Search results for: sharing knowledge

Authors: Avalloy McCarthy-Curvin

Abstract:

For over fifty years there has been widespread dissatisfaction with the teaching of Mathematics in Jamaica. Studies, done in the Jamaican context highlight that teachers at the end of training do not have a deep understanding of the mathematics content they teach. Little research has been done in the Jamaican context that targets the advancement of contextual knowledge on the problem to ultimately provide a solution. The aim of the study is to identify what influences this outcome of teacher education in Jamaica so as to remedy the problem. This study formatively evaluated the curriculum documents, assessments and the delivery of the curriculum that are being used in teacher training institutions in Jamaica to determine their rigor -the extent to which written document, instruction, and the assessments focused on enabling pre-service teachers to develop deep understanding of mathematics and relevance- the extent to which the curriculum document, instruction, and the assessments are focus on developing the requisite knowledge for teaching mathematics. The findings show that neither the curriculum document, instruction nor assessments ensure rigor and enable pre-service teachers to develop the knowledge and skills they need to teach mathematics effectively.

Keywords: relevance, rigor, deep understanding, formative evaluation

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Authors: Xiaocong Liu, Huazhen Wang, Ting He, Xiaozheng Li, Weihan Zhang, Jian Chen

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The utilization of electronic medical record (EMR) data to establish the disease diagnosis model has become an important research content of biomedical informatics. Deep learning can automatically extract features from the massive data, which brings about breakthroughs in the study of EMR data. The challenge is that deep learning lacks semantic knowledge, which leads to impracticability in medical science. This research proposes a method of incorporating lexical-semantic knowledge from abundant entities into a convolutional neural network (CNN) framework for pediatric disease diagnosis. Firstly, medical terms are vectorized into Lexical Semantic Vectors (LSV), which are concatenated with the embedded word vectors of word2vec to enrich the feature representation. Secondly, the semantic distribution of medical terms serves as Semantic Decision Guide (SDG) for the optimization of deep learning models. The study evaluate the performance of LSV-SDG-CNN model on four kinds of Chinese EMR datasets. Additionally, CNN, LSV-CNN, and SDG-CNN are designed as baseline models for comparison. The experimental results show that LSV-SDG-CNN model outperforms baseline models on four kinds of Chinese EMR datasets. The best configuration of the model yielded an F1 score of 86.20%. The results clearly demonstrate that CNN has been effectively guided and optimized by lexical-semantic knowledge, and LSV-SDG-CNN model improves the disease classification accuracy with a clear margin.

Keywords: convolutional neural network, electronic medical record, feature representation, lexical semantics, semantic decision

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Authors: Babatunde Dosumu, Obuks Ejohwomu, Akilu Yunusa-Kaltungo

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Cost estimation in construction is often difficult, particularly when dealing with risks and uncertainties, which are inevitable and peculiar to developing countries like Nigeria. Direct consequences of these are major deviations in cost, duration, and quality. The fundamental aim of this study is to develop a framework for assessing the impacts of risk on cost estimation, which in turn causes variabilities between contract sum and final account. This is very important, as initial estimates given to clients should reflect the certain magnitude of consistency and accuracy, which the client builds other planning-related activities upon, and also enhance the capabilities of construction industry professionals by enabling better prediction of the final account from the contract sum. In achieving this, a systematic literature review was conducted with cost variability and construction projects as search string within three databases: Scopus, Web of science, and Ebsco (Business source premium), which are further analyzed and gap(s) in knowledge or research discovered. From the extensive review, it was found that factors causing deviation between final accounts and contract sum ranged between 1 and 45. Besides, it was discovered that a cost estimation framework similar to Building Cost Information Services (BCIS) is unavailable in Nigeria, which is a major reason why initial estimates are very often inconsistent, leading to project delay, abandonment, or determination at the expense of the huge sum of money invested. It was concluded that the development of a cost estimation framework that is adjudged an important tool in risk shedding rather than risk-sharing in project risk management would be a panacea to cost estimation problems, leading to cost variability in the Nigerian construction industry by the time this ongoing Ph.D. research is completed. It was recommended that practitioners in the construction industry should always take into account risk in order to facilitate the rapid development of the construction industry in Nigeria, which should give stakeholders a more in-depth understanding of the estimation effectiveness and efficiency to be adopted by stakeholders in both the private and public sectors.

Keywords: cost variability, construction projects, future studies, Nigeria

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Authors: Chutikarn Sriwiboon

Abstract:

The purposes of this paper were to study the production problems of basketry in the central region and to study the development of potential in skilled labourers in producing basketry in three provinces: Suphanburi, Ayuthaya, and Aungthong. A quota sampling was utilized to get 486 respondents from 243 basketry communities that were registered with OTOP project. A focus group was also used with a connoisseurship model to study knowledge and factors that related to the development of potential in skilled labourers in producing basketry. The findings revealed that the process getting service is the major problem for customers to get service. Also, there should be more of a variety of knowledge for customers. In terms of technology, the variety of information was rated as the most important problem. In terms staff's ability, the knowledge of staff was the most important problem. For the development of potential in high skilled labours for basketry, the findings revealed that having proper tools was considered the most important factor. In terms of economy, the findings revealed that the basketry job must provide sufficient income was considered the most important factor. In terms of using natural resources, efficiency is the most important factor. In terms of mentality, integrity is the most important factor. Finally, in terms of society and culture, help in the local activities is the most important factor.

Keywords: basketry, development, potential, skilled labours

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Authors: S. Nandagopalan, N. Pradeep

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to propose a general framework for storing, analyzing, and extracting knowledge from two-dimensional echocardiographic images, color Doppler images, non-medical images, and general data sets. A number of high performance data mining algorithms have been used to carry out this task. Our framework encompasses four layers namely physical storage, object identification, knowledge discovery, user level. Techniques such as active contour model to identify the cardiac chambers, pixel classification to segment the color Doppler echo image, universal model for image retrieval, Bayesian method for classification, parallel algorithms for image segmentation, etc., were employed. Using the feature vector database that have been efficiently constructed, one can perform various data mining tasks like clustering, classification, etc. with efficient algorithms along with image mining given a query image. All these facilities are included in the framework that is supported by state-of-the-art user interface (UI). The algorithms were tested with actual patient data and Coral image database and the results show that their performance is better than the results reported already.

Keywords: active contour, Bayesian, echocardiographic image, feature vector

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Authors: Dongshuo Wang, Minjie Xing

Abstract:

International businesses prefer to hire people who speak more than one language. With the booming of China’s market, industries and trade, business leaders are looking for people who can speak Chinese and operate successfully in a Chinese cultural context, and therefore an increasing number of tertiary students choose a Business Chinese (BC) course. As a result, BC syllabus design is urgently needed. What business knowledge should be included in China’s context? What aspects of BC culture should be included? How much Chinese language should be introduced to conduct business in China? With these research questions, this research explores a syllabus design that integrates the three aspects of subject knowledge of business in communication, business practice including the procedure of and strategies for communicating business in practice and language skills including the disciplinary and professional contexts in which linguistic choices are made. After literature review and consultancy with China-related business professionals, senior staff from business schools and representatives of students, the authors of this paper, together with language tutors drafted a syllabus based on the integrated approach to include subject knowledge, business practice and language skills. Due to the nature of this research which requires trial/test and detailed description for each correction, qualitative methods are adopted. Two in-depth focus group interviews (with 2 staff and 4 students in each group), and 18 individual interviews (8 staff and 10 students) were conducted. QDA was used for systematizing, organizing, and analysing qualitative data. It was discovered that the business knowledge related to a Chinese cultural context, including face value, networking skills, strategic plans for signing a contract, marketing, sales, and after-sale service, should be introduced through lectures and seminars; business practice could be implemented by students setting up their own companies, virtual or real; and language skills would be trained via writing business messages and presenting their companies in fairs and exhibitions. After a longitudinal study of trials and amendments for three years from 2013 to 2016, the syllabus was approved by staff and students and the university. Students appreciated the syllabus, as they could apply the subject knowledge into practice by using it in their own companies and Chinese language was used throughout the process. The syllabus is now ready to be used in universities offering BC, and the designing process can be applied to other new courses as well.

Keywords: business Chinese, syllabus design, business knowledge, language skills

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Authors: Michael Karnes, Alper Yilmaz

Abstract:

This paper presents the application of the omni-modeler towards pedestrian redetection. The pedestrian redetection task creates several challenges when applying deep neural networks (DNN) due to the variety of pedestrian appearance with camera position, the variety of environmental conditions, and the specificity required to recognize one pedestrian from another. DNNs require significant training sets and are not easily adapted for changes in class appearances or changes in the set of classes held in its knowledge domain. Pedestrian redetection requires an algorithm that can actively manage its knowledge domain as individuals move in and out of the scene, as well as learn individual appearances from a few frames of a video. The Omni-Modeler is a dynamically learning few-shot visual recognition algorithm developed for tasks with limited training data availability. The Omni-Modeler adapts the knowledge domain of pre-trained deep neural networks to novel concepts with a calculated localized language encoder. The Omni-Modeler knowledge domain is generated by creating a dynamic dictionary of concept definitions, which are directly updatable as new information becomes available. Query images are identified through nearest neighbor comparison to the learned object definitions. The study presented in this paper evaluates its performance in re-identifying individuals as they move through a scene in both single-camera and multi-camera tracking applications. The results demonstrate that the Omni-Modeler shows potential for across-camera view pedestrian redetection and is highly effective for single-camera redetection with a 93% accuracy across 30 individuals using 64 example images for each individual.

Keywords: dynamic learning, few-shot learning, pedestrian redetection, visual recognition

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Authors: Abhishek Bhardwaj, Manish Kumar Bajpai

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An image with its content and schema of colors presents an effective mode of information sharing and processing. By changing its color schema different visions and prospect are discovered by the users. This phenomenon of color transfer is being used by Social media and other channel of entertainment. Reinhard et al’s algorithm was the first one to solve this problem of color transfer. In this paper, we make this algorithm efficient by introducing domain parallelism among different processors. We also comment on the factors that affect the speedup of this problem. In the end by analyzing the experimental data we claim to propose a novel and efficient parallel Reinhard’s algorithm.

Keywords: Reinhard et al’s algorithm, color transferring, parallelism, speedup

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Authors: Obasanjo Afolabi Bolarinwa

Abstract:

This study assesses the levels of knowledge of sexually transmitted infections among unmarried youths in Nigeria; examines the pattern of high risk sex among unmarried youths in Nigeria; investigate the socio-demographic factors (age, place of residence, religion, level of education, wealth index and employment status) affecting the practice of high-risk sexual behaviour and ascertain the relationships between knowledge of sexually transmitted infections and practice of high risk sex. The goal of the study is to identify the factors associated with the practice of high risk sex among youth. These were with a view to identifying critical actions needed to reduce high risk sexual behaviour among youths. The study employed secondary data. The data for the study were extracted from the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS). The 2013 NDHS collected information from 38,948 Women ages 15-49 years and 17,359 men ages 15-49. A total of 7,744 female and 6,027 male respondents were utilized in the study. In order to adjust for the effect of oversampling of the population, the weighting factor provided by Measure DHS was applied. The data were analysed using frequency distribution and logistic regression. The results show that both male (92.2%) and female (93.6%) have accurate knowledge of sexually transmitted infections. The study also revealed that prevalence of high risk sexual behavior is high among Nigerian youths; this is evident as 77.7% (female) and 78.4% (male) are engaging in high risk sexual behavior. The bivariate analysis shows that age of respondent (χ2=294.2; p < 0.05), religion (χ2=136.64; p < 0.05), wealth index (χ2=17.38; p < 0.05), level of education (χ2=34.73; p < 0.05) and employment status (χ2=94.54; p < 0.05) were individual factors significantly associated with high risk sexual behaviour among male while age of respondent (χ2=327.07; p < 0.05), place of residence (χ2=6.71; p < 0.05), religion (χ2=81.04; p < 0.05), wealth index (χ2=7.41; p < 0.05), level of education (χ2=18.12; p < 0.05) and employment status (χ2=51.02; p < 0.05) were individual factors significantly associated with high risk sexual behaviour among female. Furthermore, the study shows that there is a relationship between knowledge of sexually transmitted infections and high risk sex among male (χ2=38.32; p < 0.05) and female (χ2=18.37; p < 0.05). At multivariate level, the study revealed that individual characteristics such as age, religion, place of residence, wealth index, levels of education and employment status were statistically significantly related with high risk sexual behaviour among male and female (p < 0.05). Lastly, the study shows that knowledge of sexually transmitted infection was significantly related to high risk sexual behaviour among youths (p < 0.05). The study concludes that there is a high level of knowledge of sexually transmitted infections among unmarried youths in Nigeria. The practice of high risk sex is high among unmarried youths but higher among male youths. The prevalence of high risk sexual activity is higher for males when they are at disadvantage and higher for females when they are at advantage. Socio-demographic factors like age of respondents, religion, wealth index, place of residence, employment status and highest level of education are factors influencing high risk sexual behaviour among youths.

Keywords: high risk sex, wealth index, sexual behaviour, knowledge

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Authors: Monica Plechero

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Many firms belonging to Italian industrial districts faced a crisis starting from 2000 and upsurging during 2008-2014. To remain competitive in the global market, these firms and their local systems need to renovate their traditional competitive advantages, strengthen their link with global flows of knowledge. This may be particularly relevant in sectors such as the mechatronics, that combine traditional knowledge domain with new knowledge domains (e.g. mechanics, electronics, and informatics). This sector is nowadays one of the key sectors within the so-called ‘smart specialization strategy’ that can lead part of the Italian traditional industry towards new economic developmental opportunities. This paper, by investigating the mechatronics district of the Veneto region, wants to shed new light on how firms of a local system can gain from the globalization of innovation and innovation networks. Methodologically, the paper relies on primary data collected through a survey targeting firms of the local system, as well as on a number of qualitative case studies. The relevant role of medium size companies in the district emerges as evident, as they have wider opportunities to be involved in different processes of globalization of innovation. Indeed, with respect to small companies, the size of medium firms allows them to exploit strategically international markets and globally distributed knowledge. Supporting medium firms’ global innovation strategies, and incentivizing their role as district gatekeepers, may strengthen the competitive capability of the local system and provide new opportunities to positively face global competition.

Keywords: global innovation network, industrial district, internationalization, innovation, mechatronics, Veneto region

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Authors: Ivan Stanev, Maria Koleva

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Automated software development issues are addressed in this paper. Layers and packages of a Common Platform for Automated Programming (CPAP) are defined based on Service Oriented Architecture, Cloud computing, Knowledge based automated software engineering (KBASE) and Method of automated programming. Tools of seven leading companies (AWS of Amazon, Azure of Microsoft, App Engine of Google, vCloud of VMWare, Bluemix of IBM, Helion of HP, OCPaaS of Oracle) are analyzed in the context of CPAP. Based on the results of the analysis CPAP requirements are formulated

Keywords: automated programming, cloud computing, knowledge based software engineering, service oriented architecture

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Authors: Marah Joy A. Nanglegan

Abstract:

A survey was conducted to describe knowledge, attitude, practices, information needs, and information seeking behavior of small-scale farmers on Organic Agriculture Production (OAP) in a rural community in Ifugao, Philippines. Respondents’ age ranged from 23-67 years old. Most of them are male, married, and have reached high school level. The major source of income is farming with an average monthly income of less than Php 5,000 for a household size of seven. More than fifty percent of the respondents are members of a farmer’s organization. Farm size is less than one hectare. Majority of them own their farms and have been farming for more than twenty years. Very few attended training on Organic Agriculture Production (OAP). Most of them are not aware of any OAP program in their community. Hence, their farming practices are mostly conventional. The overall level of knowledge on OAP among all respondents was below the average. On attitude, most of the respondents agreed that organic farming would decrease production costs by reducing input purchases. They believe it benefits both the consumer and the producer. In fact, they are aware of the many benefits of organic farming, especially on health. Likewise, many of them agreed on the benefits of organic farming to soil fertility, to the environment, and to increase the income of farmers. Many of them, however, see organic farming as troublesome and difficult in terms of time and effort, obtaining organic inputs, limited production, and marketing aspects. They also have heavy reliance on pesticides and herbicides to control pests and diseases. On practices, majority of the respondents stated that they practiced crop rotation, manual weeding, and the use of animal manure. Most of them desired to do organic farming but needed information such as production techniques, costs, and marketing opportunities. Their most preferred communication channel is through extension agents and contact farmers. Their most preferred communication method is through trainings and seminars as well as through farm demonstrations. Results of this study will serve as a basis for developing appropriate communication strategies to improve knowledge, attitude, and practices of respondents on organic agriculture as well as enhance the promotion of organic agriculture production in the community.

Keywords: Ifugao, knowledge attitude practices, organic agriculture, Philippines

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Authors: L. Janská, J. Kubrický

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The article describes a research focused on the influence of the information and communication technology (ICT) on the pupils' learning. The investigation deals with the influences that distinguish between the group of pupils influenced by ICT and the group of pupils not influenced by ICT. The group influenced by ICT should evince a different approach in number of areas (in managing of two and more activities at once, in a quick orientation and searching for information on the Internet, in an ability to quickly and effectively assess the data sources, in the assessment of attitudes and opinions of the other users of the network, in critical thinking, in the preference to work in teams, in the sharing of information and personal data via the virtual social networking, in insisting on the immediate reaction on their every action etc.).

Keywords: ICT influence, digital natives, pupil´s learning

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Authors: Michael Campbell, Malaz Elsaddig, Kevin Jones

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Background: Despite encouraging progress, global maternal mortality has remained stubbornly high since the declaration of the Millennium development goals. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for well over half of maternal deaths with Post-Partum Haemorrhage (PPH) being the lead cause. ‘In house’ simulation training delivered by local doctors may be a sustainable approach for improving emergency obstetric care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of a Train-the-Trainer (TtT) model in a rural Ugandan hospital to ascertain whether it can feasibly improve practitioners’ management of PPH. Methods: Three Ugandan doctors underwent a training course to enable them to design and deliver simulation training. These doctors used MamaNatalie® models to simulate PPH scenarios for midwives, nurses and medical students. The main outcome was improvement in participants’ knowledge and confidence, assessed using self-reported scores on a 10-point scale. Results: The TtT model produced significant improvements in the confidence and knowledge scores of the ten participants. The mean confidence score rose significantly (p=0.0005) from 6.4 to 8.6 following the simulation training. There was also a significant increase in the mean knowledge score from 7.2 to 9.0 (p=0.04). Medical students demonstrated the greatest overall increase in confidence scores whilst increases in knowledge scores were largest amongst nurses. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that a TtT model can be used in a low resource setting to improve healthcare professionals’ confidence and knowledge in managing obstetric emergencies. This Train-the-Trainer model represents a sustainable approach to addressing skill deficits in low resource settings. We believe that its expansion across healthcare institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa will help to reduce the region’s high maternal mortality rate and step closer to achieving the ambitions of the Millennium development goals.

Keywords: low resource setting, post-partum haemorrhage, simulation training, train the trainer

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Authors: A. Brahma

Abstract:

Analysis of deferred deformations of concrete under sustained load shows that the creep has a leading role on deferred deformations of concrete structures. Knowledge of the creep characteristics of concrete is a Necessary starting point in the design of structures for crack control. Such knowledge will enable the designer to estimate the probable deformation in pre-stressed concrete or reinforced and the appropriate steps can be taken in design to accommodate this movement. In this study, we propose a prediction model that involves the acting principal parameters on the deferred behaviour of concrete structures. For the estimation of the model parameters Levenberg-Marquardt method has proven very satisfactory. A confrontation between the experimental results and the predictions of models designed shows that it is well suited to describe the evolution of the creep of concrete structures.

Keywords: concrete structure, creep, modelling, prediction

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Authors: Ying Chern Yeoh, Mark J. Forshaw

Abstract:

Although hypnosis has been widely endorsed in Europe since 1950s, it was still viewed as a typically new therapy in Asia. There are very little findings regarding hypnosis in Asian countries, especially in culturally diverse countries such as Malaysia. The knowledge of the beneficial effects of hypnosis was not widespread to the public, however knowledge of the negative effects was frequently being highlighted. Therefore, the acceptance of hypnosis as a new effective health treatment can be a challenge in Malaysia. Recognising Malaysian’s perception, belief and attitude towards hypnosis could increase the public awareness of hypnosis, which in turn will alter their misconception and increase acceptance of hypnosis as an effective therapy. Eight individuals (N = 8) from the general public with different background, ethnicity (Malays, Chinese and Indians) and religion (Islamic, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christianity, free-thinker) and two local experienced practitioners with minimum of five years experiences (N = 2) were being interviewed to determine their views, beliefs and level of acceptance towards hypnosis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed with pseudonyms and analyzed by using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The three emergent themes were illustrated under the captions of ‘traditional vs mainstream’, ‘myths vs truth’, and ‘dissemination and public awareness’. The finding suggested that individual knowledge and personal experience primarily influenced people’s level of acceptance towards hypnosis as a beneficial health treatment, rather than the diversity of cultural and religious background. Subsequent findings regarding hypnosis and the effort of promoting it will provide the society an opportunity to increase public education and health awareness. Several associations had started to advance its development by organizing conferences and setting up therapeutic centers. However, health promotion on hypnosis is yet to be conducted to raise public awareness of its beneficial effects. By requesting for hypnosis to be included as a subject in medical education and psychology curriculum and formatting it under Ministry of Health’s legislation body might enhance the knowledge of hypnosis for Malaysian as one of the health intervention in the future.

Keywords: awareness, hypnosis, intervention, Malaysian, promotion

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Authors: Yu-Shi Ye, Jia-Min Wu, Jhih-Ci Li

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Background: Most orthopedic inpatients and primary caregivers are elderly, and patients are at high risk of falls. We set up a quality control team to analyze the root cause and found the following issues: 1. The nursing staff did not conduct cognitive assessments of patients and their primary caregivers to ensure that health education content was understood. 2. Nurses prefer to use spoken language in health education but lack the skills to use diverse teaching materials. 3. Newly recruited nurses have insufficient awareness of fall prevention. Methods: The study subjects were 16 nurses in the orthopedic ward of a teaching hospital in central Taiwan. We implemented the following strategies: 1. Developed a fall simulation teaching plan and conducted teaching courses and assessments in the morning meeting; 2. Designed and used a "fall prevention awareness card" to improve the prevention awareness of elderly patients; 3. All staff (including new staff) received experiential education training. Results: In 2021, 40% of patients in the orthopedic wards were aged 60-79 years (792/1979) with a high risk of falls. According to data collection, the incidence of falls in hospitalized patients was 0.04% (5/12651), which exceeded the threshold of 0.02% in our ward. After completing the on-the-job education training in October, the nursing staff expressed that they were more aware of the special situation of fall prevention. Through practical sharing and drills, combined with experiential teaching strategies, nurses can reconstruct the safety awareness of fall prevention and deepen their cognitive memory. Participants scored between 30 and 80 on the pretest (16 students, mean: 72.6) and between 90 and 100 on the post-test (16 students, mean: 92.6), resulting in a 73.8% improvement in overall scores. We have a total of 4 new employees who have all completed the first 3 months of compulsory PGY courses. From January to April 2022, the incidence of falls in hospitalized patients was 0.025% (1/3969). We have made good improvements and will continue to track the outcome. Discussion: In addition to enhancing the awareness of falls among nursing staff, how-to guide patients and primary caregivers to prevent falls is also the focus of improvement. The proper way of health education can be better understood through practical exercises and case sharing.

Keywords: experiential teaching strategies, fall prevention, cognitive card, elderly patients, orthopedic wards

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Authors: Kulveer Sandhu

Abstract:

Background: In 1999, the Government of Canada legalized the use of cannabis for the therapeutic purpose (CTP); however, its users remain highly vulnerable to stigma and are judged by care providers and nonusers of cannabis. Findings from a literature review suggest health care providers (HCPs), including nurses in palliative care settings, lack knowledge about medical cannabis. For this reason, it is important to enhance HCPs’awarenessand knowledge of medical cannabis. Significance of the Project: Nurses are the first point of contact and spend more time with patients than other care providers; it is, therefore, important for them to be informed about CTPto provide quality and equitable care for medical cannabis users. Although nurses and other HCPs want information on CTP, the topic is rarely included in their educational curriculum. The purpose of this project is to create an evidence informed Package designed to increase knowledge among palliative care nurses about CTP. The information package will empower palliative nurses to help palliative patients make informed decisions about their treatment plan. Method: The information package will include a basic overview of the endocannabinoid system, common cannabis plants and products, and methods of consumption, as well as information to help nurses better understand consumption and harm reduction. The package will also include a set of cannabis fact sheets for nurses. Each fact sheet will comprise a high-level overview with graphics followed by a description of medical cannabis with links and references. At the end of the learning package, there are five self-reflection questions that allow nurses to examine their personal values, attitudes, and practices regarding medical cannabis. These questions will help each nurse understand their personal approach towards CTP and its users.

Keywords: medical cannabis, improve knowledge, cannabis for therapeutic purpose (CTP), patient experience, palliative care

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Authors: Boonyarat Chaleephay

Abstract:

The purpose of this research paper was to describe the relationship of acupressure points on the anterior surface of the upper limb in accordance with Applied Thai Traditional Massage (ATTM) and the deep structures located at those acupressure points. There were 2 population groups; normal subjects and cadaver specimens. Eighteen males with age ranging from 20-40 years old and seventeen females with ages ranging from 30-97 years old were studies. This study was able to obtain a fundamental knowledge concerning acupressure point and the deep structures that related to those acupressure points. It might be used as the basic knowledge for clinically applying and planning treatment as well as teaching in ATTM.

Keywords: acupressure point (AP), applie Thai traditional medicine (ATTM), paresthesia, numbness

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Authors: S. Nandagopalan, N. Pradeep

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to propose a general framework for storing, analyzing, and extracting knowledge from two-dimensional echocardiographic images, color Doppler images, non-medical images, and general data sets. A number of high performance data mining algorithms have been used to carry out this task. Our framework encompasses four layers namely physical storage, object identification, knowledge discovery, user level. Techniques such as active contour model to identify the cardiac chambers, pixel classification to segment the color Doppler echo image, universal model for image retrieval, Bayesian method for classification, parallel algorithms for image segmentation, etc., were employed. Using the feature vector database that have been efficiently constructed, one can perform various data mining tasks like clustering, classification, etc. with efficient algorithms along with image mining given a query image. All these facilities are included in the framework that is supported by state-of-the-art user interface (UI). The algorithms were tested with actual patient data and Coral image database and the results show that their performance is better than the results reported already.

Keywords: active contour, bayesian, echocardiographic image, feature vector

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Authors: Araya Yordchim, Rosjana Chandhasa, Suwaree Yordchim

Abstract:

This research aims to study guidelines on the development of management process for research journals in order to develop Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University to international standards. This research investigated affecting elements ranging from the format of the article, evaluation form for research article quality, the process of creating a scholarly journal, satisfaction level of those with knowledge and competency to conduct research, arisen problems, and solutions. Drawing upon the sample size of 40 persons who had knowledge and competency in conducting research and creating scholarly journal articles at an international level, the data for this research were collected using questionnaires as a tool. Through the usage of computer software, data were analyzed by using the statistics in the forms of frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and multiple regression analysis. The majority of participants were civil servants with a doctorate degree, followed by civil servants with a master's degree. Among them, the suitability of the article format was rated at a good level while the evaluation form for research articles quality was assessed at a good level. Based on participants' viewpoints, the process of creating scholarly journals was at a good level, while the satisfaction of those who had knowledge and competency in conducting research was at a satisfactory level. The problems encountered were the difficulty in accessing the website. The solution to the problem was to develop a website with user-friendly accessibility, including setting up a Google scholar profile for the purpose of references counting and the articles being used for reference in real-time. Research article format influenced the level of satisfaction of those who had the knowledge and competency to conduct research with statistical significance at the 0.01 level. The research article quality assessment form (preface section, research article writing section, preparation for research article manuscripts section, and the original article evaluation form for the author) affected the satisfaction of those with knowledge and competency to conduct research with the statistical significance at the level of 0.01. The process of establishing journals had an impact on the satisfaction of those with knowledge and ability to conduct research with statistical significance at the level of .05

Keywords: guidelines, development of management, research journals, international standards

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Authors: Narumon Piaseu

Abstract:

This survey research was aimed to describe and compare consumption behavior of health risk food among students in Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. Sample included 400 undergraduate students enrolled in the first semester of 2008 academic year. Data were collected by using self reported questionnaire developed by the researcher. Data were then analyzed by descriptive statistics including frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and inferential statistics including independent t-test, and Oneway ANOVA. Results revealed that most of the sample were women (67%), enrolled in social related programs (74%). Approximately half of them (45.5%) stayed in dormitory. The mean of monthly income was 5,164 Baht and daily food expenditure was 114.55 Baht. Majority of them (83%) had ready-to-eat food. A major factor influencing their food selection was their parents (61%). A main reason for their food selection was food that looks good (70.75%). Almost half of them (46.25%) had heavy exercise less than 3 times per week. Regarding knowledge on health risk food, 43.5% of the sample had good knowledge. The followings were moderate (41%) and poor (41%). Most of the sample (60.75%) had consumption behavior at low risk. The following was at moderate risk (37.25%). Only 2% were at high risk. Among the sample, consumption behavior of health risk food were significantly different in years of study (F = 3.168, p = .024), daily food expenditure (F = 8.950, p <.001), and knowledge on health risk food (F = 37.856, p <.001), while no significant difference in consumption behavior of health risk food was found in those with a difference in gender, program of study, living place, and monthly income. Results indicate the importance of providing knowledge regarding health risk food for students and their parents in order to promote appropriate food consumption behavior among the students.

Keywords: food consumption, risky behavior, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, health risk

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Authors: N. Yachou, R. Aboulaich

Abstract:

Home is a basic necessity for human life, that why home financing takes a large chunk of people’s income. Therefore, Islamic and Conventional Banks try to offer new product in order to respond to customer needs related to home financing. Basing on this fact, we propose a Modified Diminishing Partnership model based on profit and loss sharing to reduce the duration of getting the full shares in the house property. Our proposition will be represented by the rental that customer has to give every month to the bank with redemption to increase his shares on the property of the house.

Keywords: home financing, interest rate, rental rate, modified diminishing partnership

Procedia PDF Downloads 332

Authors: T. Rocha, P. Carvalho, S. Paredes, J. Henriques, A. Bianchi, V. Traver, A. Martinez

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The main goal of LINK project is to join competences in intelligent processing in order to create a research ecosystem to address two central scientific and technical challenges for personal health care (PHC) deployment: i) how to merge clinical evidence knowledge in computational decision support systems for PHC management and ii) how to provide achieve personalized services, i.e., solutions adapted to the specific user needs and characteristics. The final goal of one of the work packages (WP2), designated Sustainable Linking and Synergies for Excellence, is the definition, implementation and coordination of the necessary activities to create and to strengthen durable links between the LiNK partners. This work focuses on the strategy that has been followed to achieve the definition of the Research Tracks (RT), which will support a set of actions to be pursued along the LiNK project. These include common research activities, knowledge transfer among the researchers of the consortium, and PhD student and post-doc co-advisement. Moreover, the RTs will establish the basis for the definition of concepts and their evolution to project proposals.

Keywords: LiNK Twin European Project, personal health care, cardiovascular diseases, research tracks

Procedia PDF Downloads 206

Authors: Sulafah Basahel

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Nowadays, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) around the world are attempting to utilize Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to enhance learning process and strategies of knowledge delivery for students through Distance Education (DE) system. Stakeholders in DE system face a complex situation of different ill-defined and related issues that influence decision making process. In this study system thinking as a body of knowledge is used to explore the emergent properties that produced from these connections between issues and could have either positive or negative outcomes for the DE development. Checkland Soft System Methodology (SSM) - Mode 2 is employed in a cultural context of Saudi Arabia for more knowledge acquisition purposes among multiple stakeholders in DE rather than solving problems to achieve an overall development of DE system. This paper will discuss some political, cultural issues and connections between them that impact on effectiveness of stakeholders’ activities and relations. This study will significantly contribute to both system thinking and education fields by leading decision makers in DE to reconsider future plans, strategies and right actions for more successful educational practices.

Keywords: distance education, higher education institutions, ill-defined issues, soft system methodology-Mode 2

Procedia PDF Downloads 260

Authors: Zahra Hamidi

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Promoting cycling, as an affordable environmentally friendly mode of transport to replace private car use has been central to sustainable transport policies. Cycling is faster than walking and combined with public transport has the potential to extend the opportunities that people can access. In other words, cycling, besides direct positive health impacts, can improve people mobility and ultimately their quality of life. Transport literature well supports the close relationship between mobility, quality of life, and, well being. At the same time inequity in the distribution of access and mobility has been associated with the key aspects of injustice and social exclusion. The pattern of social exclusion and inequality in access are also often related to population characteristics such as age, gender, income, health, and ethnic background. Therefore, while investing in transport infrastructure it is important to consider the equity of provided access for different population groups. This paper proposes a method to evaluate the equity of cycling in a city from Rawls egalitarian perspective. Since this perspective is concerned with the difference between individuals and social groups, this method combines accessibility measures and Theil index of inequality that allows capturing the inequalities ‘within’ and ‘between’ groups. The paper specifically focuses on two population characteristics as gender and ethnic background. Following Rawls equity principles, this paper measures accessibility by bikes to a selection of urban activities that can be linked to the concept of the social primary goods. Moreover, as growing number of cities around the world have launched bike-sharing systems (BSS) this paper incorporates both private and public bikes networks in the estimation of accessibility levels. Additionally, the typology of bike lanes (separated from or shared with roads), the presence of a bike sharing system in the network, as well as bike facilities (e.g. parking racks) have been included in the developed accessibility measures. Application of this proposed method to a real case study, the city of Malmö, Sweden, shows its effectiveness and efficiency. Although the accessibility levels were estimated only based on gender and ethnic background characteristics of the population, the author suggests that the analysis can be applied to other contexts and further developed using other properties, such as age, income, or health.

Keywords: accessibility, cycling, equity, gender

Procedia PDF Downloads 391

Authors: Somruedee Pongsena

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The purpose of this study is to follow up on the graduated students of Bachelor of Science in Applied Statistics from Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University (SSRU) during the 1999 – 2012 academic years and to provide the fundamental guideline for developing the current curriculum according to Thai Qualifications Framework for Higher Education (TQF: HEd). The sample was collected from 75 graduates by interview and online questionnaire. The content covered 5 subjects: ethics and moral, knowledge, cognitive skills, interpersonal skills and responsibility, numerical analysis as well as communication and information technology skills. Data were analyzed by using statistical methods as percentiles, means, standard deviation, t-tests, and F-tests. The findings showed that samples were mostly females younger than 26 years old. The majority of graduates had income in the range of 10,001-20,000 Baht and their experience range was 2-5 years. In addition, overall opinions from receiving knowledge to apply to work were at agree; mean score was 3.97 and standard deviation was 0.40. In terms of opinion difference, the hypothesis' testing results indicate gender only had different opinion at a significant level of 0.05.

Keywords: follow-up, graduates, knowledge, opinion, work performance.

Procedia PDF Downloads 200

Authors: Dyah Adi Sriwahyuni

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Institutional work has become a prominent and contemporary institutional theory perspective in organization studies. A wealth of studies in organizations have explored actor activities in creating, maintaining, and disrupting institutions at the field level. However, the exploration of the work of actors in creating new management practices at the organizational level has been somewhat limited. The current institutional work literature mostly describes the work of actors at the field level and ignores organizational actors who work to realize management practices. Organizational actors here are defined as actors in organizations who work to institutionalize a particular management practice within the organizations. The extant literature has also generalized the types of management practices, which meant overlooking the unique characteristics of each management fashion as well as a management practice. To fill these gaps, this study aims to provide empirical evidence so as to contribute theoretically to institutional work through a comparative case study on organizational actors’ creation of knowledge management (KM) practice in two public sector organizations in Indonesia. KM is a contemporary management practice employed to manage individual and organizational knowledge in order to improve organizational performance. This practice presents a suitable practical setting with which to provide a rich understanding of the organizational actors’ institutional work and their connection with technology. Drawing on and extending the work of Perkmann and Spicer (2008), this study explores the forms of institutional work performed by organizational actors, including their motivation, skills, challenges, and opportunities. The primary data collection is semi-structured interviews with knowledgeable actors and document analysis for validity and triangulation. Following Eisenhardt's cross-case patterns, the researcher analyzed the collected data focusing on within-group similarities and intergroup differences. The researcher coded interview data using NVivo and used documents to corroborate the findings. The study’s findings add to the wealth of institutional theory literature in organization studies, particularly institutional work related to management practices. This study builds a theory about the work of organizational actors in creating knowledge management practices. Using the perspective of institutional work, research can show the roles of the various actors involved, their practices, and their relationship to technology (materiality), not only focusing on actors with a power which has been the theorizing of institutional entrepreneurship. The development of knowledge management practices in the Indonesian public sector is also a significant additional contribution, given that the current KM literature is dominated by conceptualizing the KM framework and the impact of KM on organizations. The public sector, which is the research setting, also provides important lessons on how actors in a highly institutionalized context are creating an institution, in this case, a knowledge management practice.

Keywords: institutional work, knowledge management, case study, public sector organizations

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Authors: A. Stifi, S. Gentes

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Undoubtedly from construction's perspective, the use of explosives will remove a large facility such as a 40-storey building , that took almost 3 to 4 years for construction, in few minutes. Usually, the reconstruction or decommissioning, the last phase of life cycle of any facility, is considered to be the shortest. However, this is proved to be wrong in the case of nuclear power plant. Statistics says that in the last 30 years, the construction of a nuclear power plant took an average time of 6 years whereas it is estimated that decommissioning of such plants may take even a decade or more. This paper is all about the decommissioning phase of a nuclear power plant which needs to be given more attention and encouragement from the research institutes as well as the nuclear industry. Currently, there are 437 nuclear power reactors in operation and 70 reactors in construction. With around 139 nuclear facilities already been shut down and are in different decommissioning stages and approximately 347 nuclear reactors will be in decommissioning phase in the next 20 years (assuming the operation time of a reactor as 40 years), This fact raises the following two questions (1) How far is the nuclear and construction Industry ready to face the challenges of decommissioning project? (2) What is required for a safety and reliable decommissioning project delivery? The decommissioning of nuclear facilities across the global have severe time and budget overruns. Largely the decommissioning processes are being executed by the force of manual labour where the change in regulations is respectively observed. In term of research and development, some research projects and activities are being carried out in this area, but the requirement seems to be much more. The near future of decommissioning shall be better through a sustainable development strategy where all stakeholders agree to implement innovative technologies especially for dismantling and decontamination processes and to deliever a reliable and safety decommissioning. The scope of technology transfer from other industries shall be explored. For example, remotery operated robotic technologies used in automobile and production industry to reduce time and improve effecincy and saftey shall be tried here. However, the innovative technologies are highly requested but they are alone not enough, the implementation of creative and innovative management methodologies should be also investigated and applied. Lean Management with it main concept "elimination of waste within process", is a suitable example here. Thus, the cooperation between international organisations and related industries and the knowledge-sharing may serve as a key factor for the successful decommissioning projects.

Keywords: decommissioning of nuclear facilities, innovative technology, innovative management, sustainable development

Procedia PDF Downloads 459

Authors: Richard Patrick Kabuye

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This study focuses on the addressing the enhancement of in-service training programs as a tool of transforming the existing traditional approaches of formal lectures/contact hours. This will be supported with a more versatile, robust, and remotely accessible means of mobile based e-learning, as a support tool for the traditional means. A combination of various factors in education and incorporation of the eLearning strategy proves to be a key factor in effective in-service education. Key factor needs to be factored in so as to maintain a credible co-existence of the programs, with the prevailing social, economic and political environments. Effective in-service education focuses on having immediate transformation of knowledge into practice for a good time period, active participation of attendees, enable before training planning, in training assessment and post training feedback training analysis which will yield knowledge to the trainers of the applicability of knowledge given out. All the above require a more robust approach to attain success in implementation. Incorporating mobile technology in eLearning will enable the above to be factored together in a more coherent manner, as it is evident that participants have to take time off their duties and attend to these training programs. Making it mobile, will save a lot of time since participants would be in position to follow certain modules while away from lecture rooms, get continuous program updates after completing the program, send feedback to instructors on knowledge gaps, and a wholly conclusive evaluation of the entire program on a learn as you work platform. This study will follow both qualitative and quantitative approaches in data collection, and this will be compounded incorporating a mobile eLearning application using Android.

Keywords: in service, training, mobile, e- learning, model

Procedia PDF Downloads 205