Search results for: developing e-psychological instrument

Authors: Mohammadreza Kolaei, Vahid Ghasemi, Ebrahim Ansari

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This research was carried out with the aim of investigating the relationship between social capital and aggressive behavior of students (Case study: male students of middle school in Isfahan). In terms of methodology, this research is an applied research which is done by descriptive-analytical method and survey method. The instrument for collecting the data was a questionnaire consisting of: questionnaire for measuring aggressive behavior and social capital questionnaire, which was used after the validity and reliability of this questionnaire. On the other hand, the statistical population of the study consisted of all students in the guidance school of Isfahan in the academic year of 2016. For determining the sample size, the Kerjesy and Morgan tables were used and the sampling method of this multi-stage random sampling was used. After collecting the data, they were analyzed by SPSS software. The findings of the research showed that at 95% confidence level, the student's social capital increases, reducing his aggressiveness. Also, the amount of student aggression is estimated at 4% according to its social capital. Also, with increasing social capital of the school, the student's student aggression is reduced, with the student's student aggression's exposure to her social capital being estimated at 3%. On the other hand, increasing the amount of mother's presence in the home decreases the amount of student aggression. Also, the amount of student aggression is estimated at 1% according to the amount of mother's presence in her home. Ultimately, the amount of student aggression decreases with increasing presence of father at home. Also, the amount of student aggression is estimated at 2% according to the variable of father's presence in his home.

Keywords: investigating, social capital, aggressive behavior, students, middle school, Isfahan

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Authors: Zuzana Durajova, Natasa Diatkova, Shreya Bhardwaj

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This paper introduces the project START, its activities, goals, evaluation and final results. Over the past few decades, the legal discourse surrounding mental health has resulted in improvement in patient rights (in Netherlands, etc.), the appointment of Ombudspersons for psychiatric patients (in Austria, Sweden) and facilitating the participation of patients in decision-making processes. Czech legislation already recognizes the position of “patient’s advocate” as a person of trust. However, this instrument is not very widely known and rarely used in practice. In the pilot study of the project, legal training for patient advocacy is provided to persons with experience with mental health problems/psychiatric hospitalization chosen from a Czech-based NGO. These persons (patient advocates) visit patients in involuntary hospitalization in one closed ward in the chosen psychiatric institution. During visits, the patient advocates inform patients about their legal standing, their procedural rights and also offer them individual support in contacting their counsel, family members etc. To understand the effect of the intervention, qualitative interviews and participant observations are conducted with the patients, advocates, the hospital management and staff and other identifiable stakeholders, such as government officials responsible for mental health care reform. The interviews are held before, during and after the intervention (support from patient advocates in hospitals). Given the ethical quandaries arising from using psychiatric wards as a field setting, we assume a participatory approach to ensure respect for patient boundaries and dignity. Through this project, we seek to establish a profession of patient advocates based on professional standards.

Keywords: patient advocacy, involuntary hospitalization, Czech Republic, patient Rights, professionalization

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Authors: Victoria Lewis, L. Dumbell

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The British Equestrian Federation (BEF) aims to develop a holistic coach education and certification program, moving away from traditional autocratic instruction in line with the UK Coaching Framework. This framework is based on generic coaching science research where the coach is cited as a pivotal aspect in developing sporting success. Theoretic knowledge suggests that the role of the sports coach is to develop the physical, tactical, technical and psychological attributes of the athlete and is responsible for the planning, organization and delivery of the training plan and competition schedule. However, to the best of the author’s knowledge, there is no empirical evidence to suggest that is the role required in equestrian sport as the rider takes responsibility for many of these tasks. This research aimed to address the void in current knowledge by gaining an understanding of coaching in equestrian sport in order to improve coaching education system through awareness of the role of the coach. Objectives were to examine the relationship between coach and rider at elite level in equestrian sport providing empirical evidence to suggest that the rider is, in part, ‘self –coached’. To identify the elite equestrian coaches’ role in coaching these ‘self-coached riders. A qualitative method using semi-structured interviews was used. A sample of elite coaches (N=3) and elite riders (N=3) were interviewed. Analysis of the transcripts revealed a total of 534 meaning units that were further grouped into sub-themes and general themes from the coaches’ perspective and the riders’ perspective. This led to the development of a final thematic structure revealing major dimensions that characterized coaching in elite equestrian sport. It was found that the riders at the elite level coach themselves the majority of the time, therefore, can be considered as ‘self-coached’ athletes. However, they do use elite coaches in a mentoring and consultancy role, where they seek guidance from the coach on specific problems, to sound ideas off or to seek reassurance that what they are doing is correct. Findings from this research suggest that the rider-coach relationship at the elite level is a professional one, based on trust and respect, but not a close relationship as seen in other sports. The results show the imperative need for the BEF to educate coaches in coaching the self-coached rider at the elite level, particularly in terms of mentoring skills. As well as incorporating rider education aimed at developing the independent, self-coached riders.

Keywords: coaching, elite sport, equestrian, self coached

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Authors: Mastewal Endeshaw Getnet

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Imunization is one of the most cost-effective and extensively adopted public health strategies for preventing child disability and mortality. Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) was launched in 1974 with the goal of providing life-saving vaccines to all children in all and building on the success of the global smallpox eradication program. According to World Health Organization report, by 2020, all countries should have achieved 90% vaccination coverage. Many developing countries still have not achieved the goal. Ethiopia is one of Africa's developing countries. The Ethiopian Ministry of health (MoH) launched the EPI program in 1980, with the goal of achieving 90% coverage among children under the age of 1 year by 1990. Among children aged 12-23 months, complete immunization coverage was 47% based on the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDAS) 2019 report. The coverage varies depending on the administrative region, ranging from 21% in Afar region to 89% in Amhara region, Ethiopia. Therefore, identifying risk factors for incomplete immunization among children is a key challenge, particularly in Ethiopia, which has a large geographical diversity and a predicted with 119.96 million projected population size in the year 2022. Despite its critical and challenging issue, this issue is still open and has not yet been fully investigated. Recently, a few previous studies have been conducted on the assessment of incomplete children immunization determinants. However, the majority of the studies were cross-sectional surveys that assessed only EPI coverage. Motivated by the above investigation, this study focuses on investigating determinants associated with incomplete immunization among Ethiopian children to facilitate the rate of full immunization coverage. Moreover, we consider both individual immunization and service performance-related factors to investigate incomplete children's determinants. Consequently, we adopted an ecological model in this study. Individual and environmental factors are combined in the Ecological model, which provides multilevel framework for exploring different determinants related with health behaviors. The Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey will be used as a source of data from 2021 to achieve the objective of this study. The findings of this study will be useful to the Ethiopian government and other public health institutes to improve the coverage score of childhood immunization based on the identified risk determinants.

Keywords: incomplete immunization, children, ethiopia, ecological model

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Authors: Emine Yılmaz Bolat

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Early childhood is a very important period in terms of identifying and developing early skills and abilities. It is likely that the child's development will be in the same direction in the future. This study was conducted with 26 children for the purpose of examining pictures of children of five years old. In the survey, children were asked to draw a picture with pastel dyes. The drawings were collected and evaluated by the researcher. At the end of the research, it was found that the children used the yellow color (N = 17, 16,34%) and the least gray color (N = 1, 0,96%). When the features of children's pictures are examined, the children's paintings have been found to have hierarchy, transparency, completion, the use of vivid colors, and the presence of vertical and horizontal painting lines.

Keywords: early childhood, kindergarten, pictures of children, features of pictures

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Authors: Mosabbir Pasha, Ijaj Mahmud Chowdhury, M. A. Afrahim Bhuiyann

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With the increasing population and intensive land use, huge traffic demand is generating worldwide both in developing and developed countries. As a developing country, Bangladesh is also facing the same problem in recent years by producing huge numbers of daily trips. As a matter of fact, extensive traffic demand is increasing day by day. Also, transport system in Dhaka is heterogeneous, reflecting the heterogeneity in the socio-economic and land use patterns. As a matter of fact, trips produced here are for different purposes such as work, business, educational etc. Due to the significant concentration of educational institutions a large share of the trips are generated by educational purpose. And one of the major percentages of educational trips is produced by university going students and most of them are travelled by car, bus, train, taxi, rickshaw etc. The aim of the study was to find out the university students’ perception on public transit ridership. A survey was conducted among 330 students from eight different universities. It was found out that 26% of the trips produced by university going students are travelled by public bus service and only 5% are by train. Percentage of car share is 16% and 12% of the trips are travelled by private taxi. From the study, it has been found that more than 42 percent student’s family resides outside of Dhaka, eventually they prefer bus instead of other options. Again those who chose to walk most of the time, of them, over 40 percent students’ family reside outside of Dhaka and of them over 85 percent students have a tendency to live in a mess. They generally choose a neighboring location to their respective university so that they can reach their destination by walk. On the other hand, those who travel by car 80 percent of their family reside inside Dhaka. The study also revealed that the most important reason that restricts students not to use public transit is poor service. Negative attitudes such as discomfort, uneasiness in using public transit also reduces the usage of public transit. The poor waiting area is another major cause of not using public transit. Insufficient security also plays a significant role in not using public transit. On the contrary, the fare is not a problem for students those who use public transit as a mode of transportation. Students also think stations are not far away from their home or institution and they do not need to wait long for the buses or trains. It was also found accessibility to public transit is moderate.

Keywords: traffic demand, fare, poor service, public transit ridership

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Authors: Monika Benedek

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This paper intends to present a pilot study of blended ear-training course at a Finnish university. The course ran for ten weeks and included both traditional (offline) group lessons for 90 minutes each week and an online learning platform. Twelve students majored in musicology and music education participated in the course. The aims of pilot research were to develop a new blended ear-training course at university level, to determine the ideal amount of workload in each part of the blended instruction (offline and online) and to develop the course material. The course material was selected from the Classical period in order to develop students’ aural skills together with their stylistic knowledge. Students were asked to provide written feedback of the course content and learning approaches of face-to-face group lessons and online learning platform each week during the course. Therefore, the teaching material is continuously planned for each week. This qualitative data collection and weekly analysis of data are on progress. However, based on the teacher-researcher’s experiences and the students’ feedback already collected, it could be seen that the blended instruction would be an ideal teaching strategy for ear-trainging at the music programmes of universities to develop students’ aural skills and stylistic knowledge. It is also presumed that such blended instruction with less workload would already improve university students’ aural skills and related musicianship skills. The preliminary findings of research also indicated that students generally found those ear-training tasks the most useful to learn online that combined listening, singing, singing and playing an instrument. This paper intends to summarise the final results of the pilot study.

Keywords: blended-learning, ear-training, higher music education, online-learning, pilot study

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Authors: Gokcen Akyurek, Hulya Kayihan, Deniz Yuce, Selen Yilmaz

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The stigma towards mental illness is still very rooted in our society, despite the number of studies, campaigns, and anti-stigma programs developed in recent years. Stigma represents a serious obstacle to recovery and social integration for people who experience a mental illness, affecting directly their well-being and quality of life. It implies that these persons have to deal with many other barriers apart from the disease symptoms (1-5). Convergent, recent literature suggests that less positive attitudes by mental health professionals interfere with the self-determination and recovery process (4-10).The aim of this study was to translate the Attribution Questionnaire-27 (AQ-27) to the Turkish language (AQ-27-T), and to examine the reliability and validity of this new Turkish version. Cultural adaptation was implemented according to the internationally suggested method. To determine the understandability and appropriateness of this measure for the Turkish culture, a pretest was administered and the final form was generated. Then, 424 randomly chosen people took part in the study. Participant’s mean age was 36.9±12.7 years and %52 of them female. Cronbach's alpha and intra-class coefficients were used to estimate instrument reliability. The AQ-27-T was assessed again 14 days later for test retest reliability. The AQ-27-T demonstrated acceptable internal consistency, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.88 for the total scale and ranging between 0.86 and 0.89 for the items. The test-retest reliability was good, with Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.79 for the total scale and ranging between 0.35 and 0.77 for the items (p<0.05). Correlation between subscales was moderate-good, with Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.18-0.88 (p<0.05). Fit indices of the model supported the factor structure and paths. The AQ-27-T is a reliable measure to assess stigmatizing attitudes in Turkish.

Keywords: attribution questionnaire, validity, reliability, stigma

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Authors: Kolawole Oyekan Jamiu

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In Nigerian criminal law, a victim of an offence plays little or no role in the prosecution of an offender. The state concentrates only on imposing punishment on the offender while the victims of crime and abuse of power by security agencies are abandoned without any compensation either from the State or the offender. It has been stated that the victim of crime is the forgotten man in our criminal justice system. He sets the criminal law in motion but then goes into oblivion. Our present criminal law does not recognise the right of the victim to take part in the prosecution of the case or his right to compensation. The victim is merely a witness in a state versus case. This paper examines the meaning of the phrase ‘the victims of crime and abuse of power’. It needs to be noted that there is no definition of these two categories of victims in any statute in Nigeria. The paper also considers the United Nations General Assembly Declaration of Basic Principle of Justice for Victims and abuse of power. This declaration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on the 25th of November 1985. The declaration contains copious provisions on compensation for the victims of crime and abuse of power. Unfortunately, the declaration is not, in itself a legally binding instrument and has been given little or no attention since the coming into effect in1985. This paper examines the role of the judiciary in ensuring that victims of crime and abuse of power in Nigeria are compensated. While some Judges found it difficult to award damages to victims of abuse of power others have given some landmark rulings and awarded substantial damages. The criminal justice ( victim’s remedies) Bill shall also be examined. The Bill comprises of 74 sections and it spelt out the procedures for compensating the victims of crime and abuse of power in Nigeria. Finally, the paper also examines the practicability of awarding damages to victims of crime whether the offender is convicted or not and in addition, the possibility of granting all equitable remedies available in civil cases to victims of crime and abuse of power so that the victims will be restored to the earlier position before the crime.

Keywords: compensation, damages, restitution, victims

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Authors: David W. Taylor, Fernando Lourenço, Carolyn Branston, Paul Tucker

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There are an increasing number of students at Universities in the United Kingdom engaging in entrepreneurship role-play to explore business start-up as a career alternative to employment. These role-play activities have been shown to have a positive influence on students’ entrepreneurial intentions. Universities also play a role in developing graduates’ awareness of social responsibility. However, social responsibility is often missing from these entrepreneurship role-plays. It is important that these role-play activities include the development of values that support social responsibility, in-line with those running hybrid, humane and sustainable enterprises, and not simply focus on profit. The Young Enterprise (YE) Start-Up programme is an example of a role-play activity that is gaining in popularity amongst United Kingdom Universities seeking ways to give students insight into a business start-up. A Post-92 University in the North-West of England has adapted the traditional YE Directorship roles (e.g., Marketing Director, Sales Director) by including a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Director in all of the team-based YE Start-Up businesses. The aim for introducing this Directorship was to observe if such a role would help create a more socially responsible value-system within each company and in turn shape business decisions. This paper investigates role-play as a tool to help enterprise educators develop socially responsible attitudes and values in nascent entrepreneurs. A mixed qualitative methodology approach has been used, which includes interviews, role-play, and reflection, to help students develop positive value characteristics through the exploration of unethical and selfish behaviors. The initial findings indicate that role-play helped CSR Directors learn and gain insights into the importance of corporate social responsibility, influenced the values and actions of their YE Start-Ups, and increased the likelihood that if the participants were to launch a business post-graduation, that the intent would be for the business to be socially responsible. These findings help inform educators on how to develop socially responsible nascent entrepreneurs within a traditionally profit orientated business model.

Keywords: student entrepreneurship, young enterprise, social responsibility, role-play, values

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Authors: Marina Petrova

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Language policy issues related to the preservation and development of the native languages of the Russian peoples and the state languages of the national republics are increasingly becoming the focus of recent attention of educators and parents, public and national figures. Is it legal to teach the national language or the mother tongue as the state language? Due to that dispute language phobia moods easily evolve into xenophobia among the population. However, a civilized, intelligent multicultural personality can only be formed if the country develops bilingualism and multilingualism, and languages as a political tool help to find ‘keys’ to sufficiently closed national communities both within a poly-ethnic state and in internal relations of multilingual countries. The purpose of this study is to design and theoretically substantiate an efficient model of language education in the innovatively developing Republic of Sakha. 800 participants from different educational institutions of Yakutia worked at developing a multilingual model of education. This investigation is of considerable practical importance because researchers could build a methodical system designed to create conditions for the formation of a cultural language personality and the development of the multilingual communicative competence of Yakut youth, necessary for communication in native, Russian and foreign languages. The selected methodology of humane-personal and competence approaches is reliable and valid. Researchers used a variety of sources of information, including access to related scientific fields (philosophy of education, sociology, humane and social pedagogy, psychology, effective psychotherapy, methods of teaching Russian, psycholinguistics, socio-cultural education, ethnoculturology, ethnopsychology). Of special note is the application of theoretical and empirical research methods, a combination of academic analysis of the problem and experienced training, positive results of experimental work, representative series, correct processing and statistical reliability of the obtained data. It ensures the validity of the investigation’s findings as well as their broad introduction into practice of life-long language education.

Keywords: intercultural communication, language policy, multilingual and multicultural education, the Sakha Republic of Yakutia

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Authors: Marcello De Falco, Gianluca Natrella, Mauro Capocelli

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CO₂ capture and utilization (CCU) is a promising approach to reduce GHG(greenhouse gas) emissions. Many technologies in this field are recently attracting attention. However, since CO₂ is a very stable compound, its utilization as a reagent is energetic intensive. As a consequence, it is unclear whether CCU processes allow for a net reduction of environmental impacts from a life cycle perspective and whether these solutions are sustainable. Among the tools to apply for the quantification of the real environmental benefits of CCU technologies, exergy analysis is the most rigorous from a scientific point of view. The exergy of a system is the maximum obtainable work during a process that brings the system into equilibrium with its reference environment through a series of reversible processes in which the system can only interact with such an environment. In other words, exergy is an “opportunity for doing work” and, in real processes, it is destroyed by entropy generation. The exergy-based analysis is useful to evaluate the thermodynamic inefficiencies of processes, to understand and locate the main consumption of fuels or primary energy, to provide an instrument for comparison among different process configurations and to detect solutions to reduce the energy penalties of a process. In this work, the exergy analysis of a process for the production of Dimethyl Ether (DME) from green hydrogen generated through an electrolysis unit and pure CO₂ captured from flue gas is performed. The model simulates the behavior of all units composing the plant (electrolyzer, carbon capture section, DME synthesis reactor, purification step), with the scope to quantify the performance indices based on the II Law of Thermodynamics and to identify the entropy generation points. Then, a plant optimization strategy is proposed to maximize the exergy efficiency.

Keywords: green DME production, exergy analysis, energy penalties, exergy efficiency

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Authors: Yu-Hsuan Liu, Ying-Fang Wang

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The objectives of the present study are to characterize nanoparticles generated from the laser metal deposition (LMD) process and to estimate particle concentrations deposited in the head (H), that the tracheobronchial (TB) and alveolar (A) regions, respectively. The studied LMD chamber (3.6m × 3.8m × 2.9m) is installed with a robot laser metal deposition machine. Direct-reading instrument of a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS, Model 3082, TSI Inc., St. Paul, MN, USA) was used to conduct static sampling inside the chamber for nanoparticle number concentration and particle size distribution measurements. The SMPS obtained particle number concentration at every 3 minutes, the diameter of the SMPS ranged from 11~372 nm when the aerosol and sheath flow rates were set at 0.6 and 6 L / min, respectively. The resultant size distributions were used to predict depositions of nanoparticles at the H, TB, and A regions of the respiratory tract using the UK National Radiological Protection Board’s (NRPB’s) LUDEP Software. Result that the number concentrations of nanoparticles in indoor background and LMD chamber were 4.8×10³ and 4.3×10⁵ # / cm³, respectively. However, the nanoparticles emitted from the LMD process was in the form of the uni-modal with number median diameter (NMD) and geometric standard deviation (GSD) as 142nm and 1.86, respectively. The fractions of the nanoparticles deposited on the alveolar region (A: 69.8%) were higher than the other two regions of the head region (H: 10.9%), tracheobronchial region (TB: 19.3%). This study conducted static sampling to measure the nanoparticles in the LMD process, and the results show that the fraction of particles deposited on the A region was higher than the other two regions. Therefore, applying the characteristics of nanoparticles emitted from LMD process could be provided valuable scientific-based evidence for exposure assessments in the future.

Keywords: exposure assessment, laser metal deposition process, nanoparticle, respiratory region

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Authors: Colleen McMillan, Alice Schmidt-Hanbidge, Beth Archer-Kuhn, Heather Boynton, Judith Hughes

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It is well known that social work students enter the profession with higher scores of adverse childhood experiences (ACE). Add to that the fact that COVID-19 has forced higher education institutions to shift to online teaching and learning, where students, faculty and field educators in social work education have reported increased stressors as well as posing challenges in developing relationships with students and being able to identify mental health challenges including those related to trauma. This multi-institutional project included three Canadian post-secondary institutions at five sites (the University of Waterloo, the University of Calgary and the University of Manitoba) and partners; Desire To Learn (D2L), The Centre for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo and the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. A sequential mixed method research design was used. Survey data was collected from students, faculty and field education staff from the 3 universities using the Qualtrics Insight Platform, followed by virtual focus group data with students to provide greater clarity to the quantitative data. Survey data was analyzed using SPSS software, while focus group data was transcribed verbatim and organized with N-Vivo 12. Thematic analysis used line-by-line coding and constant comparative methods within and across focus groups. The following three objectives of the study were achieved: 1) Establish a Canadian baseline on trauma informed pedagogy and student experiences of trauma informed teaching in the online higher education environment during a pandemic; 2) Identify and document educator and student experiences of online learning regarding the ability to process trauma experiences; and, 3) Transfer the findings into a trauma informed pedagogical model for Social Work as a first step toward developing a universal trauma informed teaching model. The trauma informed pedagogy model would be presented in relation to the study findings.

Keywords: trauma informed pedagogy, higher education, social work, mental health

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Authors: Ambika Selvaraj

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Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (IO) of < 20nm (superparamagnetic) become promising tool in cancer therapy, and integrated nanodevices for cancer detection and screening. The obstacles include particle heterogeneity and cost. It can be overcome by developing monodispersed nanoparticles in economical approach. We have successfully synthesized < 7 nm IO by low temperature controlled technique, in which Fe0 is sandwiched between stabilizer and Fe2+. Size analysis showed the excellent size control from 31 nm at 33°C to 6.8 nm at 10°C. Resultant monodispersed IO were found to be stable for > 50 reuses, proved its applicability in biomedical applications.

Keywords: low temperature synthesis, hybrid iron nanoparticles, cancer therapy, biomedical applications

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Authors: Bruna C. Brasileiro, José Alberto S. Sá, Brigida R. P. Rocha

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The Amazon region development was related to large-scale projects associated with economic cycles. Economic cycles were originated from policies implemented by successive governments that exploited the resources and have not yet been able to improve the local population's quality of life. These implanted development strategies were based on vertical planning centered on State that didn’t know and showed no interest in know the local needs and potentialities. The future of this region is a challenge that depends on a model of development based on human progress associated to intelligent, selective and environmentally safe exploitation of natural resources settled in renewable and no-polluting energy generation sources – a differential factor of attraction of new investments in a context of global energy and environmental crisis. In this process the planning and support of Brazilian State, local government, and selective international partnership are essential. Residual biomass utilization allows the sustainable development by the integration of production chain and energy generation process which could improve employment condition and income of riversides. Therefore, this research discourses how the use of local residual biomass (açaí lumps) could be an important instrument of sustainable development for isolated communities located at Alcobaça Sustainable Development Reserve (SDR), Tucuruí, Pará State, since in this region the energy source more accessible for who can pay are the fossil fuels that reaches about 54% of final energy consumption by the integration between the açaí productive chain and the use of renewable energy source besides it can promote less environmental impact and decrease the use of fossil fuels and carbon dioxide emissions.

Keywords: Amazon, biomass, renewable energy, sustainability

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Authors: Ibrahim Abubakar Alkali, Abubakar Sarkile Kawuwa, Ibrahim Sani Khalil

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The concept of space and function forms the bedrock for spatial configuration in architectural design. Thus, the effectiveness and functionality of an architectural product depends their cordial relationship. This applies to all buildings especially to a hospital ward setting designed to accommodate various complex and diverse functions. Health care facilities design, especially an inpatient setting, is governed by many regulations and technical requirements. It is also affected by many less defined needs, particularly, response to culture and the need to provide for patient families’ presence and participation. The spatial configuration of the hospital ward setting in developing countries has no consideration for the patient’s families despite the significant role they play in promoting recovery. Attempts to integrate facilities for patients’ families have always been challenging, especially in developing countries like Nigeria, where accommodation for inpatients is predominantly in an open ward system. In addition, the situation is compounded by culture, which significantly dictates healthcare practices in Africa. Therefore, achieving such a hospital ward setting that is patient and family-centered requires careful assessment of family care actions and transaction spaces so as to arrive at an evidence based solution. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify how hospital ward spaces can be reconfigured to provide for sustainable family integration. In achieving this aim, a qualitative approach using the principles of behavioral mapping was employed in male and female medical wards of the Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH) Gombe, Nigeria. The data obtained was analysed using classical and comparative content analysis. Patients’ families have been found to be a critical component of hospital ward design that cannot be undermined. Accordingly, bedsides, open yards, corridors and foyers have been identified as patient families’ transaction spaces that require design attention. Arriving at sustainable family integration can be achieved by revisiting the design requirements of the family transaction spaces based on the findings in order to avoid the rowdiness of the wards and uncoordinated sprawl.

Keywords: caregiving, design basics, family integration, hospital ward, sustainability

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Authors: Kanokwan Tangchitnusorn, Patcharawalai Wongboonsin

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Following the ‘Golden Age of Welfare’ which enabled post-war prosperity to European citizens in 1950s, the world has witnessed the increasing mobility across borders of older citizens of First World countries. Then, in 1990s, the international retirement migration (IRM) of older persons has become a prominent trend, in which, it requires the integration of several fields of knowledge to explain, i.e. migration studies, tourism studies, as well as, social gerontology. However, while the studies of the IRM to developed destinations in Europe (e.g. Spain, Malta, Portugal, Italy), and the IRM to developing countries like Mexico, Panama, and Morocco have been largely studied in recent decades due to their massive migration volume, the study of the IRM to remoter destinations has been far more relatively sparse and incomplete. Developing countries in Southeast Asia have noticed the increasing number of retired expats, particularly to Thailand, where the number of foreigners applying for retirement visa increased from 10,709 in 2005 to 60,046 in 2014. Additionally, it was evident that the majority of Thailand’s retirement visa applicants were Westerners, i.e. citizens of the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and the Nordic countries, respectively. As such trend just becoming popular in Thailand in recent decades, little is known about the IRM populations, their well-being, and their future migration plans. This study aimed to examine the subjective wellbeing or the self-evaluations of own well-being among Western retirees in Thailand, as well as, their future migration plans as whether they planned to stay here for life or otherwise. The author employed a mixed method to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data during October 2015 – May 2016, including 330 self-administered questionnaires (246 online and 84 hard-copied responses), and 21 in-depth interviews of the Western residents in Nan (2), Pattaya (4), and Chiang Mai (15). As derived from the integration of previous subjective well-being measurements (i.e. Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI), Global AgeWatch Index, and OECD guideline on measuring subjective wellbeing), this study would measure the subjective well-being of Western retirees in Thailand in 7 dimensions, including standard of living, health status, personal relationships, social connections, environmental quality, personal security and local infrastructure.

Keywords: international retirement migration, ageing, mobility, wellbeing, Western, Thailand

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Authors: Nihal Kartaltepe Behram, Göksel Ataman, Dila Okçu

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With the development of foreign direct investments, the social, cultural, political and economic interactions between countries and institutions have become visible and they have become determining factors for the strategic structuring and market goals. In this context the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of cultural distance and institutions on foreign direct investment choices in terms of location and investment model. For international establishments, the concept of culture, as well as the concept of cultural distance, is taken specifically into consideration, especially in the selection of methods for entering the market. In the researches and empirical studies conducted, a direct relationship between cultural distance and foreign direct investments is set and institutions and effective variable factors are examined at the level of defining the investment types. When the detailed calculation strategies and empirical researches and studies are taken into consideration, the most common methods for determining the direct investment model, considering the cultural distances, are full-ownership enterprises and joint ventures. Also, when all of the factors affecting the investments are taken into consideration, it was seen that the effect of institutions such as Government Intervention, Intellectual Property Rights, Corruption and Contract Enforcements is very important. Furthermore agglomeration is more intense and effective on the investment, compared to other factors. China has been selected as the target country, due to its effectiveness in world economy and its contributions to developing countries, which has commercial relationships with. Qualitative research methods are used for this study conducted, to measure the effects of determinative variable factors in the hypotheses of study, on the direct foreign investors and to evaluate the findings. In this study in-depth interview is used as a data collection method and the data analysis is made through descriptive analysis. Foreign Direct Investments are so reactive to institutions and cultural distance is identified by all interviews and analysis. On the other hand, agglomeration is the most strong determiner factor on foreign direct investors in Chinese Market. The reason of this factors, which comprise the sectorial aggregate, are not the strongest factors as agglomeration that the most important finding. We expect that this study became a beneficial guideline for developed and developing countries and local and national institutions’ strategic plans.

Keywords: China, cultural distance, Foreign Direct Investments, institutions

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Authors: Achilles Kameas, Eleni Georgakakou, Anna Lisa Amodeo, Aideen Quilty, Aisling Malone, Roberta Albertazzi, Moises Carmona, Concetta Esposito, Ruben David Fernandez Carrasco, Carmela Ferrara, Francesco Garzillo, Mojca Pusnik, Maria Cristina Scarano

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While researchers, especially in academia, study and research the phenomena of inclusion of sexual minority and gender marginalized groups, seldom the European Higher Education Institutions (HEI) act on lowering the cultural and educational barriers to their proactive inclusion. The challenge in European HEIs is that gender, and sexual orientation discrimination remains an issue not adequately addressed. Following a mixed methods research design of quantitative and qualitative research techniques and tools, which is applied in five (5) European countries (Italy, Greece, Ireland, Slovenia, and Spain) and that combines desk research, evaluation, and weighting processes for a Matrix-based on Objective indicators and Survey for students and staff of the HEI to gauge the perception of inclusiveness in the HEI context, XENIA HEI Inclusiveness Index is an instrument that will allow universities to gauge and assess their inclusiveness in the domain of discrimination and exclusion based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The index will allow capturing the depth and reach of policies, programmes, and initiatives of HEIs in tackling the phenomena and dynamics of exclusion of LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and other marginalized groups on the basis of gender and sexual identity) and cisgender women exposed to the risk of discrimination.

Keywords: gender identity, higher education, LGBT+ rights, XENIA inclusiveness index

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Authors: Titinan Pothong, Prasit Wangpakapattanawong, Stephen Elliott

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Shifting cultivation is an indigenous agricultural practice among upland people and has long been one of the major land-use systems in Southeast Asia. As a result, fallows and secondary forests have come to cover a large part of the region. However, they are increasingly being replaced by monocultures, such as corn cultivation. This is believed to be a main driver of deforestation and forest degradation, and one of the reasons behind the recurring winter smog crisis in Thailand and around Southeast Asia. Accurate biomass estimation of trees is important to quantify valuable carbon stocks and changes to these stocks in case of land use change. However, presently, Thailand lacks proper tools and optimal equations to quantify its carbon stocks, especially for secondary evergreen forests, including fallow areas after shifting cultivation and smaller trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) of less than 5 cm. Developing new allometric equations to estimate biomass is urgently needed to accurately estimate and manage carbon storage in tropical secondary forests. This study established new equations using a destructive method at three study sites: approximately 50-year-old secondary forest, 4-year-old fallow, and 7-year-old fallow. Tree biomass was collected by harvesting 136 individual trees (including coppiced trees) from 23 species, with a DBH ranging from 1 to 31 cm. Oven-dried samples were sent for carbon analysis. Wood density was calculated from disk samples and samples collected with an increment borer from 79 species, including 35 species currently missing from the Global Wood Densities database. Several models were developed, showing that aboveground biomass (AGB) was strongly related to DBH, height (H), and wood density (WD). Including WD in the model was found to improve the accuracy of the AGB estimation. This study provides insights for reforestation management, and can be used to prepare baseline data for Thailand’s carbon stocks for the REDD+ and other carbon trading schemes. These may provide monetary incentives to stop illegal logging and deforestation for monoculture.

Keywords: aboveground biomass, allometric equation, carbon stock, secondary forest

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Authors: Jeena R. S., Sukesh Kumar A.

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Stroke is one of the major reasons of adult disability and morbidity in many of the developing countries like India. Early diagnosis of stroke is essential for timely prevention and cure. Various conventional statistical methods and computational intelligent models have been developed for predicting the risk and outcome of stroke. This research work focuses on a multilevel approach for predicting the occurrence of stroke based on various risk factors and invasive techniques like retinal imaging. This risk prediction model can aid in clinical decision making and help patients to have an improved and reliable risk prediction.

Keywords: prediction, retinal imaging, risk factors, stroke

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Authors: Yelin Zhao, Xinxiu Li, Martin Smelik, Oleg Sysoev, Firoj Mahmud, Dina Mansour Aly, Mikael Benson

Abstract:

Background: Early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is clinically challenging due to vague, or no symptoms, and lack of biomarkers. Polygenic risk score (PRS) scores may provide a valuable tool to assess increased or decreased risk of PC. This study aimed to develop such PRS by filtering genetic variants identified by GWAS using transcriptional programs identified by single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq). Methods: ScRNA-seq data from 24 pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) tumor samples and 11 normal pancreases were analyzed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in in tumor and microenvironment cell types compared to healthy tissues. Pathway analysis showed that the DEGs were enriched for hundreds of significant pathways. These were clustered into 40 “programs” based on gene similarity, using the Jaccard index. Published genetic variants associated with PDAC were mapped to each program to generate program PRSs (pPRSs). These pPRSs, along with five previously published PRSs (PGS000083, PGS000725, PGS000663, PGS000159, and PGS002264), were evaluated in a European-origin population from the UK Biobank, consisting of 1,310 PDAC participants and 407,473 non-pancreatic cancer participants. Stepwise Cox regression analysis was performed to determine associations between pPRSs with the development of PC, with adjustments of sex and principal components of genetic ancestry. Results: The PDAC genetic variants were mapped to 23 programs and were used to generate pPRSs for these programs. Four distinct pPRSs (P1, P6, P11, and P16) and two published PRSs (PGS000663 and PGS002264) were significantly associated with an increased risk of developing PC. Among these, P6 exhibited the greatest hazard ratio (adjusted HR[95% CI] = 1.67[1.14-2.45], p = 0.008). In contrast, P10 and P4 were associated with lower risk of developing PC (adjusted HR[95% CI] = 0.58[0.42-0.81], p = 0.001, and adjusted HR[95% CI] = 0.75[0.59-0.96], p = 0.019). By comparison, two of the five published PRS exhibited an association with PDAC onset with HR (PGS000663: adjusted HR[95% CI] = 1.24[1.14-1.35], p < 0.001 and PGS002264: adjusted HR[95% CI] = 1.14[1.07-1.22], p < 0.001). Conclusion: Compared to published PRSs, scRNA-seq-based pPRSs may be used not only to assess increased but also decreased risk of PDAC.

Keywords: cox regression, pancreatic cancer, polygenic risk score, scRNA-seq, UK biobank

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Authors: Dwi Endarti, Susi a Kristina, Rizki Noorizzati, Akbar E Nugraha, Fera Maharani, Kika a Putri, Asninda H Azizah, Sausanzahra Angganisaputri, Yunisa Yustikarini

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Cost utility analysis is the most recommended pharmacoeconomic method since it allows widely comparison of cost-effectiveness results from different interventions. The method uses outcome of quality-adjusted life year (QALY) or disability-adjusted life year (DALY). Measurement of QALY requires the data of utility dan life years gained. Utility is measured with the instrument for quality of life measurement such as EQ-5D. Recently, the EQ-5D is available in two versions which are EQ-5D-3L and EQ-5D-5L. This study aimed to compare the EQ-5D-3L and EQ-5D-5L to examine the most suitable version for Indonesian population. This study was an observational study employing cross sectional approach. Data of quality of life measured with EQ-5D-3L and EQ-5D-5L were collected from several groups of population which were respondent with chronic diseases, respondent with acute diseases, and respondent from general population (without illness) in Yogyakarta Municipality, Indonesia. Convenience samples of hypertension patients (83), diabetes mellitus patients (80), and osteoarthritis patients (47), acute respiratory tract infection (81), cephalgia (43), dyspepsia (42), and respondent from general population (293) were recruited in this study. Responses on the 3L and 5L versions of EQ-5D were compared by examining the psychometric properties including agreement, internal consistency, ceiling effect, and convergent validity. Based on psychometric properties tests of EQ-5D-3L dan EQ-5D-5L, EQ-5D-5L tended to have better psychometric properties compared to EQ-5D-3L. Future studies for health related quality of life (HRQOL) measurements for pharmacoeconomic studies in Indonesia should apply EQ-5D-5L.

Keywords: EQ-5D, Health Related Quality of Life, Indonesian Population, Psychometric Properties

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Authors: R. Pargas, M. Reba

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Since 2006, the School of Computing and the Department of Mathematical Sciences have collaborated on several industry and NSF grants to develop new uses of technology in teaching and learning. Clemson University’s Creative Inquiry Program allowed computer science and mathematics students to earn credit each semester for participating in seminars which introduced them to new areas for independent research. We will discuss how the development of three interactive instructional apps for Calculus resulted not only in a useful product, but also in unique educational benefits for both the computer science students and the mathematics students, graduate and undergraduate, involved in the development process.

Keywords: calculus, apps, programming, mathematics

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Authors: Chua Bee Seok, Getrude Cosmas, Jasmine Adela Mutang, Shazia Iqbal Hashmi

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The aims of this study were to determine the factor structure and psychometric properties (i.e., reliability and convergent validity) of the employees trust scale, a newly created instrument by the researchers. The employees trust scale initially contained 82 items to measure employee’s trust toward their supervisors. A sample of 818 (343 females, 449 males) employees were selected randomly from public and private organization sectors in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Their ages ranged from 19 to 67 years old with the mean of 34.55 years old. Their average tenure with their current employer was 11.2 years (s.d. = 7.5 years). The respondents were asked to complete the employees trust scale, as well as a managerial trust questionnaire from Mishra. The exploratory factor analysis on employee’s trust toward their supervisor’s extracted three factors, labeled 'trustworthiness' (32 items), 'position status' (11 items) and 'relationship' (6 items) which accounted for 62.49% of the total variance. Trustworthiness factors were re-categorized into three sub factors: competency (11 items), benevolence (8 items) and integrity (13 items). All factors and sub factors of the scales demonstrated clear reliability with internal consistency of Cronbach’s Alpha above 0.85. The convergent validity of the Scale was supported by an expected pattern of correlations (positive and significant correlation) between the score of all factors and sub factors of the scale and the score on the managerial trust questionnaire which measured the same construct. The convergent validity of employees trust scale was further supported by the significant and positive inter correlation between the factors and sub factors of the scale. The results suggest that the employees trust scale is a reliable and valid measure. However, further studies need to be carried out in other groups of sample as to further validate the Scale.

Keywords: employees trust scale, psychometric properties, trustworthiness, position status, relationship

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Authors: Kai-Jui Kou, Tzu-Ling Shen, Ying-Fang Wang

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The objectives of the present study are to characterize nanoparticles generated from the different working type in 3D printing room and the stack flue during 3D printing process. The studied laboratory (10.5 m× 7.2 m × 3.2 m) with a ventilation rate of 500 m³/H is installed a 3D metal printing machine. Direct-reading instrument of a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS, Model 3082, TSI Inc., St. Paul, MN, USA) was used to conduct static sampling for nanoparticle number concentration and particle size distribution measurements. The SMPS obtained particle number concentration at every 3 minutes, the diameter of the SMPS ranged from 11~372 nm when the aerosol and sheath flow rates were set at 0.6 and 6 L/min, respectively. The concentrations of background, printing process, clearing operation, and screening operation were performed in the laboratory. On the other hand, we also conducted nanoparticle measurement on the 3D printing machine's stack flue to understand its emission characteristics. Results show that the nanoparticles emitted from the different operation process were the same distribution in the form of the uni-modal with number median diameter (NMD) as approximately 28.3 nm to 29.6 nm. The number concentrations of nanoparticles were 2.55×10³ count/cm³ in laboratory background, 2.19×10³ count/cm³ during printing process, 2.29×10³ count/cm³ during clearing process, 3.05×10³ count/cm³ during screening process, 2.69×10³ count/cm³ in laboratory background after printing process, and 6.75×10³ outside laboratory, respectively. We found that there are no emission nanoparticles during the printing process. However, the number concentration of stack flue nanoparticles in the ongoing print is 1.13×10⁶ count/cm³, and that of the non-printing is 1.63×10⁴ count/cm³, with a NMD of 458 nm and 29.4 nm, respectively. It can be confirmed that the measured particle size belongs to easily penetrate the filter in theory during the printing process, even though the 3D printer has a high-efficiency filtration device. Therefore, it is recommended that the stack flue of the 3D printer would be equipped with an appropriate dust collection device to prevent the operators from exposing these hazardous particles.

Keywords: nanoparticle, particle emission, 3D printing, number concentration

Procedia PDF Downloads 182

Authors: Zhidong Zhang

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This study established a mixed method model in assessing statistics learning with Bayesian network models. There are three variants in exploratory sequential designs. There are three linked steps in one of the designs: qualitative data collection and analysis, quantitative measure, instrument, intervention, and quantitative data collection analysis. The study used a scoring model of analysis of variance (ANOVA) as a content domain. The research study is to examine students’ learning in both semantic and performance aspects at fine grain level. The ANOVA score model, y = α+ βx1 + γx1+ ε, as a cognitive task to collect data during the student learning process. When the learning processes were decomposed into multiple steps in both semantic and performance aspects, a hierarchical Bayesian network was established. This is a theory-driven process. The hierarchical structure was gained based on qualitative cognitive analysis. The data from students’ ANOVA score model learning was used to give evidence to the hierarchical Bayesian network model from the evidential variables. Finally, the assessment results of students’ ANOVA score model learning were reported. Briefly, this was a mixed method research design applied to statistics learning assessment. The mixed methods designs expanded more possibilities for researchers to establish advanced quantitative models initially with a theory-driven qualitative mode.

Keywords: exploratory sequential design, ANOVA score model, Bayesian network model, mixed methods research design, cognitive analysis

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Authors: Eleonora Carloni, Michela Arnaboldi

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In academia, the investigation of the relationship between cultural heritage and corporations is ubiquitous in several fields of studies. In practice corporations are more and more integrating arts and cultural heritage in their strategies for disparate benefits, such as: to foster customer’s purchase intention with authentic and aesthetic experiences, to improve their reputation towards local communities, and to motivate employees with creative thinking. There are diverse forms under which corporations set these artistic interventions, from sponsorships to arts-based training centers for employees, but scholars agree that the maximum expression of this cultural trend are corporate museums, growing in number and relevance. Corporate museums are museum-like settings, hosting artworks of corporations’ history and interests. In academia they have been ascribed as strategic asset and they have been associated with diverse uses for corporations’ benefits, from place for preservation of cultural heritage, to tools for public relations and cultural flagship stores. Previous studies have thus extensively but fragmentally studied the diverse benefits of corporate museum opening to corporations, with a lack of comprehensive approach and a digression on how to evaluate and report corporate museum’s performances. Stepping forward, the present study aims to investigate: 1) what are the key performance measures corporate museums need to report to the associated corporations; 2) how are the key performance measures reported to the concerned corporations. This direction of study is not only suggested as future direction in academia but it has solid basis in practice, aiming to answer to the need of corporate museums’ directors to account for corporate museum’s activities to the concerned corporation. Coherently, at an empirical level the study relies on action research method, whose distinctive feature is to develop practical knowledge through a participatory process. This paper indeed relies on the experience of a collaborative project between the researchers and a set of corporate museums in Italy, aimed at co-developing a performance measurement system. The project involved two steps: a first step, in which researchers derived the potential performance measures from literature along with exploratory interviews; a second step, in which researchers supported the pool of corporate museums’ directors in co-developing a set of key performance indicators for reporting. Preliminary empirical findings show that while scholars insist on corporate museums’ capability to develop networking relations, directors insist on the role of museums as internal supplier of knowledge for innovation goals. Moreover, directors stress museums’ cultural mission and outcomes as potential benefits for corporation, by remarking to include both cultural and business measures in the final tool. In addition, they give relevant attention to the wording used in humanistic terms while struggling to express all measures in economic terms. The paper aims to contribute to corporate museums’ and more broadly to arts-based initiatives’ literature in two directions. Firstly, it elaborates key performance measures with related indicators to report on cultural initiatives for corporations. Secondly, it provides evidence of challenges and practices to handle reporting on these initiatives, because of tensions arising from the co-existence of diverse perspectives, namely arts and business worlds.

Keywords: arts-based initiative, corporate museum, hybrid organization, performance measurement

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Authors: Tesfaye Alamirew Dessie

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Our study focuses on developing a Model Predictive Controller (MPC) and evaluating it against a traditional PID for a pasteurization process. Utilizing system identification from the experimental data, the dynamics of the pasteurization process were calculated. Using best fit with data validation, residual, and stability analysis, the quality of several model architectures was evaluated. The validation data fit the auto-regressive with exogenous input (ARX322) model of the pasteurization process by roughly 80.37 percent. The ARX322 model structure was used to create MPC and PID control techniques. After comparing controller performance based on settling time, overshoot percentage, and stability analysis, it was found that MPC controllers outperform PID for those parameters.

Keywords: MPC, PID, ARX, pasteurization

Procedia PDF Downloads 163