Search results for: motivation and attitudes

Authors: Alejandra Sierra, Maria de los Angeles Covarrubias, Guillermo Julian Gonzalez, Noe Alfaro

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The objective of this study was to identify the cultural dimensions of the terms unplanned pregnancy and unwanted pregnancy built by adolescent women, through the focus of the social representations. Two associative methods were used: free listings and the paired comparison. 72 female students between the ages of 15 and 19 were interviewed, from the downtown area of Leon Guanajuato, Mexico. Words related to inducer terms were classified into five thematic categories: facilitators, consequences, reactions, expectations, and lexicon. The results showed that the social representations of unplanned pregnancy highlighted elements related to economic difficulties and negative emotional aspects, while unwanted pregnancy was associated with negative emotional aspects such as anger, anxiety, and sadness. The meanings each person attributes to terms related to pregnancy are culturally constructed and differ between populations; therefore, more attention should be paid to understanding the cultural meanings and attitudes of people in fertility decision-making, including also the views of adolescent men and other types of population, stratified by age groups and social conditions.

Keywords: adolescent, qualitative research, unplanned pregnancy, unwanted pregnancy

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Authors: Hersh Azeez

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Honour killing, also known as "honor killing," is a deeply rooted and complex social issue that persists in many parts of the world, including Iraq. This paper seeks to examine the legal framework surrounding honour killing in Iraqi statutory law. The paper begins with an introduction to honour killing as a phenomenon and its cultural and societal context in Iraq. It then delves into the methodology used in this research, including a comprehensive review of relevant legal texts, case studies, and scholarly articles. The paper analyzes the existing legal framework in Iraq, including relevant penal code provisions and other relevant legislation, as well as the challenges and shortcomings in addressing honour killing in the country. The research findings reveal that despite some legal provisions aimed at addressing honour killing, the practice continues to persist due to a lack of effective implementation, societal norms, and cultural attitudes. The paper concludes with recommendations for improving the legal framework to combat honour killing in Iraq, including legal reforms, education and awareness campaigns, and cultural change initiatives.

Keywords: honour killing, Iraq, statutory law, legal framework, penal code, cultural norms

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Authors: Amir Jalalian-Khakshour, T. N. Croft

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Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) systems are becoming increasingly popular as they have a number of advantages over traditional wind turbines. The advantages are reliability, ease of transportation and manufacturing. These attributes could make these technologies useful in developing economies. The performance characteristics of a VAWT are different from a horizontal axis wind turbine, which can be attributed to the low tip speed ratio operation. To unlock the potential of these VAWT systems, the operational behaviour in a number of system topologies and environmental conditions needs to be understood. In this study, a non-linear dynamic simulation method was developed in Matlab and validated against in field data of a large scale, 8-meter rotor diameter prototype. This simulation method has been utilised to determine the performance characteristics of a number of control methods and system topologies. The motivation for this research was to develop a simulation method which accurately captures the operating behaviour and is computationally inexpensive. The model was used to evaluate the performance through parametric studies and optimisation techniques. The study gave useful insights into the applications and energy generation potential of this technology.

Keywords: power generation, renewable energy, rotordynamics, wind energy

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Authors: Haruna Shola Adeosun, Adeoye Odedeji

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This paper examines the impact of radio on rural development. The researcher employed survey method to gather primary data. The objectives and questions were used from and hypotheses were formulated were raised from the statement of the problem. Cultivation theory was used as the theoretical study. The populations of the study were the inhabitant of Ipokia Local Government. Questionnaires were administered on the 400 respondents. Data gathered were analyzed, interpreted and hypotheses of the study were tested. The finding revealed that; radio has impacted on the rural dwellers and there is a significant relationship between radio and rural dwellers. Also, radio has brought socio-economic development on rural dwellers. The study recommended that radio messages should be designed in line with the pre-existing attitudes of the rural dwellers. It was also discovered that radio stations should endeavour to use local dialects especially when the radio programme is aimed at the rural dwellers that effective communication that can increase active participation of government and the public. Finally, the study recommends that radio stations should be well funded to produce programmes that would serve the purpose of educating and informing the public on issues relevant to them and there is need to establish community radio stations that will be closer to rural dwellers.

Keywords: impact, radio, rural, development

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Authors: Sonia Gonzalez Cruz

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Subtitling activities allow for acquiring and developing certain translation skills, and they also have a great impact on the students' motivation. Active subtitling is a relatively recent activity that has generated a lot of interest particularly in the field of second-language acquisition, but it is also present within both the didactics of general translation and language teaching for translators. It is interesting to analyze the level of inclusion of these new resources into the existent curricula and observe to what extent these different teaching methods are being used in the translation classroom. Although subtitling has already become an independent discipline of study and it is considered to be a type of translation on its own, it is necessary to do further research on the different didactic varieties that this type of audiovisual translation offers. Therefore, this project is framed within the field of the didactics of translation, and it focuses on the relationship between the didactics of general translation and active subtitling as a didactic tool. Its main objective is to analyze the inclusion of interlinguistic active subtitling in general translation curricula at different universities. As it has been observed so far, the analyzed curricula do not make any type of reference to the use of this didactic tool in general translation classrooms. However, they do register the inclusion of other audiovisual activities such as dubbing, script translation or video watching, among others. By means of online questionnaires and interviews, the main goal is to confirm the results obtained after the observation of the curricula and find out to what extent subtitling has actually been included into general translation classrooms.

Keywords: subtitling, general translation, didactics, translation competence

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Authors: Afroza Akhter Tina

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This paper reports on an investigation into the use of specific types of oral communication strategies, namely ‘topic avoidance’, ‘message abandonment’, ‘code-switching’, ‘paraphrasing’, ‘restructuring’, and ‘stalling’ by Bangladeshi EFL learners at the graduate level. It chiefly considers the frequency of using these strategies as well as the students and teachers attitudes toward such uses. The participants of this study are 66 EFL students and 12 EFL teachers of Jahangirnagar University. Data was collected through questionnaire, oral interview, and classroom observation form. The findings reveal that the EFL students tried to employ all the strategies to various extents due to the language difficulties they encountered in their oral English performance. Among them, the mostly used strategy was ‘stalling’ or the use of fillers, followed by ‘code-switching’. The least used strategies were ‘topic avoidance’, ‘restructuring’, and ‘paraphrasing’. The findings indicate that the use of such strategies was related to the contexts of situation and data-elicitation tasks. It also reveals that the students were not formally trained to use the strategies though the majority of the teachers and students acknowledge them as helpful in communication. Finally the study suggests that an awareness of the nature and functions of these strategies can contribute to the overall improvement of the learners’ communicative competence in spoken English.

Keywords: communicative strategies, competency, attitude, frequency

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Authors: Khalid Soussi

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Implementing innovative teaching and learning methods is of pivotal importance for student motivation and teaching quality. At the center of such quality are teaching competencies. The present paper investigates three teachers’ core competencies related to their innovative teaching performance: educational/pedagogical competency, teaching competency, and social competency. The paper also attempts to describe the influence of social factors on innovation in higher education. Many recent studies highlight the technological competency as an independent one, but it is believed in this study that the latter makes part of the pedagogical competency. A Likert scale questionnaire was used to measure teachers’ judgements of core competencies role in innovative teaching performance. The study also attempted to demarcate the social variables that may affect innovative teaching in higher education. The findings indicate that teachers’ educational competency and teaching competency were generally confirmed to be either important or very important for innovation in teaching performance. Regarding social competency, the study also shows that satisfaction from job, daily working hours, amount of workload, flexibility in the functioning and the quality of students are the main factors that have a large effect on teachers’ innovative teaching performance.

Keywords: higher education, innovative teaching, teaching competencies, teaching performance

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Authors: Galila Aisyah Latif Amini, Husnul Khatimah, Citra Amelia

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Smoking among women is of particular concern for the maternal and child health community due to the strong association between prenatal smoking and adverse birth outcomes. Pregnancy is perceived to be a unique reason for smoking cessation, as motivation to care for the unborn fetus. This study aimed to find out the determinants of smoking cessation among pregnant women. Method that we use in this study is systematic review. We identified relevant studies by searching on science database online through SAGE journals, Proquest, Scopus, Emerald, JSTOR, and Springerlink. Journals were screened by title and abstract according to the research topic then filtered using the criteria exclusion and inclusion. And then we did critical appraisal. The results of the four studies reviewed were found that the determinant of smoking cessation are parity, the level of education, socioeconomic status, household SHS exposure, smoking habits of both parents, partner smoking status, psychological factors, antenatal care, intervention for health care provider, age smoking duration. The factor most strongly associated with smoking cessation is parity (OR 2,55; Cl 2,34-2,77). The results of this study are expected to give advice for developing future smoking cessation and relapse prevention programs.

Keywords: pregnancy, smoking cessation, tobacco use cessation, smoking

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Authors: Benmansour Nassima, Benmansour Souheyla

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The appropriate integration of reward processing and decision making provided by the environment is vital for behavioural success and individuals’ well being in everyday life. Functional neurological investigation has already provided an inclusive image on affective and emotional (motivational) processing in the healthy human brain and has recently focused its interest also on the assessment of brain function in anxious and depressed individuals. This article offers an overview on the theoretical approaches that relate emotion and decision-making, and spotlights investigation with anxious or depressed individuals to reveal how emotions can interfere with decision-making. This research aims at incorporating the emotional structure based on response and stimulation with a Bayesian approach to decision-making in terms of probability and value processing. It seeks to show how studies of individuals with emotional dysfunctions bear out that alterations of decision-making can be considered in terms of altered probability and value subtraction. The utmost objective is to critically determine if the probabilistic representation of belief affords could be a critical approach to scrutinize alterations in probability and value representation in subjective with anxiety and depression, and draw round the general implications of this approach.

Keywords: decision-making, motivation, alteration, reward processing, response selection

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Authors: Aaminah Hassan

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Advertisements carry a great potential to influence our lives because they are crafted to meet particular ends. Stereotypical representation in advertisements is capable of forming unconscious attitudes among people towards any gender and their abilities. This study focuses on gender representation in Pakistani prime time advertisements. For this purpose, 13 advertisements were selected from three different categories of foods and beverages, cosmetics, cell phones and cellular networks from the prime time slots of one of the leading Pakistani entertainment channel, ‘Urdu 1’. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses are carried out for range of variables like gender, age, roles, activities, setting, appearance and voice overs. The results revealed that gender representation in advertisements is stereotypical. Moreover, in few instances, the portrayal of women is not only culturally inappropriate but is demeaning to the image of women as well. Their bodily charm is used to promote products. Comparing different entertainment channels for their prime time advertisements and broadening the scope of this research will yield greater implications for the researchers who want to carry out the similar research. It is hoped that the current study would help in the promotion of media literacy among the viewers and media authorities in Pakistan.

Keywords: Advertisements, Content Analysis, Gender, Prime time

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Authors: Eftychia Damaskou

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This article intends to place the question of the adequate approach for teaching multilingualism within the public education. Linguistic education, as it is defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for the Languages, is no longer the proficiency in one or two languages. It’s about the development of a linguistic repertoire, where all linguistic skills find their place. In fact, the linguistic theories that frame the development of plurilingual competence point out the affective and intercultural aspect of such a process, insisting on an awareness of linguistic diversification, rather than an acquisition of communicative competence in many languages. In this spirit, our article attempts to go beyond a mere plurilingual awareness, present a research based on an experience in class, within 115 pupils, aiming at the development of plurilingual competence in five unknown foreign languages. This experience was held through a teaching unit personally conceived and applied, and consisted of a series of 6 activities based on a cross-linguistic content approach. The data analysis proves to be very interesting, as it reveals the development of plurilingual competences, as well as positive attitudes towards less common languages by the majority of our sample.

Keywords: multilingual awareness, multilingual teaching material, plurilingual competence

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Authors: Annika Agarwal, Sara Baumann

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The urbanization of Mumbai has loosened restrictions placed on Indian women while menstruating, like not praying or entering the kitchen, but it has also introduced sanitary issues. On one hand, residents use community toilets that lack water, electricity, doors, or disposal, making menstruation a communal issue. On the other hand, menstrual taboos perpetuate a culture of a dirty and clandestine menstrual experience. This dichotomy makes India the ideal location for public health research given the complexities of purity and pollution concepts in the Hindu tradition. This study asks: What are the attitudes, practices, and sources of knowledge production around menstrual disposal among men and women of different age groups in Dharavi? Using collaborative filmmaking (CF), researchers cocreated films on menstrual disposal with 20-30 women from 3 slum sites: Dharavi, Kandivali, and Kalwa. Results demonstrate 1) fear and availability issues around sustainable product use, 2) the prominence of certain myths and traditions, 3) lack of disposal facilities and clean toilets, and 4) a lack of discussion around periods with males. These factors jeopardize the health and safety for menstruating women.

Keywords: menstruation, sustainability, sanitation, public health, global health

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Authors: Jonathan H. Westover, Ruthann Cunningham, Jaron Harvey

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Purpose: Job satisfaction is one of the most critical attitudes among employees. Understanding whether employees are satisfied with their jobs and what is driving that satisfaction is important for any employer, but particularly for healthcare organizations. This study looks at the question of job satisfaction and drivers of job satisfaction among healthcare professionals at a global scale, looking for trends that generalize across 37 countries. Study: This study analyzed job satisfaction responses to the 2015 Work Orientations IV wave of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) to understand differences in antecedents for and levels of job satisfaction among healthcare professionals. A total of 18,716 respondents from 37 countries participated in the annual survey. Findings: Respondents self-identified their occupational category based on corresponding International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08) codes. Results suggest that mean overall job satisfaction was highest among health service managers and generalist medical practitioners and lowest among environmental hygiene professionals and nursing professionals. Originality: Many studies have addressed the issue of job satisfaction in healthcare, examining small samples of specific healthcare workers. In this study, using a large international dataset, we are able to examine questions of job satisfaction across large groups of healthcare workers in different occupations within the healthcare field.

Keywords: job satisfaction, healthcare industry, global comparisons, workplace

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Authors: Ibrahim Abubakar Mikugi

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Nigerian graduates could only be self-employed and marketable if they acquire relevant skills and knowledge for successful establishment in various occupation and gainful employment. Research has shown that entrepreneurship education will be successful through developing individual entrepreneurial attitudes, raising awareness of career options by integrating and inculcating a positive attitude in the mind of students through skill acquisition. This paper examined the student- led entrepreneurship education through skill acquisition with specific emphasis on analysis of David Kolb experiential learning cycle. This Model allows individual to review their experience through reflection and converting ideas into action by doing. The methodology used was theoretical approach through journal, internet and Textbooks. Challenges to entrepreneurship education through skill acquisition were outlined. The paper concludes that entrepreneurship education is recognised by both policy makers and academics; entrepreneurship is more than mere encouraging business start-ups. Recommendations were given which include the need for authorities to have a clear vision towards entrepreneurship education and skill acquisition. Authorities should also emphasise a periodic and appropriate evaluation of entrepreneurship and to also integrate into schools academic curriculum to encourage practical learning by doing.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, active learning, Cefe methodology

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Authors: Louise Fitzgerald, John Allman

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Introduction: Having previously engaged in a meditation-based programme (MBP) for staff in general practice, we explore the evidence and extent to which MBPs are employed in the workplace. Aim of the study: We aim to understand the current workplace MBP intervention literature, which will help inform the suitability of these interventions within the workplace domain. Objectives: Uptake of MBPs in the workplace has grown as organizations look to support employee health, wellbeing, and performance. We will discuss the current MBP literature, including the large variability across MBPs and the associated difficulties in evaluating their efficacy. Learning points: 1) MBPs have a positive impact on cognitive function including concentration and memory and as such job performance. MBPs appear to have a positive impact on objective and subjective job satisfaction, productivity, motivation and work engagement. Meditation in the workplace may have positive impacts on mental health issues - including stress reduction and depression. 2) From our review MBPs appear to be implementable in a wide range of professions and work contexts - regardless of individual factors. Given many companies are focusing on health and wellbeing of employees, this could be included in employee wellbeing programmes. 3) Despite the benefits of mindfulness and meditation interventions in psychosocial workplace health and work performance the long-term efficacy has yet to be fully determined.

Keywords: meditation-based programmes, mindfulness, meditation, well-being

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Authors: Mitra JahangirRad, Sheida Sodagar, Maryam Bahrami Hidaji

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This study was conducted with the aim of comparing anxiety, stress, depression and attitude towards death among patients with breast cancer who have undergone mastectomy or breast-conserving surgery. The study method is causal-comparative. Statistical population was all patients with breast cancer referring to Medical Center of Panjom Azar Hospital in Gorgan or oncologists' offices in this city within eight months. They were selected using purposive sampling. Sample size of this study was 45 patients with breast cancer undergoing mastectomy and 70 patients under breast-conserving surgery. Measurement tools in this study were depression, anxiety, and stress scale (Dass-21) as well as Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAPR). Results of this study in hypotheses investigation showed that anxiety, stress and depression among patients with breast cancer, undergoing mastectomy or breast-conserving surgery is significantly different. However, their attitudes towards death do not differ. From these findings, it can be concluded that although most patients with breast cancer encounter many psychological problems, patients undergoing mastectomy experience more anxiety, stress and depression relative to patients with breast-conserving surgery and it seems that they need more supportive therapy.

Keywords: anxiety, breast cancer, depression, death, mastectomy

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Authors: Anduela Lile

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The purpose of this cross sectional study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching and learning Statistics from a student centered perspective in higher education institutions. Statistics education has emphasized the application of tangible and interesting examples in order to motivate students learning about statistical concepts. Participants in this study were 112 bachelor students enrolled in the ‘Applied Statistics’ course in Sports University of Tirana. Experimental group students received a student-centered teaching approach; Control group students received an instructor-centered teaching approach. This study found student-centered approach student group had statistically significantly higher assessments scores (52.1 ± 18.9) at the end of the evaluation compared to instructor-centered approach student group (61.8 ± 16.4), (t (108) = 2.848, p = 0.005). Results concluded that student-centered perspective can improve student positive attitude to statistical methods and to motivate project work. Therefore, findings of this study may be very useful to the higher education institutions to establish their learning strategies especially for courses related to Statistics.

Keywords: student-centered, instructor-centered, course assessment, learning outcomes, applied statistics

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Authors: Avinash Kumar Ranjan, Akash Anand

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The Land Surface Temperature (LST) is an essential factor accompanying to rise urban heat and climate warming within a city in micro level. It is also playing crucial role in global change study as well as radiation budgets measuring in heat balance studies. The information of LST is very substantial to recognize the urban climatology, ecological changes, anthropological and environmental interactions etc. The Chief motivation of present study focus on time series of ANN model that taken a sequence of LST values of 2000, 2008 and 2016, realize the pattern of variation within the data set and predict the LST values for 2024 and 2032. The novelty of this study centers on evaluation of LST using series of multi-temporal MODIS (MOD 11A2) satellite data by Maximum Value Composite (MVC) techniques. The results derived from this study endorse the proficiency of Geoinformatics Technology with integration of ANN to gain knowledge, understanding and building of precise forecast from the complex physical world database. This study will also focus on influence of Land Use/ Land Cover (LU/LC) variation on Land Surface Temperature.

Keywords: LST, geoinformatics technology, ANN, MODIS satellite imagery, MVC

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Authors: Wen-Chen Hwang, Yu-Hsi Yuan

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According to the estimation made by researchers of safety and hygiene, 80% to 90% of workplace accidents in enterprises could be attributed to human factors. Nevertheless, human factors are not the only cause for accidents; instead, happening of accidents is also closely associated with the safety culture of the organization. Therefore, the most effective way of reducing accident rate would be to improve the social and the organizational factors that influence organization’s safety performance. Overview the present study is to understand the current level of safety culture in manufacturing enterprises. A tool for evaluating safety culture matching the needs and characteristics of manufacturing enterprises was developed by reviewing literature of safety culture, and taking the special backgrounds of the case enterprises into consideration. Expert validity was also implied for developing the questionnaire. Moreover, safety culture assessment was conducted through the practical investigation of the case enterprises. Total 505 samples were involved, 53 were executives and 452 were operators. The result of this study in comparison of the safety culture level between the executives and the operators was reached the significant level in 8 dimensions: Safety Commitment, Safety System, Safety Training, Safety Involvement, Reward and Motivation, Communication and Reporting, Leadership and Supervision, Learning and Changing. In general, the overall safety culture were executive level higher than operators level (M: 74.98 > 69.08; t=2.87; p < 0.01).

Keywords: questionnaire survey, safety culture, t-test, media studies

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Authors: Khries Sawsan

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the phenomenon of urbanization is considered as one of the most important tourism resources that differ from one country to another and from one region to another in the same country. Our concern in tourism accommodation is explained by the fact that their location is directly related to the movement to tourist sites .Besides, these constructions comport security considered as the most important motivation for tourists in their choice of any destination. Hotels are the most representative expression of tourism. This is due to their physical prominence in the landscape and being the sole urban component totally unique to tourism. This study sheds light on the impact of tourism development on the spatial pattern in Jordan. It describes the linkages between existing tourism development policies and the spatial development patterns that have occurred as a result throughout Jordan, particularly looking at the impact that tourism has had on the physical environment of major tourism destinations. It puts an illustrative plan of the impact of the augmentation of tourism accommodations in Jordan in the past 40 years ago. The findings of this study help us to understand better the operation of Jordan’ dynamic changes in the location An intensive analysis is then applied on a representative case study in three regions: Amman, Petra and Aqaba. The study proceeds from an historical perspective to, show the evolution of the current development patterns an increase of tourism’s impact on spatial, in the presence of factors as political and economic stability, is expected.

Keywords: spatial patterns, urbanisation, spatial transformations, tourism planning, Jordan

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Authors: Mariam Adel Hakim Fouad

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This quantitative examine investigates innovative arts teachers' perceptions regarding the implementation of an Inclusive innovative Arts curriculum. The study employs a descriptive method utilizing a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire comprising 15 objects to acquire data from innovative arts educators. The Census, with a disproportionate stratified sampling approach, became utilized to pick out 226 teachers from five academic circuits (Circuit A, B, C, D & E) within Offinso Municipality, Ghana. The findings suggest that most innovative arts instructors maintain a wonderful belief in enforcing an inclusive, innovative arts curriculum. Wonderful perceptions and attitudes amongst teachers are correlated with improved scholar engagement and participation in class sports. This has a look at recommends organizing workshops and in-carrier schooling periods centered on inclusive innovative arts schooling for creative Arts instructors. Moreover, it shows that colleges of education and universities accountable for trainer schooling integrate foundational guides in creative arts and special schooling into their number one schooling teacher training packages.

Keywords: arts-in-health, evidence based medicine, arts for health, expressive arts therapiesarts, cultural heritage, digitalization, ICTarts, design, font, identity

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Authors: Gokhan Erkal, Gulsen Aydin, Muge Yuce, Lokman Sahin

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This study aims to analyze the impacts of involving in mediation of conflicts in the Middle East from the perspective of the economic growth of the mediators. The Middle East is a highly volatile region of the world with rampant crises whose affects spill beyond its borders. Therefore, management and resolution of the conflicts in the region are of great significance. Mediation is an instrument used for abating violence and settling dispute. The recourse to mediation has grown to an important degree in recent years. However, for mediators, it is a daunting task to involve in the mediation of the deadlocks in the Middle East. This study tries to shed light on the positive correlation between economic growth of the mediator and the successful outcome of the mediation process to provide motivation for mediators. To this end, first, it briefly introduces the conflicts ongoing in the region and their negative impacts. Second, the methodology, time series analysis, and the data to be used, International Crisis Behavior Project Data, are presented. Third, the empirical test is carried out and the findings are evaluated. The conclusion highlights the benefits of successful mediation for the economic growth of the mediators of Middle Eastern crises.

Keywords: international crises, mediation, Middle East, times series analysis

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Authors: Akshay A. Pandya, B. R. Parekh

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This paper presents how earth fault damage in the transformer can be detected by Sweep Frequency Response Analysis (SFRA). The test methods used by the authors for presenting the results are described. The power transformer of rating 10 KVA, 11000 V/440 V, 3-phase, 50 Hz, Dyn11 has been specially developed in-house for carrying out SFRA testing by practically simulated various transformer damages on it. Earth fault has been practically simulated on HV “U” phase winding and LV “W” phase winding separately. The result of these simulated faults are presented and discussed. The motivation of this presented work is to extend the guideline approach; there are ideas to organize database containing collected measurement results. Since the SFRA interpretation is based on experience, such databases are thought to be of great importance when interpreting SFRA response. The evaluation of the SFRA responses against guidelines and experience have to be performed and conclusions regarding usefulness of each simulation has been drawn and at last overall conclusion has also been drawn.

Keywords: earth fault damage, power transformer, practical simulation, SFRA traces, transformer damages

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Authors: Fereshteh Darash

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Reflective tax management corresponds to the Agency Theory since it determines the motivation of managers for tax management actions and short-term and long-term consequences. Therefore, selection of tax strategy contributes to the tax and financial position of the firm in the future. The aim of the present research is to evaluate the effect of tax management components on risk-taking of firms listed in Tehran stock exchange by using regression analysis method. Results show that tax effective rate, tax risk and tax planning have no significant effect on the firm's future risk. Results suggest that stakeholders assess the effective tax rate and delay in tax payment in line with their benefits. They tend to accept the higher risk cost for reduction of tax payments and benefits of higher liquidity in current period. Hence, effective tax rate and tax risk have no significant effect on future risk of the firm. Moreover, tax planning yields no information regarding the predictability of the future profits and as a result, it has no significant effect on the future risk of the firm since specific goals of financial reporting are in priority for the stakeholders and regardless of the firm’s data analysis, they take investment decisions and they less intend to purchase the stocks in a rational manner.

Keywords: tax management, tax effective rate, tax risk, tax planning, firm risk

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Authors: Varinder Kaur Gambhir, Neema Gupta, Sonal Tickoo Chaudhuri

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Bengaluru, a rapidly growing metropolis in India, with a population of 12.5 million citizens, generates 5,757 metric tonnes of solid waste per day. Despite their invaluable contribution to waste management, society and the economy, waste pickers face significant stigma, suspicion and contempt and are left with a sense of shame about their work. In this context, BBC Media Action was funded by the H&M Foundation to develop a 3-year multi-phase social media campaign to shift perceptions of waste picking and informal waste pickers amongst the Bengaluru population. Research has been used to inform project strategy and adaptation, at all stages. Formative research to inform campaign strategy used mixed methods– 14 focused group discussions followed by 406 online surveys – to explore people’s knowledge of, and attitudes towards waste pickers, and identify potential barriers and motivators to changing perceptions. Use of qualitative techniques like metaphor maps (using bank of pictures rather than direct questions to understand mindsets) helped establish the invisibility of informal waste pickers, and the quantitative research enabled audience segmentation based on attitudes towards informal waste pickers. To pretest the campaign idea, eight I-GDs (individual interaction followed by group discussions) were conducted to allow interviewees to first freely express their feelings individually, before discussing in a group. Robert Plucthik’s ‘wheel of emotions’ was used to understand audience’s emotional response to the content. A robust monitoring and evaluation is being conducted (baseline and first phase of monitoring already completed) using a rotating longitudinal panel of 1,800 social media users (exposed and unexposed to the campaign), recruited face to face and representative of the social media universe of Bengaluru city. In addition, qualitative in-depth interviews are being conducted after each phase to better understand change drivers. The research methodology and ethical protocols for impact evaluation have been independently reviewed by an Institutional Review Board. Formative research revealed that while waste on the streets is visible and is of concern to the public, informal waste pickers are virtually ‘invisible’, for most people in Bengaluru Pretesting research revealed that the creative outputs evoked emotions like acceptance and gratitude towards waste-pickers, suggesting that the content had the potential to encourage attitudinal change. After the first phase of campaign, social media analytics show that #Invaluables content reached at least 2.6 million unique people (21% of the Bengaluru population) through Facebook and Instagram. Further, impact monitoring results show significant improvements in spontaneous awareness of different segments of informal waste pickers ( such as sorters at scrap shops or dry waste collection centres -from 10% at baseline to 16% amongst exposed and no change amongst unexposed), recognition that informal waste pickers help the environment (71% at baseline to 77% among exposed and no change among unexposed) and greater discussion about informal waste pickers among those exposed (60%) as against not exposed (49%). Using the insights from this research, the planned social media intervention is designed to increase the visibility of and appreciation for the work of waste pickers in Bengaluru, supporting a more inclusive society.

Keywords: awareness, discussion, discrimination, informal waste pickers, invisibility, social media campaign, waste management

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Authors: Wen-Hsiang Lai

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Except for the internal aspects of entrepreneurship (i.e. motivation, opportunity perspective and alertness), there are external aspects that affecting entrepreneurship (i.e. the industrial cluster). By comparing the machinery companies located inside and outside the industrial district, this study aims to explore the cluster effects on the entrepreneurship of companies in Taiwan machinery clusters (TMC). In this study, three factors affecting the entrepreneurship in TMC are conducted as “competition”, “embedded-ness” and “specialized knowledge”. The “competition” in the industrial cluster is defined as the competitive advantages that companies gain in form of demand effects and diversified strategies; the “embedded-ness” refers to the quality of company relations (relational embedded-ness) and ranges (structural embedded-ness) with the industry components (universities, customers and complementary) that affecting knowledge transfer and knowledge generations; the “specialized knowledge” shares the internal knowledge within industrial clusters. This study finds that when comparing to the companies which are outside the cluster, the industrial cluster has positive influence on the entrepreneurship. Additionally, the factor of “relational embedded-ness” has significant impact on the entrepreneurship and affects the adaptation ability of companies in TMC. Finally, the factor of “competition” reveals partial influence on the entrepreneurship.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, industrial cluster, industrial district, economies of agglomerations, Taiwan Machinery Cluster (TMC)

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Authors: Jiaqi Zhang, Zhi Dong, Pan Xing

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With the continuous development of urban agglomerations, higher demands are placed on intercity public transport travel services. To improve these services, it is necessary to comprehensively understand the views and evaluations of travelers. Taking the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration in China as the object, this study explores subjective attitude indicators from self-administrated survey data and examines the relationship among perceived accessibility, preference, and satisfaction for intercity public transport using a structural equation model. The results show that perceived service quality has a direct positive impact on perceived accessibility and satisfaction. Perceived accessibility and preference significantly affect satisfaction. In addition, perceived accessibility mediates the effect of service quality on satisfaction. This study provides valuable insights from a policy perspective to improve the subjective evaluation of intercity public transport travelers while emphasizing the importance of subjective variables in transport system evaluation and advocates for their subdivision to more comprehensively improve the travel experience.

Keywords: intercity public transport, perceived accessibility, satisfaction, structural equation model

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Authors: Alison Wilde, Stephen Millett

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The cultural value of disabled people has largely been overlooked within forms of media and cultural analysis until the 1980s, when disabled people and disability studies highlighted the cultural misrecognition of disabled people and called for improved forms of cultural recognition and representation. Despite an increase in cultural analysis of representations of disabled people, much has been assumed about how images are read, and little work has been done on the value attributed to disabled people by media audiences and the viewing interests and encounters of film audiences. In particular, there has been little work on film reception, or on the way that young people interpret images of disability. We set out to understand some of the ways that young people read disability imagery, by showing small groups of young people different types of film featuring impairments, chosen from three different eras in film. These were Freaks, Rear Window (remake), and Finding Nemo. The discussions after these films allowed them to explore their own experiences of disability alongside the evolution of cultural representations; in so doing they discussed significant themes of cultural value and reflected on their own identities, e.g. in/dependency, autonomy, and competency and the ways these intersected with self-identity, and attitudes to disabled people.

Keywords: film, audience, identity, disability

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Authors: Yi-De Liu

Abstract:

For many European cities, a key motivation in developing event strategies is to use event as a catalyst for urban regeneration. One type of event that is particularly used as a means of urban development is the European Capital of Culture (ECOC) initiative. Based on a case study of the 2008 ECOC Liverpool, this paper aims at conceptualising the significance of major event for a city’s economic, cultural and social regenerations. In terms of economic regeneration, the role of the ECOC is central in creating Liverpool’s visitor economy and reshaping city image. Liverpool planned different themes for eight consecutive years as a way to ensure economic sustainability. As far as cultural regeneration is concerned, the ECOC contributed to the cultural regeneration of Liverpool by stimulating cultural participation and interest from the demand side, as well as improving cultural provision and collaboration within the cultural sector from the supply side. So as to social regeneration, Liverpool treated access development as a policy guideline and considered the ECOC as an opportunity to enhance the sense of place. The most significant lesson learned from Liverpool is its long-term planning and efforts made to integrate the ECOC into the overall urban development strategy. As a result, a more balanced and long-term effect on urban regeneration could be achieved.

Keywords: cultural event, urban regeneration, european capital of culture, Liverpool

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Authors: Muhamamd Shahid Farooq, Maazan Zafar, Rizawana Akhtar

Abstract:

E-learning technologies are the blessings of advancements in science and technology. These facilitate the learners to get information at any place and any time by improving their self-confidence, self-efficacy and effectiveness in teaching learning process. E-learning provides an individualized learning experience for learners and remove barriers faced by students during new and creative ways of gaining information. It provides a wide range of facilities to enable the teachers and students for effective and purposeful learning. This study was conducted to explore the attitudes of university students and teachers towards e-learning working in a metropolitan university of Pakistan. The personal, institutional and technological characteristics of the teachers and students of higher education institution effect the adoption of e-learning. For this descriptive study 449 students and 35 university teachers were surveyed by using a Likert scale type questionnaire consisting of 52 statements relating to six factors "perceived usefulness, intention to adopt e-learning, ease of e-learning use, availability resources, e-learning stressors, and pressure to use e-learning". Data were analyzed by making comparisons on the basis of different demographic factors. The findings of the study show that both type of respondents have positive attitude towards e-learning. However, the male and female respondents differ in their opinion for e-learning implementation.

Keywords: e-learning, ICT, e-sources of learning, questionnaire

Procedia PDF Downloads 525