Search results for: training programs

Authors: Daud Abdia, Aqsa Shamim, Farhan Tabassum

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In order to achieve specific goals, basketball players have to use different skills to enhance their motivation, one such skill is deliberate practice. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between deliberate practice of dribbling and self-regulatory behavior of male basketball players. For this purpose, a sample of 108 basketball players using stratified sampling was taken from public and private sector universities. Sample was divided into two groups that are experimental (n=54) and control group (n=54) using comparative experimental design. Experimental group was involved in the training of deliberate practice of dribbling for 5 weeks. Amounts of weekly practice activity and Self-Regulation of Learning Self-Report Scale (SRL-SRS) were used for self-regulatory behavior to collect data after the deliberate practice. The reliability of amounts of weekly practice activity was found to be 0.852, whereas SRL-SRS was found to be 0.890. The results of the study indicated a strong positive correlation between deliberate practice of dribbling and self-regulatory behavior (r=0.755, n=54, p=.000). Whereas, paired sample t-test; t(53)=1.37, p < 0.005 shows statistically significant improvement in the self-regulatory behavior after the training program of deliberate practice from 3.02 ± 0.64m to 3.21 ± 0.75m (p < 0.005). It was concluded that in order to enhance the self-regulatory behavior of basketball players we should work on the deliberate practice of the players.

Keywords: self-regulatory behavior, deliberate practice, dribbling, basketball

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Authors: Hossein Ghaedamini, Salman Farahbakhsh, Alireza Amirbeigi, Zahra Saghafi, Salman Daneshi, Alireza Ghaedamini

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Background: Assessing the challenges of clinical education of medical students is one of the most important and sensitive parts of medical education. The aim of this study was to investigate the views and experiences of Kerman medical students on the factors that facilitate and inhibit the quality of clinical education. Materials and Methods: This research was qualitative and used a phenomenological approach. The study population included medical interns of Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 1400. The method of data collection was in-depth interviews with participants. Data were encoded and analyzed by Claizey stepwise model. Results: First, about 540 primary codes were extracted in the form of two main themes (facilitators and inhibitors) and 10 sub-themes including providing motivational models and creating interest in interns, high scientific level of professors and the appropriate quality of their teaching, the use of technology in the clinical education process, delegating authority and freedom of action and more responsibilities to interns, inappropriate treatment of some officials, professors, assistants and department staff with their interns, inadequate educational programming, lack of necessary cooperation and providing inappropriate treatment by clinical training experts for interns, inadequate evaluation method in clinical training for interns, poor quality mornings, the unefficiency of grand rounds, the inappropriate way of evaluating clinical training for interns, the lack of suitable facilities and conditions with the position of a medical intern, and the hardwork of some departments were categorized. Conclusion: Clinical education is always mixed with special principles and subtleties, and special attention to facilitators and inhibitors in this process has an important role in improving its quality.

Keywords: clinical education, medical students, qualitative study, education

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Authors: Makarios Mosaad Thabet Ibrahim

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the existing context paper targets to give the important position of ‘scholar voice’ and the track trainer inside the study room, which contributes to greater scholar-focused song training. The goal is to consciousness at the capabilities of the scholar voice via the tune spectrum, which has been born in the music school room, and the instructor’s methodologies and techniques used within the song classroom. The tune curriculum, the principles of pupil-centered song schooling, and the function of students and teachers as tune ambassadors have been taken into consideration the essential song parameters of scholar voice. The scholar- voice is a well worth-mentioning factor of a scholar-focused training, and all instructors have to take into account and sell its life in their lecture room. student affairs services play a critical function in contributing to the wholistic development and success of college students as they progress through their educational careers. The examine incorporates a multifaceted examination of student affairs carrier offerings among 10 personal and three public Baghdad universities. scholar affairs administrators (thirteen) have been surveyed together with over 300 students to determine university-subsidized services and pupil pride and attention. The pupil affairs service studies findings various drastically among non-public and public establishments and people that observed a country wide and international curriculum. Universities need to persist to conform to changing demographics and technological improvements to enhance students' private and academic successes, and pupil affairs services are key to preparing graduates to thrive in a diverse international world.

Keywords: college student-athletes, self-concept, use of social media training, social networking student affairs, student success, higher education, Iraq, universities, Baghdad student's voice, student-centered education, music ambassadors, music teachers

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Authors: David Yartel

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Drawing on the current state of software engineering and information technology in Ghana, the study documents its significant contribution to the development of Ghanaian industries. The study focuses on the application of modern trends in technology and the barriers faced in the area of software engineering and information technology. A thorough analysis of a dozen of interviews with stakeholders in software engineering and information technology via interviews reveals how modern trends in software engineering pose challenges to the industry in Ghana. Results show that to meet the expectation of modern software engineering and information technology trends, stakeholders must have skilled professionals, adequate infrastructure, and enhanced support for technology startups. Again, individuals should be encouraged to pursue a career in software engineering and information technology, as it has the propensity to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of work-related activities. This study recommends that stakeholders in software engineering and technology industries should invest enough in training more professionals by collaborating with international institutions well-versed in the area by organizing frequent training and seminars. The government should also provide funding opportunities for small businesses in the technology sector to drive creativity and development in order to bring about growth and development.

Keywords: software engineering, information technology, Ghana, development

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Authors: Shutchapol Chopvitayakun

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Internship program is a compulsory course of many undergraduate programs in Thailand. It gives opportunities to a lot of senior students as interns to practice their working skills in the real organizations and also gives chances for interns to face real-world working problems. Interns also learn how to solve those problems by direct and indirect experiences. This program in many schools is a well-structured course with a contract or agreement made with real business organizations. Moreover, this program also offers opportunities for interns to get jobs after completing it from where the internship program takes place. Interns also learn how to work as a team and how to associate with other colleagues, trainers, and superiors of each organization in term of social hierarchy, self-responsibility, and self-disciplinary. This research focuses on senior students of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Thailand whose studying major is information technology program. They practiced their working skills or took internship programs in the real business sector or real operating organizations in 2015-2016. Interns are categorized in to two types: normal program and special program. For special program, students study in weekday evening from Monday to Friday or Weekend and most of them work full-time or part-time job. For normal program, students study in weekday working hours and most of them do not work. The differences of these characters and the outcomes of internship performance were studied and analyzed in this research. This work applied some statistical analytics to find out whether the internship performance of each intern type has different performances statistically or not.

Keywords: internship, intern, senior student, information technology program

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Authors: Emma Louise McKinney

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There is a global move to integrate children who are Deaf and Hearing Impaired into regular classrooms with their hearing peers with an inclusive education framework. This paper examines the current education situation for children who are Deaf and Hearing Impaired in South Africa, Madagascar, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. Qualitative data for this paper was obtained from the author’s experiences working as the Southern African Education Advisor for an international organization funding disability projects. It examines some of the challenges facing these children and their teachers relating to education. Challenges include cultural stigma relating to disability and deafness, a lack of hearing screening and early identification of deafness, schools in rural areas, special schools, specialist teacher training, equipment, understanding of how to implement policy, support, appropriate teaching methodologies, and sign language training and proficiency. On the other hand, in spite of the challenges some teachers are able to provide quality education to children who are Deaf and Hearing Impaired. This paper examines both the challenges as well as what teachers are doing to overcome these.

Keywords: education of children who are deaf and hearing impaired, Southern African experiences, challenges, triumphs

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Authors: Golnaz Moghimi, Alireza Afsharghotli, Alireza Rezaei

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Construction waste has been gradually increased as a result of upsizing construction projects which are occurred within the lifecycle of buildings. Since waste management is a major priority and has profound impacts on the volume of waste generated in construction stage, the majority of efforts have been attempted to reuse, recycle and reduce waste. However, there is still room to study on lack of sufficient knowledge about waste management in construction industry. This paper intends to provide an insight into the effect of project management knowledge areas on waste management solely on construction stage. To this end, a survey among Iranian building construction industry contractors was conducted to identify the effectiveness of project management knowledge areas on three jobsite key factors including ‘Site activity’, ‘Training’, and ‘Awareness’. As a result, four management disciplines were identified as most influential ones on amount of construction waste. These disciplines were Project Cost Management, Quality Management, Human Resource Management, and Integration Management. Based on the research findings, a new model was presented to develop effective construction waste strategies.

Keywords: awareness, PMBOK, site activity, training, waste management

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Authors: Ben J. Lippe

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Consult Liaison Psychology services are overgrowing, given the robust empirical support of the utility of this service in hospital settings. These psychological services, including clinical assessment, applied psychotherapy, and consultation with other healthcare providers, have been shown to improve health outcomes for patients and bolster important areas of administrative interest such as decreased length of patient admission. However, there is little descriptive literature outlining the process and mechanisms of building or developing a Consult Liaison Psychology service. The main findings of this current conceptual work are intended to be clear in nature to elucidate the essential methods involved in developing consult liaison psychology programs, including thorough reviews of relevant behavioral health literature and inclusion of experiential outcomes. The diverse range of hospital settings and healthcare systems makes a “blueprint” method of program development challenging to define, yet important structural frameworks presented here based on the relevant literature and applied practice can help lay critical groundwork for program development in this growing area of psychological service. This conceptual approach addresses the prominent processes, as well as common programmatic and clinical pitfalls, involved in the event of a Consult Liaison Psychology service. This paper, including a systematic review of relevant literature, is intended to serve as a key program development reference for the development of Consult Liaison Psychology services, other related behavioral health programs, and to help inform further research efforts.

Keywords: behavioral health, consult liaison, health psychology, psychology program development

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Authors: Qazi Umer Jamil, Abubakr Siddique, Mubeen Ur Rehman, Nida Aziz, Mohsin I. Tiwana

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This paper discusses a brain controlled robotic gait trainer for neurorehabilitation of Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) patients. Patients suffering from Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) become unable to execute motion control of their lower proximities due to degeneration of spinal cord neurons. The presented approach can help SCI patients in neuro-rehabilitation training by directly translating patient motor imagery into walkers motion commands and thus bypassing spinal cord neurons completely. A non-invasive EEG based brain-computer interface is used for capturing patient neural activity. For signal processing and classification, an open source software (OpenVibe) is used. Classifiers categorize the patient motor imagery (MI) into a specific set of commands that are further translated into walker motion commands. The robotic walker also employs fall detection for ensuring safety of patient during gait training and can act as a support for SCI patients. The gait trainer is tested with subjects, and satisfactory results were achieved.

Keywords: brain computer interface (BCI), gait trainer, spinal cord injury (SCI), neurorehabilitation

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Authors: John Olav Bjornestad, Bjorn Tore Johansen

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The number of people suffering from mental illnesses is increasing, and such illness is currently one of the major causes of disability and poor health. The reason for this is most likely a lack of physical activity. The purpose of this study was to discover if physical activity was an effective mode of treatment for psychiatric patients at an out-patient treatment facility. The study included an exploration of whether or not patients having physical activity included as an integral part of their treatment (to a greater degree than do patients who are physically inactive) would achieve 1) an improvement in their physical condition 2) a reduction in symptomatic pressure and 3) an increase in their health-related quality of life. The intervention period lasted a total of 12 weeks. The training group completed a minimum of 2 training sessions per week with an intensity of 60-75% of maximum heart rate. The participants’ health-related quality of life (SF-36), symptomatic pressure (SCL-90-R) and physical condition (UKK-walking test) were measured before and after intervention. Twenty participants were pre-tested, and out of this initial group, nine patients completed the intervention program and participated thereafter in post-testing. The results showed that participants on average improved their physical condition, reduced their symptomatic pressure and increased their health-related quality of life over the course of the intervention period. The training group experienced significant changes in their symptomatic pressure (the anxiety dimension) and health-related quality of life (the mental health dimension) from the pre-testing stage to the post-testing one. Furthermore, there was a significant connection between symptomatic pressure and health-related quality of life. The patients who were admitted to the psychiatric out-patient clinic were in a physical condition that was significantly poorer than that of persons of the same age in the remainder of the population. Experiences from the study and the relatively large defection from it demonstrate that there is a great need for close follow-up of psychiatric patients’ physical activity levels when physical activity and lifestyle changes are included as part of their treatment program.

Keywords: health-related quality, mental health, physical activity, physical condition

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Authors: Sumit Kumar Das, Laishram Ladusingh

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Aim: The aim of the study is to examine the differential of epidemiological transition across fifteen agro-climatic zones of India and its effect on health-seeking behavior. Data and Methods: Unit level data on consumption expenditure on health of India from three decadal rounds conducted by National Sample Survey Organization are used for the analysis. These three rounds are 52nd (1995-96), 60th (2004-05) and 71st (2014-15). The age-adjusted prevalence rate for communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases are estimated for fifteen agro-climatic zones of India for three time periods. Bivariate analysis is used to find out determinants of health-seeking behavior. Multilevel logistic regression is used to examine factors effecting on household health-seeking behavior. Result: The prevalence of communicable diseases is increasing in most of the zones of India. Every South Indian zones, Gujarat plains, and lower Gangetic plain are facing the severe attack of dual burden of diseases. Demand for medical advice has increased in southern zones, and east zones, reliance on private healthcare facilities are increasing in most of the zone. Demographic characteristics of the household head have a significant impact on health-seeking behavior. Conclusion: Proper program implementation is required considering the disease prevalence and differential in the pattern of health seeking behavior. Along with initiation and strengthening of programs for non-communicable, existing programs for communicable diseases need to monitor and supervised strictly.

Keywords: agro-climatic zone, epidemiological transition, health-seeking behavior, multilevel regression

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Authors: Gurli Olsen, Ida Bruheim Jensen

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Internationally, many young adults not in education, employment, or training (NEET) remain in temporary solutions such as labour market measures or other forms of welfare arrangements. These trends have been associated with ineffective labour market measures, an underfunded theoretical foundation for activation work, limited competence among social workers and labour market employees in using ordinary workplaces as job inclusion measures, and an overemphasis on young adults’ personal limitations such as health challenges and lack of motivation. Two competing models have been prominent in activation work: Place‐Then‐Train and Train‐Then‐Place. A traditional strategy for labour market measures has been to first motivate NEETs to sheltered work and training and then to the regular labour market (train then place). Measures such as Supported Employment (SE) and Individual Placement and Support (IPS) advocate for rapid entry into paid work at the regular labour market with close supervision and training from social workers, employees, and others (place then train). None of these models demonstrate unquestionable results. In this web of working life measures, young adults (NEETs) experience a lack of confidence in their own capabilities and coping strategies vis-á-vis labour market- and educational demands. Drawing on young adults’ own experiences, we argue that the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Theory can contribute to the theoretical and practical dimensions of activation work. This presentation will focus on what the JD-R theory entails and how it can be fruitful in activation work with NEETs (what and how). The overarching rationale of the JD-R theory is that an enduring balance between demands (e.g., deadlines, working hours) and resources (e.g., social support, enjoyable work tasks) is important for job performance for people in any job and potentially in other meaningful activities. Extensive research has demonstrated that a balance between demands and resources increases motivation and decreases stress. Nevertheless, we have not identified literature on the JD-R theory in activation work with young adults.

Keywords: activation work, job demands-resources theory, social work, theory development

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Authors: Sofie Dewayani, Pratiwi Retnaningdyah

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Literacy practice is situated within the identity enactment in a particular time and space. The literacy practices in public places, ranging from city parks, urban slums to city roads are meeting places of discursive practices produced by dynamic interactions, and sometimes contestations, of social powers and capitals. The present paper examines the ways the literacy activists construct their sense of space in attempts to develop possibilities for literacy programs as they are sent to work with marginalized communities far away from their hometowns in Indonesia. In particular, this paper analyzes the activists’ reflections of identity enactment - othering, familiarity, and sense of comfort - as they are trying to make meaning of the communities’ literacy capitals and practices in the process of adapting with the communities. Data collected for this paper were travel diaries - serving as literacy narratives - obtained from a literacy residency program sponsored by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture. The residency program itself involved 30 youths (18 to 30 years old) to work with marginalized communities in literacy activism programs. This paper analyzes the written narratives of four focal participants using Bakhtin’s chronotopes - the configurations of time and space - that figure into the youth’s meaning-making of literacy as well as their exercise of power and identity. Follow-up interviews were added to enrich the analysis. The analysis considers the youth’s ‘moment of departure’ a critical point in their reconstructions of self and space. This paper expands the discussions of literacy discourse and spatiality while lending its supports to literacy activism in highly diverse multicultural settings.

Keywords: chronotopes, discourse, identity, literacy activism

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Authors: Frederic Fovet

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Inclusive provisions have been statutorily mandated in North America for now over two decades. Despite a growing body of literature around inclusive practices, many in-service teachers continue to express difficulties when it comes to tangible implementation of inclusion in the everyday classroom. While there is debate around the various forms inclusion can take (UDL, differentiation, personalization, etc.), there appears to be a more significant hurdle in getting in-service teachers to fully embrace inclusion both as a goal and a practice. This paper investigates teachers’ degree of awareness around the Social Model of Disability. It argues that teachers often lack basic awareness of disability studies, more particularly of the Social Model of Disability, and that this has a direct impact on their capacity to conceptualize and embrace inclusion. The paper draws from the researcher’s experience as a graduate instructor with in-service teachers, as well as from his experience as a consultant working with schools and school boards. The methodology chosen here is phenomenology, and it draws on tools such as auto-ethnography. The paper opens a discussion around the reform and transformation of pre-service teacher training. It argues that disability studies should be integrated into teacher training as it plays a key role in having teachers develop a theoretical understanding of disability as a social construct.

Keywords: disability, K-12, inclusion, social model, in-service teachers

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Authors: Nilay Balkan

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Introductory statement: The purpose of this study is to understand how small business owners develop social media marketing competency, the challenges they encounter in doing so, and establish the social media training needs of such businesses. These challenges impact the extent to which small business owners build effective social media knowledge and, in turn, impact their ability to implement effective social media marketing into their business practices. This means small businesses are not fully able to benefit from social media, such as benefits to customer relationship management or increasing brand image, which would support the overall business operations for these businesses. This research is part one of a two-phased study. The first phase aims to establish the challenges small business owners face in building social media marketing competency and their specific training needs. Phase two will then focus in more depth on the barriers and challenges emerging from phase one. Summary of Methodology: Interviews with ten small business owners were conducted from various sectors, including fitness, tourism, food, and drinks. These businesses were located in the central belt of Scotland, which is an area with the highest population and business density in Scotland. These interviews were in-depth and semi-structured, with the purpose of being investigative and understanding the phenomena from the lived experience of the small business owners. A purposive sampling was used, where small business owners fulfilling certain criteria were approached to take part in the interviews. Key findings: The study found four ways in which small business owners develop their social media competency (informal methods, formal methods, learning through a network, and experimenting) and the various challenges they face with these methods. Further, the study established four barriers impacting the development of social media marketing competency among the interviewed small business owners. In doing so, preliminary support needs have also emerged. Concluding statement: The contribution of this study is to understand the challenges small business owners face when learning how to use social media for business purposes and identifying their training needs. This understanding can help the development of specific and tailored support. In addition, specific and tailored training can support small businesses in building competency. This supports small businesses to progress to the next stage of their development, which could be to further their digital transformation or grow their business. The insights from this study can be used to support business competitiveness and support small businesses to become more resilient. Moreover, small businesses and entrepreneurs share some similar characteristics, such as limited resources and conflicting priorities, and the findings of this study may be able to support entrepreneurs in their social media marketing strategies as well.

Keywords: small business, marketing theory and applications, social media marketing, strategic management, digital competency, digitalisation, marketing research and strategy, entrepreneurship

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Authors: Ajay Pinjani, Minha Khan, Ayesha Mehkeri, Anum Iftikhar

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There is much research available on the benefits of adopting mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB MLE) in primary school classrooms, but there is limited guidance available on how to design such programs for low-resource and linguistically diverse contexts. This paper is an effort to bridge the gap between theory and practice by offering a practitioner’s perspective on designing an MTB MLE program for linguistically heterogeneous contexts. The research compounds findings from current academic literature on MTB MLE, the study of global MTB MLE programs, interviews with practitioners, policy-makers, and academics worldwide, and a socio-linguistic survey carried out in parts of Tharparkar, Pakistan, the area selected for envisioned pilot implementation. These findings enabled the creation of ‘guiding principles’ which provide structure for the development of a contextualized and holistic MTB-MLE program. The guiding principles direct the creation of teaching and learning materials, creating effective teaching and learning environment, community engagement, and program evaluation. Additionally, the paper demonstrates the development of a context-specific language ladder framework which outlines the language journey of a child’s education, beginning with the mother tongue/ most familiar language in the early years and then gradually transitioning into other languages. Both the guiding principles and language ladder can be adapted to any multilingual context. Thus, this research provides MTB MLE practitioners with assistance in developing an MTB MLE model, which is best suited for their context.

Keywords: mother tongue based multilingual education, education design, language ladder, language issues, heterogeneous contexts

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Authors: Belalia Douma Omar, Bakhta Boukhatem, Mohamed Ghrici

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Self-compacting concrete (SCC) developed in Japan in the late 80s has enabled the construction industry to reduce demand on the resources, improve the work condition and also reduce the impact of environment by elimination of the need for compaction. Fuzzy logic (FL) approaches has recently been used to model some of the human activities in many areas of civil engineering applications. Especially from these systems in the model experimental studies, very good results have been obtained. In the present study, a model for predicting compressive strength of SCC containing various proportions of fly ash, as partial replacement of cement has been developed by using Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). For the purpose of building this model, a database of experimental data were gathered from the literature and used for training and testing the model. The used data as the inputs of fuzzy logic models are arranged in a format of five parameters that cover the total binder content, fly ash replacement percentage, water content, super plasticizer and age of specimens. The training and testing results in the fuzzy logic model have shown a strong potential for predicting the compressive strength of SCC containing fly ash in the considered range.

Keywords: self-compacting concrete, fly ash, strength prediction, fuzzy logic

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Authors: Kailen Krame

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This paper presents a review of the literature on the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions for reducing occupational stress and burnout among K-12 educators. An in-depth discussion of the incidence and impact of teacher stress and burnout is provided, as a wealth of literature indicates that this issue is of growing concern and has important implications not only for individual educators but also for students and the school as an organization. Given the evidence of a link between teacher wellbeing and student outcomes, this topic is worth further investigation in order to better understand sources of stress and burnout and propose adequate coping strategies for today’s educators. As a potential solution to teacher stress and burnout, mindfulness-based interventions are reviewed in-depth, and an overview of the history, diverse application, and effects of mindfulness practice are provided. Relevant outcomes of educator mindfulness training presented in the literature include increased emotional regulation, self-efficacy, and personal wellbeing, among several others. Lastly, additional implications and benefits of educator mindfulness training are explored, limitations of the current research are reviewed, and apparent best practices are proposed.

Keywords: educator burnout, emotional regulation, mindfulness, self-efficacy, stress-reduction

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Authors: Maaly Jarrah

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Oral fluency in the target language is what many second language learners hope to achieve by living abroad. Research in the past has demonstrated the role informal environments play in improving L2 learners' oral fluency. However, living in the target country and being part of its community does not ensure the development of oral fluency skills. L2 learners' desire to communicate and access to speaking opportunities in the host community are key in achieving oral fluency in the target language. This study attempts to identify differences in oral fluency, specifically speech rate, between learners who communicate in the L2 outside the classroom and those who do not. In addition, as the desire to communicate is a crucial factor in developing oral fluency, this study investigates whether or not learners' desire to speak the L2 outside the classroom plays a role in their frequency of L2 use outside the classroom. Finally, given the importance of the availability of speaking opportunities for L2 learners in order to practice their speaking skills, this study reports on the participants' perceptions of the speaking opportunities accessible to them in the target community while probing whether or not their perceptions differed based on their oral fluency level and their desire to communicate. The results suggest that exposure to the target language and daily communication with the native speakers is strongly related to the development of learners' oral fluency. Moreover, the findings suggest that learners' desire to communicate affects their frequency of communication in their L2 outside the classroom. At the same time, all participants, regardless of their oral fluency level and their desire to communicate, asserted that speaking opportunities beyond the classroom are very limited. Finally, the study finds there are marked differences in the perceptions learners have regarding opportunities for learning offered by the same language program. After reporting these results, the study concludes with recommendations for ESL programs that serve international students.

Keywords: ESL programs, L2 Learners, oral fluency, second language

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Authors: Valmir Baloshi, Fran Gjoka, Nehat Çollaku, Elvin Toromani

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As a sediment production mechanism, soil erosion is the main environmental threat to the Bovilla watershed, including the decline of water quality of the Bovilla reservoir that provides drinking water to Tirana city (the capital of Albania). Therefore, an experiment with 25 erosion plots for soil erosion monitoring has been set up since June 2017. The aim was to determine the soil loss on plot and watershed scale in Bovilla watershed (Tirana region) for implementation of soil and water protection measures or payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs. The results of erosion monitoring for the period June 2017 - May 2018 showed that the highest values of surface runoff were noted in bare land of 38829.91 liters on slope of 74% and the lowest values in forest land of 12840.6 liters on slope of 64% while the highest values of soil loss were found in bare land of 595.15 t/ha on slope of 62% and lowest values in forest land of 18.99 t/ha on slope of 64%. These values are much higher than the average rate of soil loss in the European Union (2.46 ton/ha/year). In the same sloping class, the soil loss was reduced from orchard or bare land to the forest land, and in the same category of land use, the soil loss increased with increasing land slope. It is necessary to conduct chemical analyses of sediments to determine the amount of chemical elements leached out of the soil and end up in the reservoir of Bovilla. It is concluded that PES programs should be implemented for rehabilitation of sub-watersheds Ranxe, Vilez and Zall-Bastar of the Bovilla watershed with valuable conservation practices.

Keywords: ANOVA, Bovilla, land cover, slope, soil loss, watershed management

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Authors: María Barbaño Acevedo Gómez, Elena Sonsoles Rodríguez López, Sofía Olivia Calvo Moreno, Ángel Basas García, Christophe RamíRez Parenteau

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Introduction: Urinary incontinence (UI) is defined as the involuntary leakage of urine. In persons who practice sport, its prevalence is 36.1% (95% CI 26.5% –46.8%) and varies as it seems to depend on the intensity of exercise, movements and impact on the ground. Such high impact sports are likely to generate higher intra-abdominal pressures and leading to pelvic floor muscle weakness. Although physical exercise reduces the risk of suffering from many diseases the mentality of an elite athlete is not to optimize their health, achieving their goals can put their health at risk. Furthermore, feeling or suffering from any discomfort during training seems to be normal within the elite sport demands. Objective: The main objective of the present study was to know the effects of UI in sports performance in athletes. Methods: This was an observational study conducted in 754 elite athletes. After collecting questions about pelvic floor, UI and sport-related data, participants completed the questionnaire International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-UI Short- Form (ICIQ-SF) and ISI (index of incontinence severity). Results: 48.8% of the athletes declare having losses also in rest, preseason and / or competition (χ2 [3] = 3.64; p = 0.302), being the competition period (29.1%) the most frequent where suffer from urine leakage. Of the elite athletes surveyed, 33% had UI according ICIQ-SF (mean age 23.75 ± 7.74 years). Elite athletes with UI (5.31 ± 1.07 days) dedicate significantly more days per week to training [M = 0.28; 95% CI = 0.08-0.48; t (752) = 2.78; p = 0.005] than those without UI. Regarding frequency, 59.7% lose urine once a week, 25.6% lose urine more than 3 times a week, and 14.7% daily. Based on the amount, approximately 15% claim to lose a moderate and abundant. Athletes with the highest number of urine leaks during their training, the UI affects them more in their daily life (r = 0.259; p = 0.001), they present a greater number of losses in their day to day (r = 0.341; p <0.001 ) and greater severity of UI (r = 0.341; p <0.001). Conclusions: Athletes consider that UI affects them negatively in their daily routine, 30.9% affirm having a severity between moderate and severe in their daily routine, and 29.1% loss urine in competition period. An interesting fact is that more than half of the samples collected were elite athletes who compete at the highest level (Olympic Games, World and European Championship), the dedication to sport occupies a big piece in their life. The most frequent period where athletes suffers urine leakage is in competition and there are many emotions that athletes manage to get their best performance, if we add urine losses in that moments it is possible that their performance could be affected.

Keywords: athletes, performance, prevalence, sport, training, urinary incontinence

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Authors: Avalloy McCarthy-Curvin

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

Keywords: relevance, rigor, deep understanding, formative evaluation

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Authors: Suliman Al Balawi

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Food waste is a significant problem in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). About SR13 billion worth of food is wasted per year in the KSA. From moral, social, and economic perspectives, it is essential to reduce the wastage of food. Although studies have identified the amount of food waste in the KSA, there is a lack of research on why people in the KSA waste food; thus, it is difficult to design efficient intervention programs to reduce food waste. This research investigates the key factors that influence the food waste behavior of the people of the KSA. A food waste behavior model is proposed in this study that has moral disengagement at the center of the model. Following a literature survey, it is hypothesised that religiosity, hedonic value, frugality, and trait cynicism are the antecedents of moral disengagement that are likely to impact the food waste behavior of the people of the KSA. The study further posits that an intervention strategy in the form of a social marketing campaign that focuses on lowering the level of moral disengagement could reduce the food waste behavior of the people of the KSA. This study will apply a pre-test/post-test experimental design (control group). A random sampling method will be used to select participants from the (employees of a chosen firm) in the KSA. The social marketing campaign will be run for six months through the Corporate Social Responsibility Department of the Company, and to analyse the experimental data, structural equation modeling (SEM) will be used. The outcomes of the study will demonstrate the effectiveness of a social marketing campaign for improving the food waste behavior of the people of the KSA and will ultimately lay the foundation for designing efficient intervention programs in the future. This study will contribute to the knowledge on food waste behavior by testing a newly proposed food waste behavior model in the KSA.

Keywords: food waste, social marketing, Saudi Arabia, moral disengagement

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Authors: Romisaa Ali

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This paper presents a comparison between twin-delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (TD3) and Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) reinforcement learning algorithms in the context of training robust navigation policies for Jackal robots. By leveraging an open-source framework and custom motion control environments, the study evaluates the performance, robustness, and transferability of the trained policies across a range of scenarios. The primary focus of the experiments is to assess the training process, the adaptability of the algorithms, and the robot’s ability to navigate in previously unseen environments. Moreover, the paper examines the influence of varying environmental complexities on the learning process and the generalization capabilities of the resulting policies. The results of this study aim to inform and guide the development of more efficient and practical reinforcement learning-based navigation policies for Jackal robots in real-world scenarios.

Keywords: Jackal robot environments, reinforcement learning, TD3, SAC, robust navigation, transferability, custom environment

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Authors: Alexander Goncharenko, Andrey Denisov, Sergey Alyamkin, Evgeny Terentev

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The neural network quantization is highly desired procedure to perform before running neural networks on mobile devices. Quantization without fine-tuning leads to accuracy drop of the model, whereas commonly used training with quantization is done on the full set of the labeled data and therefore is both time- and resource-consuming. Real life applications require simplification and acceleration of quantization procedure that will maintain accuracy of full-precision neural network, especially for modern mobile neural network architectures like Mobilenet-v1, MobileNet-v2 and MNAS. Here we present a method to significantly optimize training with quantization procedure by introducing the trained scale factors for discretization thresholds that are separate for each filter. Using the proposed technique, we quantize the modern mobile architectures of neural networks with the set of train data of only ∼ 10% of the total ImageNet 2012 sample. Such reduction of train dataset size and small number of trainable parameters allow to fine-tune the network for several hours while maintaining the high accuracy of quantized model (accuracy drop was less than 0.5%). Ready-for-use models and code are available in the GitHub repository.

Keywords: distillation, machine learning, neural networks, quantization

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Authors: Dorothy I. Riddle

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Limited mobility (or an inability to walk more than 15 meters without sitting down to rest) restricts full community participation for 13 percent of Canadian adults or 4.2 million persons), yet Canadian accessibility standards are silent on distance to be walked as an accessibility barrier to be addressed. Instead, they focus on ensuring access for the wheeled mobility devices used regularly by le The Accessible Canada Act mandates that Canada be barrier free by 2040, which will necessitate eliminating distance to be walked as a barrier in federal programs and services. This paper details the results of a multi-year research project funded by Accessibility Standards Canada to document the lived experience of those struggling with limited mobility and make recommendations regarding how to ensure accessibility for those with limited mobility. Over 2,600 Canadians from across Canada participated in an online survey and follow-up focus groups. The results underscored the importance of providing not only mobility supports in public facilities but also the information necessary for planning access to federal programs and services. As numerous participants indicated, if they weren’t sure how far they would have to walk, they simply stayed home and depended on friends and relatives for help with errands or appointments. This included failing to participate in civic activities, such as voting, for fear of having to walk too far and stand unsupported for too long. Types of information that were deemed critical included whether or not mobility aids were available, where seating to rest was located throughout the facility, what alternatives to standing while waiting for service and having to walk to the service provider (rather than the provider coming to the customer) were available, and diagrams of accessible parking and its relationship to elevators and services.

Keywords: accessibility standards, distance to be walked, limited mobility, mobility aids, service to customer

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Authors: Nils Haglund, Svenolof Dahlgren, Maria Rastam, Peik Gustafsson, Karin Kalien

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In Sweden, like in most developed countries, there is a substantial increase of children diagnosed with autism and other conditions within the autism spectrum (ASD). The rapid increase of ASD rates stresses the importance of developing care programs to provide support and comprehensive interventions for affected families. The current observational study was conducted in order to evaluate an ongoing Comprehensive Intensive Early Intervention (CIEI) program for children with autism in southern Sweden. The change in autism symptoms among children participating in CIEI (intervention group, n=67) was compared with children who received traditional habilitation services only (comparison group, n=27). Children of parents who accepted the offered CIEI-program, constituted the intervention group, whereas children, whose parents (for some reason) were not interested in the offered CIEI-program, constituted the comparison group. The CIEI-program was individualized to each child by experienced applied behavior analysis (ABA) specialists with different backgrounds as psychologists, speech pathologists or special education teachers, in cooperation with parents and preschool staff. Due to the individualization, the intervention could vary in intensity and techniques. The intensity was calculated to 15-25 hours each week at home and the preschool altogether. Each child was assigned one 'trainer', who was often employed as a preschool teacher but could have another educational background. An agreement between supervisor- parents and preschool staff was reached to confirm the intensity and content of the CIEI- program over an approximately two-year intervention period. Symptom changes were measured as evaluation-ADOS-2-scores, total- and severity-scores, minus the corresponding baseline-scores, divided by the time between baseline and evaluation. The difference between the study-groups regarding change of ADOS-2-scores was estimated using ANCOVA. In the current study, children in the CIEI-group improved their ADOS-2-total scores between baseline and evaluation (-0.8 scores per year; 95%CI: -1.2 to -0.4), whereas no such improvement was detected in the comparison group (+0.1 scores per year; 95%CI: -0.7 to +0.9). The change difference (change in the CIEI-group vs. change in the comparison group) was statistically significant, both crude and after adjusting for possible confounders (-1.1; 95%CI -1.9 to -0.4). Children in the CIEI-group also significantly improved their ADOS-calibrated severity scores, but not significantly differently so from the comparison group. The results from the current study indicate that the CIEI program significantly improves social and communicative skills among children with autism and that children with developmental delay could benefit to a similar degree as other children. The results support earlier studies reporting on the improvement of autism symptoms after early intensive interventions. The results from observational studies are difficult to interpret, but it is nevertheless of uttermost importance to evaluate costly autism intervention programs. Such results may be of immediate importance to healthcare organizations when allocating the already strained resources to different patient groups. Albeit the obvious limitation of the current naturalistic study, the results support previous positive studies and indicate that children with autism benefit from participating in early comprehensive, intensive programs and that investments in these programs may be highly justifiable.

Keywords: autism symptoms, ADOS-scores, evaluation, intervention program

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Authors: Nimrod Bantigue

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The Department of Education is continuously providing safe teaching-learning facilities and hazard-free environments to the learners. To achieve this goal, teachers’ awareness of DepEd’s DRRM programs and activities is extremely important; thus, this descriptive correlational quantitative study was conceptualized. This research answered four questions on the profile and level of awareness of the 153 teacher respondents of Oriental Mindoro National High School for the academic year 2018-2019. Stratified proportional sampling was employed, and both descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to treat data. The findings revealed that the majority of the teachers at OMNHS are female and are in the age bracket of 20-40. Most are married and pursue graduate studies. They have moderate awareness of the Department of Education’s DRRM programs and activities in terms of assessment of risks activities, planning activities, implementation activities during disaster and evaluation and monitoring activities with 3.32, 3.12, 3.40 and 3.31 as computed means, respectively. Further, the result showed a significant relationship between the profile of the respondents such as age, civil status and educational attainment and the level of awareness. On the contrary, sex does not have a significant relationship with the level of awareness. The Support School DRRM program with Utilization Guide on School DRRM Manual was proposed to increase, improve and strengthen the weakest areas of awareness rated in each DRRM activity, such as assessment of risks, planning, and implementation during disasters and monitoring and evaluation.

Keywords: awareness, management, monitoring, risk reduction

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Authors: S. P. Hewagama

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Different kinds of distressing events happen in the world causing a wide range of reactions and feelings. Psychological first aid (PFA) is humane supportive response for suffering. All health workers especially PHMs who play a major role as first responders in a disaster should be able to provide basic PFA effectively. Aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes and associated factors on the provision of PFA among PHMs during disasters. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 307 Public Health Midwives in Colombo RDHS area. In the study population, 86.6% (n=266) of the respondents were aware of the term “Psychological first aid” while 13.4% (n=41) were not aware. The total knowledge score was good in majority 85.4%(n=262) of the respondents while only 14.3%(n=45) had a poor knowledge on PFA. There was the statistically significant difference in relation to the level of education with the total knowledge score. Comprehensive desirable attitudes towards PFA was low (30.61%, n=94). According to the study, only a less than a quarter (21.82%, (n = 67)) of the study population had received training on PFA. More than half (56%, n=172) of the respondents had experience in responding to disasters. Conclusions and Recommendations: The overall knowledge and attitudes were found to be satisfactory. However, it is important to improve the knowledge level of the PHMs by providing training and workshops on PFA.

Keywords: disaster, humane supportive assistance, psychological first aid, public health midwives

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Authors: Thanakorn Thanawat, Nomjit Nualnetr

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Background and Purpose: In Thailand, rice farmers have the most prevalence of low back pain when compared with other manual workers. Exercises have been suggested to be a principal part of treatment programs for low back pain. However, the programs should be tailored to an individual’s readiness to change categorized by a behavioral approach. This study aimed to evaluate a difference between the responses of rice farmers with chronic low back pain who received an exercise program integrated with the transtheoretical model of behavior change (TTM) and those of the comparison group regarding severity of pain and trunk muscle endurance. Materials and Methods: An 8-week exercise program was conducted to rice farmers with chronic low back pain who were randomized to either the TTM (n=62, 52 woman and 10 men, mean age ± SD 45.0±5.4 years) or non-TTM (n=64, 53 woman and 11 men, mean age ± SD 44.7±5.4 years) groups. All participants were tested for their severity of pain and trunk (abdominal and back) muscle endurance at baseline (week 0) and immediately after termination of the program (week 8). Data were analysed by using descriptive statistics and student’s t-tests. The results revealed that both TTM and non-TTM groups could decrease their severity of pain and improve trunk muscle endurance after participating in the 8-week exercise program. When compared with the non-TTM group, however, the TTM showed a significantly greater increase in abdominal muscle endurance than did the non-TTM (P=0.004, 95% CI -12.4 to -2.3). Conclusions and Clinical Relevance: An exercise program integrated with the TTM could provide benefits to rice farmers with chronic low back pain. Future studies with a longitudinal design and more outcome measures such as physical performance and quality of life are suggested to reveal further benefits of the program.

Keywords: chronic low back pain, transtheoretical model, rice farmers, exercise program

Procedia PDF Downloads 383