Search results for: cognitive interviewing

Authors: Annamarija Paula

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Modern psychology is divided into three distinct domains: cognition, affect, and conation. Historically, psychology devalued the importance of studying the effect in order to explain human behavior as it supposedly lacked both rational thought and a scientific foundation. As a result, affect remained the least studied domain for years to come. However, the last 30 years have marked a significant change in perspective, claiming that not only is affect highly adaptive, but it also plays a crucial role in cognitive processes. Affective states have a crucial impact on human behavior, which led to fundamental advances in the study of affective states on perception and judgment. Positive affect and negative affect are distinct entities and have different effects on social information processing. In addition, emotions of the same valence are manifested in distinct and unique physiological reactions indicating that not all forms of positive or negative affect are the same or serve the same purpose. The effect plays a vital role in perception and judgments, which impacts the validity and reliability of memory retrieval. The research paper analyzes key findings from the past three decades of observational and empirical research on affective states and cognition. The paper also addresses the limitations connected to the findings and proposes suggestions for possible future research.

Keywords: memory, affect, perception, judgement, mood congruency effect

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Authors: Bilal Ahmad

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Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative illnesses. However, how Gut-microbiota plays a role in the pathogenesis of AD is not well elucidated. The purpose of this literature review is to summarize and understand the current findings that may elucidate the gut microbiota's role in the development of AD. Methods: A literature review of all the relevant papers known to the author was conducted. Relevant articles, abstracts and research papers were collected from well-accepted web sources like PubMed, PMC, and Google Scholar. Results: Recent studies have shown that Gut-microbiota has an important role in the progression of AD via Gut-Microbiota-Brain Axis. The onset of AD supports the ‘Hygiene Hypothesis’, which shows that AD might begin in the Gut, causing dysbiosis, which interferes with the intestinal barrier by releasing pro-inflammatory cytokines and making its way up to the brain via the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Molecular mechanisms lipopolysaccharides and serotonin kynurenine (tryptophan) pathways have a direct association with inflammation, the immune system, neurodegeneration, and AD. Conclusion: The studies helped to analyze the molecular basis of AD, other neurological conditions like depression, autism, and Parkinson's disease and how they are linked to Gut-microbiota. Further, studies to explore the therapeutic effects of probiotics in AD and cognitive enhancement should be warranted to provide significant clinical and practical value.

Keywords: gut-microbiota, Alzheimer’s disease, second brain aging, lipopolysaccharides, short-chain fatty acids

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Authors: Naveen Kumar, Shyambihari Prajapati

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Industry 4.0 is the fourth industrial revolution that focuses on interconnectivity of machine to machine, human to machine and human to human via Internet of Things (IoT). Technologies of industry 4.0 facilitate communication between human and machine through IoT and forms Cyber-Physical Production System (CPPS). In CPPS, multiple shop floors sensor data are connected through IoT and displayed through sensor dashboard to the operator. These sensor dashboards have enormous amount of information to be presented which becomes complex for operators to perform monitoring, controlling and interpretation tasks. Designing handheld sensor dashboards for supervision task will become a challenge for the interface designers. This paper reports emerging technologies of industry 4.0, changing context of increasing information complexity in consecutive industrial revolutions and upcoming design challenges for interface designers in context of Industry 4.0. Authors conclude that information complexity of sensor dashboards design has increased with consecutive industrial revolutions and designs of sensor dashboard causes cognitive load on users. Designing such complex dashboards interfaces in Industry 4.0 context will become main challenges for the interface designers.

Keywords: Industry4.0, sensor dashboard design, cyber-physical production system, Interface designer

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Authors: Andrey Khalov

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The rapid proliferation of unstructured data in IT infrastructure management demands innovative approaches for extracting actionable knowledge. This paper presents a framework for ontology-based knowledge extraction that combines relational graph neural networks (R-GNN) with large language models (LLMs). The proposed method leverages the DOLCE framework as the foundational ontology, extending it with concepts from ITSMO for domain-specific applications in IT service management and outsourcing. A key component of this research is the use of transformer-based models, such as DeBERTa-v3-large, for automatic entity and relationship extraction from unstructured texts. Furthermore, the paper explores how transfer learning techniques can be applied to fine-tune large language models (LLaMA) for using to generate synthetic datasets to improve precision in BERT-based entity recognition and ontology alignment. The resulting IT Ontology (ITO) serves as a comprehensive knowledge base that integrates domain-specific insights from ITIL processes, enabling more efficient decision-making. Experimental results demonstrate significant improvements in knowledge extraction and relationship mapping, offering a cutting-edge solution for enhancing cognitive computing in IT service environments.

Keywords: ontology mapping, R-GNN, knowledge extraction, large language models, NER, knowlege graph

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Authors: Pietro Mortini, Marco Losa

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Objective: Resection of large lesions growing into the third ventricle remains a demanding surgery, sometimes at risk of severe post-operative complications. Transcallosal and transcortical routes were considered as approaches of choice to access the third ventricle, however neurological consequences like memory loss have been reported. We report clinical results of the previously described combined interhemispheric sub-commissural translaminaterminalis approach (CISTA) for the resection of large lesions located in the third ventricle. Methods: Authors conducted a retrospective analysis on 10 patients, who were operated through the CISTA, for the resection of lesions growing into the third ventricle. Results: Total resection was achieved in all cases. Cognitive worsening occurred only in one case. No perioperative deaths were recorded and, at last follow-up, all patients were alive. One year after surgery 80% of patients had an excellent outcome with a KPS 100 and Glasgow Outcome score (GOS) Conclusion: The CISTA represents a safe and effective alternative to transcallosal and transcortical routes to resect lesions growing into the third ventricle. It allows for a multiangle trajectory to access the third ventricle with a wide working area free from critical neurovascular structures, without any section of the corpus callosum, the anterior commissure and the fornix.

Keywords: craniopharingioma, surgery, sub-commissural translaminaterminalis approach (CISTA),

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Authors: Hailemariam Gebremichael Gebretsadik, Abrham Hagos Tesfaslasea

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To satisfy the high need for ICT entrepreneurship and rectify the weak entrepreneurial culture in Ethiopia, the country has established ICT Business incubation centers with the intention of preventing business failures, promoting innovation, and accelerating the growth and success of firms. This study investigates the role of business incubators and social capital on the innovation and growth of firms in Ethiopia. In this research, innovation and growth of firms were considered as dependent variables, whereas business incubation and social capital were treated as independent variables. The researcher employed an e-mail survey among 137 tenant Firms (Firms that joined and/or graduated to/from the Business incubation centers available in Ethiopia) to collect the data and obtained 113 responses that were appropriate for this research. The result of this study reveals that the dimensions of business incubation (physical resource, business support, and networking) have a significant effect on the innovation of Firms, but these dimensions of business incubation do not show a significant effect on the growth of firms. On the other hand, the dimensions of social capital (structural, cognitive, and relational) show a significant positive impact on the likelihood of Firms' growth but not on the innovation of firms. Moreover, the result of this study indicates that the dimensions of business incubation and social capital together have a significant effect on the likelihood of tenant firms innovating and growing.

Keywords: business incubation, innovation, social capital, tenant firms

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Authors: Vanshika Chutani, Priya Bhatnagar

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The pandemic has brought us to a standpoint where stress as a physical, cognitive, and behavioral construct is inevitable. The current research provides an overview of the relationship between stress and dysfunctional eating behavior during the challenging time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The present paper also aims to highlight the gender-specific differences in perception of stress and its correlation with dysfunctional eating behavior in the COVID-19 pandemic. Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS) and Adult Eating Behavior questionnaire (AEBQ) were used on a heterogeneous sample between 20-40 years. The research was conducted on 50 participants, 25 male, and 25 female. Quantitative analysis was done with SPSS 22.0. The results of the investigation revealed a significant difference in stress level, t(48)=2.01, p<0.01, with women (M=22.24. SD=5.23) having a higher stress level than men (M=19.04, SD=4.89). There was no significant difference in dysfunctional eating behavior between males and females. There was a significant positive correlation between stress and dysfunctional eating behavior in females, whereas, in males, there was no significant positive correlation between stress and dysfunctional eating behavior. The research extrapolates that the pandemic led to elevated stress levels in both genders and gender differences existed, and males & females responded differently on dysfunctional eating behavior. The research has also outlined intervention to help individuals cope with stress and dysfunctional eating behavior. The findings of the research propose the execution of different intervention programs and psychological first aid to help individuals who are predisposed to develop eating disorders.

Keywords: stress, dysfunctional eating behavior, gender-specific differences, COVID-19

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Authors: Wenqiu Cao

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Suicide prevention is a global problem that needs to be taken seriously. Investigating the mechanisms of suicide in major depressive disorder (MDD) separately through neuroimaging technology is essential for effective suicide prevention. And it’s particularly urgent in geriatric depressive patients since older adults are more likely to use rapidly deadly means, and suicidal behavior is more lethal for older adults. The current study reviews five studies related to suicide in geriatric MDD that uses neuroimaging methodology in order to analyze the relevant neurobiological mechanisms. The majority of the studies found significant white matter and grey matter reduction or lesion widespread in multiple brain regions, including the frontal and parietal regions, the midbrain, the external capsule, and the cerebellum. Regarding the cognitive impairment in geriatric MDD, the reward signals were found weakened in the paralimbic cortex. The functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies also found hemodynamic changes in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and right frontopolar cortex (FPC) regions in late-life MDD patients with suicidal ideation. Future studies should consider the age of depression onset, more accurate measurements of suicide, larger sample size, and longitudinal design.

Keywords: brain imaging, geriatric major depressive disorder, suicidality, suicide

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Authors: L. Ngowi, N. H. Mvungi

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This paper critically examines the evolution of socio-technical systems theory, its practices, and challenges in system design and development. It examines concepts put forward by researchers focusing on the application of the theory in software engineering. There are various methods developed that use socio-technical concepts based on systems engineering without remarkable success. The main constraint is the large amount of data and inefficient techniques used in the application of the concepts in system engineering for developing time-bound systems and within a limited/controlled budget. This paper critically examines each of the methods, highlight bottlenecks and suggest the way forward. Since socio-technical systems theory only explains what to do, but not how doing it, hence engineers are not using the concept to save time, costs and reduce risks associated with new frameworks. Hence, a new framework, which can be considered as a practical approach is proposed that borrows concepts from soft systems method, agile systems development and object-oriented analysis and design to bridge the gap between theory and practice. The approach will enable the development of systems using socio-technical systems theory to attract/enable the system engineers/software developers to use socio-technical systems theory in building worthwhile information systems to avoid fragilities and hostilities in the work environment.

Keywords: socio-technical systems, human centered design, software engineering, cognitive engineering, soft systems, systems engineering

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Authors: Benoît Bucher, Hika Kuroshima, Kazuo Fujita

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Although altruism is commonly observed in humans and is considered one of the most important factors in the survival of our species, its cognitive mechanisms and evolutionary roots are yet to be explained. This study is based on the previous findings that bonobos (Pan Paniscus) preferred to share a limited amount of food with others regardless of their relationships with the others. Findings such as this suggest that humans’ propensity for altruistic food-sharing may be shared among apes and may have evolved much longer ago than previously considered. We thus adapted the previous experimental design using tufted capuchins (Cebus apella), New World monkeys separating from humans about 40 million years ago. In order to achieve this, 12 pairs of capuchins (consisting of a benefactors and a partner) were tested in a row of two adjacent cages separated by a swinging door locked by a key (Fig.1). We observed whether the monkeys in possession of food (the benefactors) would allow their partner to enter their cage by unlocking the door between them. Results showed that the monkeys clearly preferred to monopolize the food for themselves, even though they in a few cases unlocked the door after eating the preferred food. This suggests that this species, which has been shown to be sensitive to the others’ welfare, would not actively share food at a cost of their own. Although further studies are needed, our results suggest the existence of significant differences in the evolutionary development of the pro social tendencies between bonobos and capuchin monkeys.

Keywords: altruism, capuchin monkeys, food sharing, pro social behaviors

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Authors: Sari Myréen

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The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of multisensory elements in enhancing and facilitating foreign language acquisition among adult students in a language classroom. The use of multisensory elements enables the creation of a student-centered classroom, where the focus is on individual learner’s language learning process, perceptions and motivation. Multisensory language learning is a pedagogical approach where the language learner uses all the senses more effectively than in a traditional in-class environment. Language learning is facilitated due to multisensory stimuli which increase the number of cognitive connections in the learner and take into consideration different types of learners. A living lab called Multisensory Space creates a relaxed and receptive state in the learners through various multisensory stimuli, and thus promotes their natural foreign language acquisition. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected in two questionnaire inquiries among the Finnish students of a higher education institute at the end of their basic French courses in December 2014 and 2016. The inquiries discussed the effects of multisensory elements on the students’ motivation to study French as well as their learning outcomes. The results show that the French classes in the Multisensory Space provide the students with an encouraging and pleasant learning environment, which has a positive impact on their motivation to study the foreign language as well as their language learning outcomes.

Keywords: foreign language acquisition, pedagogical approach, multisensory learning, transcultural learning

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Authors: Mohamed Sameer Mughal, Andrew D. Ross, Damian J. Fearon

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Background: The fast-paced changing landscape of UK Higher Education Institution (HEIs) is poised by changes and challenges affecting Middle Managers (MM) in their job roles. MM contribute to the success of HEIs by balancing the equilibrium and pass organization strategies from senior staff towards operationalization directives to junior staff. However, this study showcased from the data analyzed during the semi structured interviews; MM job role is becoming more complex due to changes and challenges creating colossal pressures and workloads in day-to-day working. Current development programmes provisions by Human Resources (HR) departments in such HEIs are not feasible, applicable, and matching the true essence and requirements of MM who suggest that programmes offered by HR are too generic to suit their precise needs and require tailor made espousal to work effectively in their pertinent job roles. Methodologies: This study aims to capture demands of MM Development Needs (DN) by means of a conceptual model as conclusive part of the research that is divided into 2 phases. Phase 1 initiated by carrying out 2 pilot interviews with a retired Emeritus status professor and HR programmes development coordinator. Key themes from the pilot and literature review subsidized into formulation of 22 set of questions (Kvale and Brinkmann) in form of interviewing questionnaire during qualitative data collection. Data strategy and collection consisted of purposeful sampling of 12 semi structured interviews (n=12) lasting approximately an hour for all participants. The MM interviewed were at faculty and departmental levels which included; deans (n=2), head of departments (n=4), subject leaders (n=2), and lastly programme leaders (n=4). Participants recruitment was carried out via emails and snowballing technique. The interviews data was transcribed (verbatim) and managed using Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis using Nvivo ver.11 software. Data was meticulously analyzed using Miles and Huberman inductive approach of positivistic style grounded theory, whereby key themes and categories emerged from the rich data collected. The data was precisely coded and classified into case studies (Robert Yin); with a main case study, sub cases (4 classes of MM) and embedded cases (12 individual MMs). Major Findings: An interim conceptual model emerged from analyzing the data with main concepts that included; key performance indicators (KPI’s), HEI effectiveness and outlook, practices, processes and procedures, support mechanisms, student events, rules, regulations and policies, career progression, reporting/accountability, changes and challenges, and lastly skills and attributes. Conclusion: Dynamic elements affecting MM includes; increase in government pressures, student numbers, irrelevant development programmes, bureaucratic structures, transparency and accountability, organization policies, skills sets… can only be confronted by employing structured development programmes originated by HR that are not provided generically. Future Work: Stage 2 (Quantitative method) of the study plans to validate the interim conceptual model externally through fully completed online survey questionnaire (Bram Oppenheim) from external HEIs (n=150). The total sample targeted is 1500 MM. Author contribution focuses on enhancing management theory and narrow the gap between by HR and MM development programme provision.

Keywords: development needs (DN), higher education institutions (HEIs), human resources (HR), middle managers (MM)

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Authors: Arezou Hajhashemi, Karim Asgari, Masoud Etemadifar, Maryam Keyvani, Ali Hekmatnia

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Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is one of the most prevalent demyelinating diseases in CNS. As in other chronic cerebral diseases, impairment in cognitive functioning and in memory is popular. Because of the inflammatory and demyelinating nature of the disease, the localization of plaques in different parts of the Prefrontal and Limbic System, may lead to memorial symptoms. This investigation was intended to study relationship between frequency of plaques and memorial symptoms arising from dysfunction limbic system and prefrontal of patients with MS. The sample was selected randomly from patients with MS with memory problem, who have been referred to Isfahan Multiple Sclerosis Society. Brain System Test and Memory Test was administered to the sample, and their MRI's were analyzed by specialist in order to indentify two different parts of plaques. The data was analyzed by SPSS. The results showed that there were significant relationship between MS plaques and prefrontal's dysfunction and memorial symptom related to prefrontal area; however, there were no significant relationship between MS plaques and limbic system's dysfunction and memorial symptoms related to limbic system area. The results of this study suggest that memorial symptoms due to injury regions of the brain have the most significant relationship to prefrontal. Better judgment about these results needs more studies in future.

Keywords: multiple sclerosis, magnetic image, brain injury, behavior disorder

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Authors: Elyas Akbari, Jafar Hasani, Newsha Dehestani, Mohammad Khaleghi, Alireza Moradi

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The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of emotional experience induction in the mirror neurons systems (MNS) activity with regard to the spectrum of depressive symptoms. For this purpose, at first stage, 449 students of Kharazmi University of Tehran were selected randomly and completed the second version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). Then, 36 students with standard Z-score equal or above +1.5 and equal or equal or below -1.5 were selected to construct two groups of high and low spectrum of depressive symptoms. In the next stage, the basic activity of MNS was recorded (mu wave) before presenting the positive and negative emotional video clips by Electroencephalography (EEG) technique. The findings related to emotion induction (neutral, negative and positive emotion) demonstrated that the activity of recorded mirror neuron areas had a significant difference between the depressive and non-depressive groups. These findings suggest that probably processing of negative emotions in depressive individuals is due to the idea that the mirror neurons in motor cortex matched up the activity of cognitive regions with the person’s schema. Considering the results of the present study, it could be said that the MNS provides a substrate where emotional disorders can be studied and evaluated.

Keywords: emotional experiences, mirror neurons, depressive symptoms, negative and positive emotion

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Authors: Hazem Abd El Megeed, Mohamed El-Refaay, Norhan Magdi Osman

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Spectrum scarcity is a challenging obstacle in wireless communications systems. It hinders the introduction of innovative wireless services and technologies that require larger bandwidth comparing to legacy technologies. In addition, the current worldwide allocation of radio spectrum bands is already congested and can not afford additional squeezing or optimization to accommodate new wireless technologies. This challenge is a result of accumulative contributions from different factors that will be discussed later in this paper. One of these factors is the radio spectrum allocation policy governed by national regulatory authorities nowadays. The framework for this policy allocates specified portion of radio spectrum to a particular wireless service provider on exclusive utilization basis. This allocation is executed according to technical specification determined by the standard bodies of each Radio Access Technology (RAT). Dynamic access of spectrum is a framework for flexible utilization of radio spectrum resources. In this framework there is no exclusive allocation of radio spectrum and even the public safety agencies can share their spectrum bands according to a governing policy and service level agreements. In this paper, we explore different methods for accessing the spectrum dynamically and its associated implementation challenges.

Keywords: licensed shared access, cognitive radio, spectrum sharing, spectrum congestion, dynamic spectrum access, spectrum database, spectrum trading, reconfigurable radio systems, opportunistic spectrum allocation (OSA)

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Authors: Jun Hong Lee

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Background: Many dementia patients complain insomnia and depressive mood, and hypnotics and antidepressants are being prescribed. As prevalence of dementia is increasing, insomnia and depressive mood are becoming more important. Objective: We evaluated insomnia and depression in outpatients of dementia center. Patients and Methods/Material and Methods: We reviewed medical records of the patients who visited outpatients clinic of NHIS Ilsan Hospital Dementia Center during 2016. Results: Total 716 patients are included; Subjective Memory Impairment (SMI) : 143 patients (20%), non-amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI): single domain 70 (10%), multiple domain 34 (5%), amnestic MCI: single domain 74 (10%), multiple domain 159 (22%), Early onset Alzheimer´s disease (AD): 9 (1%), AD 121 (17%), Vascular dementia: 62 (9%), Mixed dementia 44 (6%). Hypnotics and antidepressants are prescribed as follows; SMI : hypnotics 14 patients (10%), antidepressants 27 (19%), non-amnestic MCI: single domain hypnotics 9 (13%), antidepressants 12 (17%), multiple domain hypnotics 4 (12%), antidepressants 6 (18%), amnestic MCI: single domain hypnotics 10 (14%), antidepressants 16 (22%), multiple domain hypnotics 22 (14%), antidepressants 24 (15%), Early onset Alzheimer´s disease (AD): hypnotics 1 (11%), antidepressants 2 (22%), AD: hypnotics 10 (8%), antidepressants 36 (30%), Vascular dementia: hypnotics 8 (13%), antidepressants 20 (32%), Mixed dementia: hypnotics 4 (9%), antidepressants 17 (39%). Conclusion: Among the outpatients of Dementia Center, MCI and SMI are majorities, and the number of MCI patients are almost half. Depression is more prevalent in AD, and Vascular dementia than MCI and SMI, and about 22% of patients are being prescribed by antidepressants and 11% by hypnotics.

Keywords: insomnia, depression, dementia, antidepressants, hypnotics

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Authors: Tamara Díaz-Chang, Elizabeth-H Arredondo

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This article presents the results of mixed approach research, where the ocular movements of students are examined while they solve questionnaires related to some abstract mathematical concepts. The objective of this research is to determine possible correlations between the parameters of ocular activity and the level of difficulty of the tasks. The difficulty level categories were established based on two types of criteria: a subjective one, through an evaluation, carried out by the subjects, and a behavioral one, related to obtaining the correct solution. Correlations of these criteria with ocular activity parameters, which were considered indicators of mental effort, were identified. The analysis of the data obtained allowed us to observe discrepancies in the categorization of difficulty levels based on subjective and behavioral criteria. There was a negative correlation of the eye movement parameters with the students' opinions on the level of difficulty of the questions, while a strong positive and significant correlation was noted between most of the parameters of ocular activity and the level of difficulty, determined by the percentage of correct answers. The results obtained by the analysis of the data suggest that eye movement parameters can be taken as indicators of the difficulty level of the tasks related to the study of some abstract mathematical concepts at the university.

Keywords: abstract mathematical concepts, cognitive neuroscience, eye-tracking, university education

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Authors: Hsiao-Wen Tsai

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Motor vehicle accident is the first cause of head injury in the world; severe head injury cases may cause conscious disturbance and death. This is a report about a case of a young adult patient suffering from motor vehicle accident leading to severe head injury who passed through three time surgical procedures, and his mother (who is the informal caregiver). This case was followed from 28th January to 15th February 2011 by using Gordon’s 11 functional health patterns. Patient’s cognitive-perceptual and self-perception-self-concept patterns were altered. Anxiety was also noted on his informal caregiver due to patients’ condition. During the intensive care period, maintaining patient’s vital signs and cerebral perfusion pressure were essential to avoid secondary neuronal injury. Multi-sensory stimulation, caring accompanying, supporting, listening and encouraging patient’s family involved in patient care were very important to reduce informal caregiver anxiety. Finally, the patient consciousness improved from GCS 4 to GCS 11 before discharging from ICU. Patient’s primary informal caregiver, his mother, also showed anxiety improvement. This is was successful case with traumatic brain injury recovered from coma.

Keywords: anxiety, multi-sensory stimulation, reduce intracranial adaptive capacity, traumatic brain injury

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Authors: Rochelle Elva

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Faculty in Higher Education today are faced with the challenge of convincing their students of the importance of learning and mastery of skills. This is because most students often have a single motivation -to get high grades. If it appears that this goal will not be met, they lose their motivation, and their academic efforts wane. This is true even for students in the competitive fields of STEM, including Computer Science majors. As educators, we have to understand our students and leverage what motivates them to achieve our learning outcomes. This paper presents a case study that utilizes cognitive psychology’s Expectancy Value Theory and Motivation Theory to investigate the effect of sustained expectancy for success on students’ learning outcomes. In our case study, we explore how students’ motivation and persistence in their academic efforts are impacted by providing them with an unexpected possible path to success that continues to the end of the semester. The approach was tested in an undergraduate computer science course with n = 56. The results of the study indicate that when presented with the real possibility of success, despite existing low grades, both low and high-scoring students persisted in their efforts to improve their performance. Their final grades were, on average, one place higher on the +/-letter grade scale, with some students scoring as high as three places above their predicted grade.

Keywords: expectancy for success and persistence, motivation and performance, computer science education, motivation and performance in computer science

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Authors: Dana Hisham Mohamed Abdrabo

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The paper examines the effect of Drama works on the Egyptian public opinion regarding the religion of Judaism, Israel as a state and the Jew's image to Egyptian Muslims. The paper examines the role of Media and in particular, Dramas on achieving interreligious dialogue between Judaism and Islam and its role in making peace between the Egyptian Muslims -and Arabs in general- on the one hand, and the Jew on the other hand, and the implications of this on the relationship between Arab countries and Israel as a state. The research uses the Survey method with Egyptian Muslims as a main sample for the research to examine such effect. Dramas have a role in presenting the Jew, Judaism, and Israel as a state and as a political system in various ways. The paper is related to multidisciplinary fields; it is related to political sciences, political sociology, communication, social change, and cognitive sociology fields. The research adds a new analytical study for a new tool for the peacemaking process in the Middle East region through adopting an interdisciplinary approach which is needed in the studies aim to achieve stability and peace in the Middle East region and its neighboring countries.

Keywords: dramas tool, Egyptian public opinion, interreligious dialogue, Israel & Egyptian relations , Judaism

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Authors: Hani Mustafa, Cristina Gonzalez Ruiz, Estelle Bech

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The growing influence of digital technologies has made learning and interaction more accessible, resulting in effective collaboration if properly managed. Technology enabled learning has become an important conduit for learning, including collaborative learning. The use of wiki technology, for example, has opened a new learning platform that enables the integration of social, linguistic, and cognitive processes of language learning. It encourages students to collaborate in the construction, analysis, and understanding of knowledge. But to what extent is the use of wikis effective in promoting collaborative learning among students. In addition, how do students perceive this technology in enhancing their language learning? In this study, students were be given a wiki project to complete collaboratively with their group members. Students had to write collaboratively to produce and present a seven-day travel plan in which they had to describe places to visit and things to do to explore the best historical and cultural aspects of the country. The study involves students learning French, Malay, and Spanish as a foreign language. In completing this wiki project, students will move from passive learning of language to real engagement with classmates, requiring them to collaborate and negotiate effectively with one another. The objective of the study is to ascertain to what extent does wiki technology helped in promoting collaborative learning and improving language skills from students’ perception. It is found that while there was improvement in students language skills, the overall experience was less positive due to unfamiliarity with a new learning tool.

Keywords: collaborative learning, foreign language, wiki, teaching

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Authors: Hector Jose Velazquez-Gonzalez, Norma Maldonado-Santiago, Laura Pietri-Gomez

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Cancer is one of the first cause of death in the world, most of them are women. In Puerto Rico, there is a permanent controversy on the conceptuation of what really involves a disability, also in when a chronic illness, like cancer, should be considered a disability. The aim of the research was to identify functional limitation in 50 women survivors of cancer. In turn, to know the meanings that 6 women attributed to cancer with a focus on functionality. We conducted a mix method research based on surveys and narratives. We administered the World Health Organization Disability Assessment, version 2.0, which obtained a Cronbach’s alpha of .949 on the general scale, and from .773 to .956 on the six domains. The domain that obtained the highest average was social participation (M= 33.89, SD= 20.434), but it was not significant in the disability percentage. Also, there was no significance in the disability percentage in the other five domains. In a matter of meanings, we conduct a semistructured interview to 6 participants. All of them do not refer to cancer as a disability, either they do not know that in Puerto Rico cancer is considered as a disability by the law. However, participants agree that cancer at the time of treatment and subsequent to it, has significant effects on functional limitations (fatigue, pain, cognitive limitations, and weakness, among others. Psychooncologic practice should encourage the constant assessment of the functionality to identify the needs that emerge from oncological diagnosis. So that psychosocial intervention could be considered as critical in cancer treatment to promote a better quality of life and well-being in a person with cancer.

Keywords: cancer, Puerto Rico, disability, psychosocial approach

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Authors: Pinhas Dannon, Aviv Weinstein

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Impulsivity is raising major interest clinically because it is associated with various clinical conditions such as delinquency, antisocial behavior, suicide attempts, aggression, and criminal activity. The evolutionary perspective argued that impulsivity relates to self-regulation and it has predicted that female individuals should have evolved a greater ability to inhibit pre-potent responses. There is supportive evidence showing that female individuals have better performance on cognitive tasks measuring impulsivity such as delay in gratification and delayed discounting mainly in childhood. During adolescence, brain imaging studies using diffusion tensor imaging on white matter architecture indicated contrary to the evolutionary perspective hypothesis, that young adolescent male individuals may be less vulnerable than age-matched female individuals to risk- and reward- related maladaptive behaviors. In adults, the results are mixed presumably owing to hormonal effects on neuro-biological mechanisms of reward. Consequently, female individuals were less impulsive than male individuals only during fertile stages of the menstrual cycle. Finally, there is evidence the serotonin (5-HT) system is more involved in the impulsivity of men than in that of women. Overall, there seem to be sex differences in impulsivity but these differences are more pronounced in childhood and they are later subject to maturational and hormonal changes during adolescence and adulthood and their effects on the brain, cognition, and behavior.

Keywords: impulse control, male population, female population, gender differences, reward, neurocognitive tests

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Authors: Olusegun Akinsiku, Olukayode Oyediran, Koleola Odusami

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A construction project is usually made up of a variety of stakeholders whose interests may positively or negatively impact on the outcome of the project execution. The variability of project stakeholders is apparent in their cultural differences, professional background and ethics, and differences in ideas. The need for the effectiveness of construction teams has been investigated as this is an important aspect to meeting client’s expectations in the construction industry. This study adopts a cross-sectional descriptive survey with the purpose of identifying the critical success factors (CSFs) associated with the team effectiveness of construction projects stakeholders, their relationship and the effects on construction project performance. The instrument for data collection was a designed questionnaire which was administered to construction professionals in the construction industry in Lagos State, Nigeria using proportionate stratified sampling. The highest ranked identified CSFs include “team trust”, “esprit de corps among members” and “team cohesiveness”. Using factor analysis and considering the effects of team cohesiveness on project performance, the identified CSFs were categorized into three groups namely cognitive attributes, behavior and processes attributes and affective attributes. All the three groups were observed to have a strong correlation with project performance. The findings of this study are useful in helping construction stakeholders benchmark the team effectiveness factors that will guarantee project success.

Keywords: construction, critical success factors, performance, stakeholders, team effectiveness

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Authors: Mounir Kehal, Adel Al Araifi

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The post-globalisation epoch has placed businesses everywhere in new and different competitive situations where knowledgeable, effective and efficient behaviour has come to provide the competitive and comparative edge. Enterprises have turned to explicit- and even conceptualising on tacit- Knowledge Management to elaborate a systematic approach to develop and sustain the Intellectual Capital needed to succeed. To be able to do that, you have to be able to visualize your organization as consisting of nothing but knowledge and knowledge flows, whilst being presented in a graphical and visual framework, referred to as automated organizational cartography. Hence, creating the ability of further actively classifying existing organizational content evolving from and within data feeds, in an algorithmic manner, potentially giving insightful schemes and dynamics by which organizational know-how is visualised. It is discussed and elaborated on most recent and applicable definitions and classifications of knowledge management, representing a wide range of views from mechanistic (systematic, data driven) to a more socially (psychologically, cognitive/metadata driven) orientated. More elaborate continuum models, for knowledge acquisition and reasoning purposes, are being used for effectively representing the domain of information that an end user may contain in their decision making process for utilization of available organizational intellectual resources (i.e. Autocart). In this paper we present likewise an empirical research study conducted previously to try and explore knowledge diffusion in a specialist knowledge domain.

Keywords: knowledge management, knowledge maps, knowledge diffusion, organizational cartography

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Authors: Graham Wood

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The 20th Century saw the introduction of many new approaches to music making, including the structured and academic study of jazz improvisation. The rise of many school and tertiary jazz programs was rapid and quickly spread around the globe in a matter of decades. It could be said that the curriculum taught in these new programs was often developed in an ad-hoc manner due to the lack of written literature in this new and rapidly expanding area and the vastly different pedagogical principles when compared to classical music education that was prevalent in school and tertiary programs. There is widespread information regarding the theory and techniques used by jazz improvisers, but methods to practice these concepts in order to achieve the best outcomes for students and teachers is much harder to find. This research project explores the authors’ experiences as a studio jazz piano teacher, ensemble teacher and classroom improvisation lecturer over fifteen years and suggests an alignment with Bloom’s taxonomy of learning domains. This alignment categorizes the different tasks that need to be taught and practiced in order for the teacher and the student to devise a well balanced and effective practice routine and for the teacher to develop an effective teaching program. These techniques have been very useful to the teacher and the student to ensure that a good balance of cognitive, psychomotor and affective skills are taught to the students in a range of learning contexts.

Keywords: bloom, education, jazz, learning, music, teaching

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Authors: Igbozuruike Chigozie Jude, Agwu Agwu Ejem

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This study investigated that advertisement has an impact on audience retention on YouTube Comedy skits, which is the most watched content on YouTube in Lagos, Nigeria. The main objective was to determine if the advertisements affect the average number of times they spend watching YouTube comedy skits. The study was anchored on Festinger's (1952) cognitive dissonance theory. The research method for this exercise was a survey to get responses from people in Lagos state on how they react to the advertisements they face when watching YouTube comedy skits in Lagos state. The sample size derived from the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) Table was 384 YouTube users. The instrument that was used to gather data was a questionnaire. The findings showed that the adverts have far-reaching exposure by the target audience, but most of the audience perceived them to be intrusive. It was also found that there is not enough evidence to infer that advertisement is indeed impacting audience retention on YouTube comedy skits in Lagos, Nigeria. The reason is that, for a majority of the audience, adverts do not essentially affect their retention on those skits, but for a considerable percentage (34%), these adverts do break their concentration and affect how much time they end up spending on the YouTube comedy skits. It was recommended that, among others, there should be regular monitoring and adaptation of YouTube advertisements to the audience preferences and behaviors of the audience. Insights on changes or trends in audience preferences can be gained through surveys.

Keywords: advertisement, audience, YouTube, comedy skits, Lagos Nigeria

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Authors: Ruoya Huang, Ruoxian Huang, Edgar Huang

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Based on a convenience sample of 2,092 participants from across all 50 states of the United States, a survey was conducted to explore Americans’ mask-wearing behaviors during COVID-19 according to their political convictions, religious beliefs, and ethnic cultures from late July to early September, 2020. The purpose of the study is to provide evidential support for government policymaking so as to drive up more effective public policies by taking into consideration the variance in these social factors. It was found that the respondents’ party affiliation or preference, religious belief, and ethnicity, in addition to their health condition, gender, level of concern of contracting COVID-19, all affected their mask-wearing habits both in March, the initial coronavirus outbreak stage, and in August, when mask-wearing had been made mandatory by state governments. The study concludes that pandemic awareness campaigns must be run among all citizens, especially among African Americans, Muslims, and Republicans, who have the lowest rates of wearing masks, in order to protect themselves and others. It is recommended that complementary cognitive bias awareness programs should be implemented in non-Black and non-Muslim communities to eliminate social concerns that deter them from wearing masks.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, ethnicity, mask-wearing, policymaking implications, political affiliations, religious beliefs, United States

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Authors: Nurwati Djaman, Suradi Tahmir, Nurdin Arsyad

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The major objective of this study was to implement and evaluate the use of the implementation of social responsibility with the approach of Indonesian Realistic Mathematics Education (PMRI) in teaching and learning mathematics on students’ engagement and learning. The research problems investigated in this research: 1) What were the effects of the implementation of social responsibility with PMRI approach to learning mathematics? 2) What were the effects of the approach to students’ engagement? An action research and grounded theory methodology were adopted for the study. This study used mixed methods to collect, describe, and interpret the data. The data were collected through focus group discussion, classroom observations, questionnaire, interview, and students’ work. The participants in this study consisted of 45 students. The study revealed that the approach has given students the opportunity to develop their understanding of concepts and procedures, problem-solving ability, and communication ability. Also, students’ involvement in the approach improved their engagement in learning mathematics in the three domains of cognitive engagement, effective engagement, and behavioral engagement. In particular, the data collection from the focus group, classroom observations, and interviews suggest that, during this study, the students became more active participants in the mathematics lessons.

Keywords: Indonesian Realistic Mathematics Education, PMRI, learning mathematics, social responsibility, students' engagement

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Authors: Sean Gay, Cristina Tat

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This presentation will detail how a university in Western Japan has implemented its English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program during the onset of CoViD-19 in the spring semester of 2020. In the spring semester of 2020, after a 2 week delay, all courses within the School of Policy Studies EAP Program at Kwansei Gakuin University were offered in an online asynchronous format. The rationale for this decision was not to disadvantage students who might not have access to devices necessary for taking part in synchronous online lessons. The course coordinators were tasked with consolidating the materials originally designed for face-to-face14 week courses for a 12 week asynchronous online semester and with uploading the modified course materials to Luna, the university’s network, which is a modified version of Blackboard. Based on research to determine the social and academic impacts of this CoViD-19 ERT approach on the students who took part in this EAP program, this presentation explains how future curriculum design and implementation can be managed in a post-CoViD world. There are a wide variety of lessons that were salient. The role of the classroom as a social institution was very prominent; however, awareness of cognitive burdens and strategies to mitigate that burden may be more valuable for teachers. The lessons learned during this period of ERT can help teachers moving forward.

Keywords: asynchronous online learning, emergency remote teaching (ERT), online curriculum design, synchronous online learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 203