding the impact of Entrepreneurship Education on ways of thinking and intention is critical for the development of effective education and training in entrepreneurship field. It is proposed that students who are exposed to entrepreneurship education programs will have a more balanced thinking style compared to those students who are not exposed. Moreover, it is hypothesized that students having a balanced cognitive style will exhibit higher levels of entrepreneurial intentions than students having an intuitive or analytical cognitive style. Finally, it is proposed that non-formal entrepreneurship education will be more positively associated with entrepreneurial intentions than will formal entrepreneurship education. The proposed methodology is a pre and post Experimental Design. The sample will include young adults, their age range from 18 till 35 years old including both students enrolled in formal entrepreneurship education programs in private universities as well as young adults who are willing to participate in a Non-Formal entrepreneurship education programs in Egypt. Attention is now given on how far individuals are analytical or intuitive in their cognitive style, to what extent it is possible to have a balanced thinking style and whether or not this can be aided by training or education. Therefore, there is an urge need for further research on entrepreneurial cognition in educational contexts.

Keywords: cognitive style, entrepreneurial intention, entrepreneurship education, experimental design

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Authors: Alexander K. Guo

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PM2.5 poses a large threat to people’s health and the environment and is an issue of large concern in Beijing, brought to the attention of the government by the media. In addition, both the United States Embassy in Beijing and the government of China have increased monitoring of PM2.5 in recent years, and have made real-time data available to the public. This report utilizes hourly historical data (2008-2016) from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing for the first time. The first objective was to attempt to fit probability distributions to the data to better predict a number of days exceeding the standard, and the second was to uncover any yearly, seasonal, monthly, daily, and hourly patterns and trends that may arise to better understand of air control policy. In these data, 66,650 hours and 2687 days provided valid data. Lognormal, gamma, and Weibull distributions were fit to the data through an estimation of parameters. The Chi-squared test was employed to compare the actual data with the fitted distributions. The data were used to uncover trends, patterns, and improvements in PM2.5 concentration over the period of time with valid data in addition to specific periods of time that received large amounts of media attention, analyzed to gain a better understanding of causes of air pollution. The data show a clear indication that Beijing’s air quality is unhealthy, with an average of 94.07µg/m3 across all 66,650 hours with valid data. It was found that no distribution fit the entire dataset of all 2687 days well, but each of the three above distribution types was optimal in at least one of the yearly data sets, with the lognormal distribution found to fit recent years better. An improvement in air quality beginning in 2014 was discovered, with the first five months of 2016 reporting an average PM2.5 concentration that is 23.8% lower than the average of the same period in all years, perhaps the result of various new pollution-control policies. It was also found that the winter and fall months contained more days in both good and extremely polluted categories, leading to a higher average but a comparable median in these months. Additionally, the evening hours, especially in the winter, reported much higher PM2.5 concentrations than the afternoon hours, possibly due to the prohibition of trucks in the city in the daytime and the increased use of coal for heating in the colder months when residents are home in the evening. Lastly, through analysis of special intervals that attracted media attention for either unnaturally good or bad air quality, the government’s temporary pollution control measures, such as more intensive road-space rationing and factory closures, are shown to be effective. In summary, air quality in Beijing is improving steadily and do follow standard probability distributions to an extent, but still needs improvement. Analysis will be updated when new data become available.

Keywords: Beijing, distribution, patterns, pm2.5, trends

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Authors: Ioanna Taouki, Marie Lallier, David Soto

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Metacognition refers to the capacity to reflect upon our own cognitive processes. Although there is an ongoing discussion in the literature on the role of metacognition in learning and academic achievement, little is known about its neurodevelopmental trajectories in early childhood, when children begin to receive formal education in reading. Here, we evaluate the metacognitive ability, estimated under a recently developed Signal Detection Theory model, of a cohort of children aged between 6 and 7 (N=60), who performed three two-alternative-forced-choice tasks (two linguistic: lexical decision task, visual attention span task, and one non-linguistic: emotion recognition task) including trial-by-trial confidence judgements. Our study has three aims. First, we investigated how metacognitive ability (i.e., how confidence ratings track accuracy in the task) relates to performance in general standardized tasks related to students' reading and general cognitive abilities using Spearman's and Bayesian correlation analysis. Second, we assessed whether or not young children recruit common mechanisms supporting metacognition across the different task domains or whether there is evidence for domain-specific metacognition at this early stage of development. This was done by examining correlations in metacognitive measures across different task domains and evaluating cross-task covariance by applying a hierarchical Bayesian model. Third, using robust linear regression and Bayesian regression models, we assessed whether metacognitive ability in this early stage is related to the longitudinal learning of children in a linguistic and a non-linguistic task. Notably, we did not observe any association between students’ reading skills and metacognitive processing in this early stage of reading acquisition. Some evidence consistent with domain-general metacognition was found, with significant positive correlations between metacognitive efficiency between lexical and emotion recognition tasks and substantial covariance indicated by the Bayesian model. However, no reliable correlations were found between metacognitive performance in the visual attention span and the remaining tasks. Remarkably, metacognitive ability significantly predicted children's learning in linguistic and non-linguistic domains a year later. These results suggest that metacognitive skill may be dissociated to some extent from general (i.e., language and attention) abilities and further stress the importance of creating educational programs that foster students’ metacognitive ability as a tool for long term learning. More research is crucial to understand whether these programs can enhance metacognitive ability as a transferable skill across distinct domains or whether unique domains should be targeted separately.

Keywords: confidence ratings, development, metacognitive efficiency, reading acquisition

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Authors: Neelamshobha Nirala, R. Periyasamy, Awanish Kumar

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Diabetes is a metabolic disorder and with the increase of global prevalence of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and mortality related to diabetes has also increased. Diabetes causes the increase of arterial stiffness by elusive hormonal and metabolic abnormalities. We used photoplethysmograph (PPG), a simple non-invasive method to study the change in arterial stiffness due to diabetes. Toe PPG signals were taken from 29 diabetic subjects with mean age of (65±8.4) years and 21 non-diabetic subjects of mean age of (49±14) years. Mean duration of diabetes is 12±8 years for diabetic group. Rise-time (RT) and area under rise time (AUR) were calculated from the PPG signal of each subject and Welch’s t-test is used to find the significant difference between two groups. We obtained a significant difference of (p-value) 0.0005 and 0.03 for RT and AUR respectively between diabetic and non-diabetic subjects. Average value of RT and AUR is 0.298±0.003 msec and 14.4±4.2 arbitrary units respectively for diabetic subject compared to 0.277±0.0005 msec and 13.66±2.3 a.u respectively for non-diabetic subjects. In conclusion, this study support that arterial stiffness is increased in diabetes and can be detected early using PPG.

Keywords: area under rise-time, AUR, arterial stiffness, diabetes, photoplethysmograph, PPG, rise-time (RT)

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Authors: Eki Devung, Eka Tyastutik, Indha Annisa, Digdaya Anoraga, Jamaluddin Arsyad

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Plant medicine is a whole species of plants are known to have medicinal properties. Bogor Agricultural University has high biodiversity, one of which flora potential as a drug. This study was conducted from 19 September to 10 October 2016 at Bogor Agricultural University using literature study and field observation. There are 85 species of medicinal plants which include a medicinal plant cultivation and wild plants. Family herbs most commonly found in Cikabayan that while the Euphorbiaceae, family which is found in the Tropical Medicinal Plant Conservation Laboratory is the family of Achantaceae. Species of medicinal plants is dominated by herbs and shrubs. Part herbs most widely used are the leaves. The diversity of diseases that can be treated with medicine plants include digestive system diseases and metabolic disorder.

Keywords: benefits, biodiversity, Bogor Agricultural University, medicinal plants

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Authors: Tareq L. Mukattash, Karem H. Alzoubi, Ejlal Abu El-Rub, Anan S. Jarab, Sayyer I. Al-Azzam, Maher Khdour, Mohammed Shara, Yazid N. Alhamarneh

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Background: It has been estimated that up to 50% of any patient population is at least partially non-adherent to their prescribed treatment. Identifying barriers to adherence is required to develop effective interventions for psychiatric patients. Objective: To explore the prevalence and factors of non-adherence among psychiatric patients present at four psychiatric clinics. Method: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study. A sample of psychiatric patients attending outpatient psychiatric clinics was enrolled between March and April 2011. Results: A total of 243 psychiatric patients took part in this study with the majority of patients (92.5%) being prescribed more than one psychiatric disorder. The majority (64.2%) of the patients was classified as non-adherent according to the Morisky adherence questionnaire and forgetfulness was the most prevalent reason for that. Conclusions: Non-adherence is a common and important issue among psychiatric patients. Polypharmacy, safety concerns and lack of insight towards the prescribed treatment were reported as the main reasons of non-adherence.

Keywords: medication adherence, psychiatric disorders, clinical pharmacy, polypharmacy

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Authors: Majed Al Otaibi, Melissa Lessard-Beaudoin, Amel Loudghi, Raphael Chouinard-Watkins, Melanie Plourde, Frederic Calon, C. Alexandre Castellano, Stephen Cunnane, Helene Payette, Pierrette Gaudreau, Denis Gris, Rona K. Graham

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Introduction: Alzheimer disease (AD) is a chronic disorder that affects millions of individuals worldwide. Symptoms include memory dysfunction, and also alterations in attention, planning, language and overall cognitive function. Olfactory dysfunction is a common symptom of several neurological disorders including AD. Studying the mechanisms underlying the olfactory dysfunction may therefore lead to the discovery of potential biomarkers and/or treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Objectives: To determine if olfactory dysfunction predicts future cognitive impairment in the aging population and to characterize the olfactory system in a murine model expressing a genetic factor of AD. Method: For the human study, quantitative olfactory tests (UPSIT and OMT) have been done on 93 subjects (aged 80 to 94 years) from the Quebec Longitudinal Study on Nutrition and Successful Aging (NuAge) cohort accepting to participate in the ORCA secondary study. The telephone Modified Mini Mental State examination (t-MMSE) was used to assess cognition levels, and an olfactory self-report was also collected. In a separate cohort, olfactory cortical volume was calculated using MRI results from healthy old adults (n=25) and patients with AD (n=18) using the AAL single-subject atlas and performed with the PNEURO tool (PMOD 3.7). For the murine study, we are using Western blotting, RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. Result: Human Study: Based on the self-report, 81% of the participants claimed to not suffer from any problem with olfaction. However, based on the UPSIT, 94% of those subjects showed a poor olfactory performance and different forms of microsmia. Moreover, the results confirm that olfactory function declines with age. We also detected a significant decrease in olfactory cortical volume in AD individuals compared to controls. Murine study: Preliminary data demonstrate there is a significant decrease in expression levels of the proform of caspase-3 and the caspase substrate STK3, in the olfactory bulb of mice expressing human APOE4 compared with controls. In addition, there is a significant decrease in the expression level of the caspase-9 proform and caspase-8 active fragment. Analysis of the mature neuron marker, NeuN, shows decreased expression levels of both isoforms. The data also suggest that Iba-1 immunostaining is increased in the olfactory bulb of APOE4 mice compared to wild type mice. Conclusions: The activation of caspase-3 may be the cause of the decreased levels of STK3 through caspase cleavage and may play role in the inflammation observed. In the clinical study, our results suggest that seniors are unaware of their olfactory function status and therefore it is not sufficient to measure olfaction using the self-report in the elderly. Studying olfactory function and cognitive performance in the aging population will help to discover biomarkers in the early stage of the AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, APOE4, cognition, caspase, brain atrophy, neurodegenerative, olfactory dysfunction

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Authors: Catherine S. Fichten, Tali Heiman, Mary Jorgensen, Mai Nhu Nguyen, Rhonda Amsel, Dorit Olenik-Shemesh

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The study examined Canadian and Israeli students' perceptions related to their intention to graduate from their program of studies. Canada and Israel are dissimilar in many ways that affect education, including language and alphabet. In addition, the postsecondary education systems differ. For example, in some parts of Canada (e.g., in Quebec, Canada’s 2nd largest province), students matriculate after 11 years of high school; in Israel, this typically occurs after 12 years. In addition, Quebec students attend two compulsory years of junior college before enrolling in a three-year university Bachelor program; in Israel students enroll in a three-year Bachelor program directly after matriculation. In addition, Israeli students typically enroll in the army shortly after high school graduation; in Canada, this is not the case. What the two countries do have in common is concern about the success of postsecondary students with disabilities. The present study was based on Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB); the model suggests that behavior is influenced by Intention to carry it out. This, in turn, is predicted by the following correlated variables: Perceived Behavioral Control (i.e., ease or difficulty enacting the behavior - in this case graduation), Subjective Norms (i.e., perceived social/peer pressure from individuals important in the student’s life), and Attitude (i.e., positive or negative evaluation of graduation). A questionnaire was developed to test the TPB in previous Canadian studies and administered to 845 Canadian college students (755 nondisabled, 90 with LD/ADHD) who had completed at least one semester of studies) and to 660 Israeli university students enrolled in a Bachelor’s program (537 nondisabled, 123 with LD/ADHD). Because Israeli students were older than Canadian students we covaried age in SPSS-based ANOVA comparisons and included it in regression equations. Because females typically have better academic outcomes than males, gender was included in all analyses. ANOVA results indicate only a significant gender effect for Intention to graduate, with females having higher scores. Four stepwise regressions were conducted, with Intention to graduate as the predicted variable, and Gender and the three TPB predictors as independent variables (separate analyses for Israeli and Canadian samples with and without LD/ADHD). Results show that for samples with LD/ADHD, although Gender and Age were not significant predictors, the TPB predictors were, with all three TPB predictors being significant for the Canadian sample (i.e., Perceived Behavioral Control, Subjective Norms, Attitude, R2=.595), and two of the three (i.e., Perceived Behavioral Control, Subjective Norms) for the Israeli sample (R2=.528). For nondisabled students, the results for both countries show that all three TPB predictors were significant along with Gender: R2=.443 for Canada and R2=.332 for Israel; age was not significant. Our findings show that despite vast differences between our Canadian and Israeli samples, Intention to graduate was related to the three TPB predictors. This suggests that our TPB measure is valid for diverse samples and countries that it can be used as a quick, inexpensive way to predict graduation rates, and that strengthening the three predictor variables may result in higher graduation rates.

Keywords: disability, higher education, students, theory of planned behavior

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Authors: Olga Bernikova, Oleg Redkin

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Islamic Studies and the Arabic language are indivisible from each other starting from the appearance of Islam and formation of the Classical language. The present paper demonstrates correlation among linguistics and religion in historical perspective with regard to peculiarities of the Arabic language which distinguish it from the other prophetic languages. Islamic Studies and Linguistics are indivisible from each other starting from the invent of Islam and formation of the Classical language. In historical perspective, the Arabic language has been and remains a tool for the expression of Islamic rhetoric being a prophetic language. No other language in the world has preserved its stability for more than 14 centuries. Islam is considered to be one of the most important factors which secure this stability. The analysis and study of the text of Qurʾān are of special importance for those who study Islamic civilization, its role in the destinies of the mankind, its values and virtues. Without understanding of the polyphony of this sacred text, indivisible unity of its form and content it is impossible to understand social developments both in the present and the past. Since the first years of Islam Qurʾān had been in the center of attention of Muslim scholars, and in the center of attention of theologians, historians, philologists, jurists, mathematicians. Only quite recently it has become an object of analysis of the specialists of computer technologies. In Arabic and Islamic studies mediaeval texts i.e. textual documents are considered the main source of information. Hence the analysis of the multiplicity of various texts and finding of interconnections between them help to set scattered fragments of the riddle into a common and eloquent picture of the past, which reflects the state of the society on certain stages of its development. The text of the Qurʾān like any other phenomenon is a multifaceted object that should be studied from different points of view. As a result, this complex study will allow obtaining a three-dimensional image rather than a flat picture alone.

Keywords: Arabic, Islamic studies, linguistics, religion

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Authors: Rohit Lall

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The adoption of Micro Irrigation (MI) technologies in India has helped in achieving higher cropping and irrigation intensity with significant savings on resource savings such as labour, fertilizer and improved crop yields. These technologies have received considerable attention from policymakers, growers and researchers over the years for its perceived ability to contribute towards agricultural productivity and economic growth with the well-being of the growers of the country. Keeping the pace with untapped theoretical potential to cover government had launched flagship programs/centre sector schemes with earmarked budget to capture the potential under these waters saving techniques envisaged under these technologies by way of providing financial assistance to the beneficiaries for adopting these technologies. Micro Irrigation technologies have been in the special attention of the policymakers over the years. India being an agrarian economy having engaged 75% of the population directly or indirectly having skilled, semi-skilled and entrepreneurs in the sector with focused attention and financial allocations from the government under these technologies in covering the untapped potential under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) 'Per Drop More Crop component.' During the year 2004, a Taskforce on Micro Irrigation was constituted to estimate the potential of these technologies in India which was estimated 69.5 million hectares by the Task Force Report on MI however only 10.49 million hectares have been achieved so far. Technology collaborations by leading manufacturing companies in overseas have proved to a stepping stone in technology advancement and product up gradation with increased efficiencies. Joint ventures by the leading MI companies have added huge business volumes which have not only accelerated the momentum of achieving the desired goal but in terms of area coverage but had also generated opportunities for the polymer manufacturers in the country. To provide products matching the global standards Bureau of Indian Standards have constituted a sectional technical committee under the Food and Agriculture Department (FAD)-17 to formulated/devise and revise standards pertaining to MI technologies. The research lobby has also contributed at large by developing in-situ analysis proving MI technologies a boon for farming community of the country with resource conservation of which water is of paramount importance. Thus, Micro Irrigation technologies have proved to be the key tool for feeding the grueling demand of food basket of the growing population besides maintaining soil health and have been contributing towards doubling of farmers’ income.

Keywords: task force on MI, standards, per drop more crop, doubling farmers’ income

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Authors: Charu Kriti

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The year 2020 will be remembered in history as the year when everything changed suddenly. As the world is engrossed in fighting a pandemic, individual life has taken a hit. The sudden imposition of lockdown, the perpetual fear of testing positive for the COVID virus, and rescheduling one’s entire life around this one global phenomenon have created unprecedented stress among all cadres. This paper aims to highlight the level of stress that students face during the shift of the classroom from the physical setup to the virtual one. The paper takes into account the day-to-day hassles that a student faces during online classes. The paper also attempts to analyse these from the other perspective of the students’ lives and the difficulties faced by them on all fronts. This is an empirical research paper that takes into account responses from a total of 4,241 students. The responses have been collected via the online survey, which is being assessed and inferred for the purposes of this paper. The final results show the extent of stress that online classes have induced upon the students.

Keywords: anxiety, COVID, stress, anxiety disorder

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Authors: Fuming Yang, Telma Sousa Almeida, Xinyu Li, Yunxi Deng, Heying Zhang, Michael E. Lamb

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Twenty-seven children aged 6-15 years with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 32 typically developing children were questioned about their participation in a set of activities after a two-week delay and again after a two-month delay, using a best-practice interview protocol. This paper assessed the narrative coherence of children’s reports based on key story grammar elements and temporal features included in their accounts of the event. Results indicated that, over time, both children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children decreased their narrative coherence. Children with ASD were no different from TD peers with regards to story length and syntactic complexity. However, they showed significantly less coherence than TD children. They were less likely to use the gist of the story to organize their narrative coherence. Interviewer prompts influenced children’s narrative coherence. The findings indicated that children with ASD could provide meaningful and reliable testimony about an event they personally experienced, but the narrative coherence of their reports deteriorates over time and is affected by interviewer prompts.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorders, delay, eyewitness testimony, narrative coherence

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Authors: Arsalan Salahi

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Today, the number of changes in the construction industry and urban mass house building is increasing, which makes you need to pay more attention to targeted planning for human resource management and training. The human resources working in the construction industry have various problems and deficiencies, and in order to solve these problems, there is a need for basic management and training of these people in order to lower the construction costs and increase the quality of the projects, especially in mass house building projects. The success of any project in reaching short and long-term professional goals depends on the efficient combination of work tools, financial resources, raw materials, and most importantly, human resources. Today, due to the complexity and diversity of each project, specialized management fields have emerged to maximize the potential benefits of each component of that project. Human power is known as the most important resource in construction projects for its successful implementation, but unfortunately, due to the low cost of human power compared to other resources, such as materials and machinery, little attention is paid to it. With the correct management and training of human resources, which depends on its correct planning and development, it is possible to improve the performance of construction projects. In this article, the training and motivation of construction industry workers and their effects on the effectiveness of projects in this industry have been researched. In this regard, some barriers to the training and motivation of construction workers and personnel have been identified and solutions have been provided for construction companies. Also, the impact of workers and unskilled people on the efficiency of construction projects is investigated. The results of the above research show that by increasing the use of correct and basic training for human resources, we will see positive results and effects on the performance of construction projects.

Keywords: human resources, construction industry, principled training, skilled and unskilled workers

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