Search results for: level of numeracy

Authors: Chiung-Ju Huang

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This study utilizes the quantile regression analysis to examine the impact of governance (including democratic quality and technical quality) on happiness in 101 countries worldwide, classified as “developed countries” and “developing countries”. The empirical results show that the impact of democratic quality and technical quality on happiness is significantly positive for “developed countries”, while is insignificant for “developing countries”. The results suggest that the authorities in developed countries can enhance the level of individual happiness by means of improving the democracy quality and technical quality. However, for developing countries, promoting the quality of governance in order to enhance the level of happiness may not be effective. Policy makers in developed countries may pay more attention on increasing real GDP per capita instead of promoting the quality of governance to enhance individual happiness.

Keywords: governance, happiness, multiple regression, quantile regression

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Authors: Alice Civera, Mattia Cattaneo, Michele Meoli, Stefano Paleari

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Despite the fact that more equal access to higher education has been an objective public policy for several decades, little is known about the effectiveness of alternative means for achieving such goal. Indeed, nowadays, high level of graduate population can be observed both in countries with the high and low level of fees, or high and low level of public expenditure in higher education. This paper surveys the extant literature providing some background on the economic concepts of the higher education market, and reviews key determinants of demand and supply. A theoretical model of aggregate demand and supply of higher education is derived, with the aim to facilitate the understanding of the challenges in today’s higher education systems, as well as the opportunities for development. The model is validated on some exemplary case studies describing the different relationship between the level of public investment and levels of graduate population and helps to derive general implications. In addition, using a two-stage least squares model, we build a macroeconomic model of supply and demand for European higher education. The model allows interpreting policies shifting either the supply or the demand for higher education, and allows taking into consideration contextual conditions with the aim of comparing divergent policies under a common framework. Results show that the same policy objective (i.e., increasing graduate population) can be obtained by shifting either the demand function (i.e., by strengthening student aid) or the supply function (i.e., by directly supporting higher education institutions). Under this theoretical perspective, the level of tuition fees is irrelevant, and empirically we can observe high levels of graduate population in both countries with high (i.e., the UK) or low (i.e., Germany) levels of tuition fees. In practice, this model provides a conceptual framework to help better understanding what are the external conditions that need to be considered, when planning a policy for increasing graduate population. Extrapolating a policy from results in different countries, under this perspective, is a poor solution when contingent factors are not addressed. The second implication of this conceptual framework is that policies addressing the supply or the demand function needs to address different contingencies. In other words, a government aiming at increasing graduate population needs to implement complementary policies, designing them according to the side of the market that is interested. For example, a ‘supply-driven’ intervention, through the direct financial support of higher education institutions, needs to address the issue of institutions’ moral hazard, by creating incentives to supply higher education services in efficient conditions. By contrast, a ‘demand-driven’ policy, providing student aids, need to tackle the students’ moral hazard, by creating an incentive to responsible behavior.

Keywords: graduates, higher education, higher education policies, tuition fees

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Authors: Wen-Te Chang, Yun-Hsin Pai

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Purpose: Based on the interdisciplinary of lower grade Elementary School with the integration of STEAM concept, related wooden toy and pedagogy plans were developed and evaluated. The research goal was to benefit elementary school education. Design/methodology/approach: The subjects were teachers from two primary school teachers and students from the department of design of universities in Taipei. Amount of 103participants (Male: 34, Female: 69) were invited to participate in the research. The research tools are “STEAM toy design” and “questionnaire of STEAM toy Pedagogy plan.” The STEAM toy pedagogy plans were evaluated after the activity of “The interdisciplinary literacy discipline guiding study program--STEAM wooden workshop,” Finding/results: The study results: (1) As factors analyzing of the questionnaire indicated the percentage on the major factors were cognition teaching 68.61%, affection 80.18% and technique 80.14%, with α=.936 of validity. The assessment tools were proved to be valid for STEAM pedagogy plan evaluation; (2) The analysis of the questionnaires investigation confirmed that the main effect of the teaching factors was not significant (affection = technique = cognition); however, the interaction between STEAM factors revealed to be significant (F (8, 1164) =5.51, p < .01); (3) The main effect of the six pedagogy plans was significant (climbing toy > bird toy = gondola toy > frog castanets > train toy > balancing toy), and an interactive effect between STEAM factors also reached a significant level, (F (8, 1164) =5.51, p < .01), especially on the artistic (A/ Art) aspect. Originality/value: The main achievement of research: (1) A pedagogy plan evaluation was successfully developed. (2) The interactive effect between the STEAM and the teaching factors reached a significant level. (3) An interactive effect between the STEAM factors and the pedagogy plans reached a significant level too.

Keywords: STEAM, toy design, pedagogy plans, evaluation

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Authors: Lok Bahadur Shrestha, Narayan Raj Bhattarai, Basudha Khanal

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Introduction: Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) are the normal commensal of human skin and mucous membranes. The study was carried out to study the prevalence of CoNS among clinical isolates, to characterize them up to species level and to compare the three conventional methods for detection of biofilm formation. Objectives: to characterize the clinically significant coagulase-negative staphylococci up to species level, to compare the three phenotypic methods for the detection of biofilm formation and to study the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of the isolates. Methods: CoNS isolates were obtained from various clinical samples during the period of 1 year. Characterization up to species level was done using biochemical test and study of biofilm formation was done by tube adherence, congo red agar, and tissue culture plate method. Results: Among 71 CoNS isolates, seven species were identified. S. epidermidis was the most common species followed by S. saprophyticus, S. haemolyticus. Antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of CoNS documented resistance of 90% to ampicillin. Resistance to cefoxitin and ceftriaxone was observed in 55% of the isolates. We detected biofilm formation in 71.8% of isolates. The sensitivity of tube adherence method was 82% while that of congo red agar method was 78%. Conclusion: Among 71 CoNS isolated, S. epidermidis was the most common isolates followed by S. saprophyticus and S. haemolyticus. Biofilm formation was detected in 71.8% of the isolates. All of the methods were effective at detecting biofilm-producing CoNS strains. Biofilm former strains are more resistant to antibiotics as compared to biofilm non-formers.

Keywords: CoNS, congo red agar, bloodstream infections, foreign body-related infections, tissue culture plate

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Authors: D. A. Onifade

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Kokoro is maize snack which is very popular among poor masses in Nigeria who consume it along with gari(a cassava product) as lunch on a regular basis. In this study, fungal contaminants of kokoro were characterized and its aflatoxin content determined. A total of 30 fungal isolates were obtained from kokoro samples and they belong to 3 different species. Aspergillus flavus had the highest frequency of occurrence of 73.33% while Penicillium species had the lowest (6.66%). Different concentration of aflatoxin B1 was detected in some of the kokoro samples analyzed. Sample D had the highest concentration of 7.25 parts per billion (ppb). The lowest concentration detected was 0.06 ppb in sample P. No aflatoxin G1 and G2 was detected in all the kokoro samples with exception of sample P which contained 2.54 ppb aflatoxin G1.According to international standards some of the kokoro samples are not suitable for human consumption because of high-level aflatoxin which was above the recommended level. Therefore, production of kokoro should be standardized and appropriate packaging materials utilized to prevent the growth of aflatoxigenic fungi. This is to safeguard the health of many poor Nigerians who consume it on a regular basis.

Keywords: kokoro, maize snack, aflatoxin, contamination, mould, Nigeria

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Authors: A. K. Srivastava, Sandeep K. Singh, A. K. Kulshetra

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Agriculture is the backbone of developing countries of Asian sub-continent like India. Uttar Pradesh is the most populous and fifth largest State of India. Total population of the state is 19.95 crore, which is 16.49% of the country that is more than that of many other countries of the world. Uttar Pradesh occupies only 7.36% of the total area of India. It is a well-established fact that agriculture has virtually been the lifeline of the State’s economy in the past for long and its predominance is likely to continue for a fairly long time in future. The total geographical area of the state is 242.01 lakh hectares, out of which 120.44 lakh hectares is facing various land degradation problems. This needs to be put under various conservation and reclamation measures at much faster pace in order to enhance agriculture productivity in the State. Keeping in view the above scenario Department of Agriculture, Government of Uttar Pradesh has formulated a multi-purpose project namely Bhoomi Sena for the entire state. The main objective of the project is to improve the land degradation using low cost technology available at village level. The total outlay of the project is Rs. 39643.75 Lakhs for an area of about 226000 ha included in the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17). It is expected that the total man days would be 310.60 lakh. An attempt has been made to use the space technology like remote sensing, geographical information system, at cadastral level for the overall management of agriculture engineering work which is required for the treatment of degradation of the land. After integration of thematic maps a proposed action plan map has been prepared for the future work.

Keywords: GPS, GIS, remote sensing, topographic survey, cadestral mapping

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Authors: D. K. Maurya, S. M. Saini

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We investigate theoretically the electronic and optical properties of YNi₄Si-type HoNi₄Si compound from first principle calculations. Calculations are performed using full-potential augmented plane wave (FPLAPW) method in the frame work of density functional theory (DFT). The Coulomb corrected local-spin density approximation (LSDA+U) in the self-interaction correction (SIC) has been used for exchange-correlation potential. Analysis of the calculated band structure of HoNi₄Si compound demonstrates their metallic character. We found Ni-3d states mainly contribute to density of states from -5.0 eV to the Fermi level while the Ho-f states peak stands tall in comparison to the small contributions made by the Ni-d and Ho-d states above Fermi level, which is consistent with experiment, in HoNi4Si compound. Our calculated optical conductivity compares well with the experimental data and the results are analyzed in the light of band to band transitions.

Keywords: electronic properties, density of states, optical properties, LSDA+U approximation, YNi₄Si-type HoNi4Si compound

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Authors: Hye Rim Lee, Eui Jun Jeong, Ju Woo Kim

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This study will examine how the therapeutic factors (therapeutic catharsis-seeking and game-efficacy of the game player) and self-construal factors (independent and interdependent self-construal of the game player) as well as social capital factors (bonding and bridging social capital of the game player) affect trait aggression in the game. Results show that both therapeutic catharsis-seeking and game self-efficacy are particularly important to the players since they cause the game players’ aggressive tendencies to be greatly diminished. Independent self-construal reduces the level of the players’ aggression. Interestingly enough, the bonding social capital enhances the level of the players’ aggression, while individuals with bridging social capital did not show any significant effects. The results and implications will be discussed herein.

Keywords: aggression catharsis, game self-efficacy, self-construal, social capital, therapeutic catharsis seeking

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Authors: Emily A. Gilbert, Jephte Sompud, Andy R. Mojiol, Cynthia B. Sompud, Alim Biun

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Gaya Island of Sabah is known for its wildlife and marine biodiversity. It has marks itself as one of the hot destinations of tourists from all around the world. Gaya Island tourism activities have contributed to Sabah’s economy revenue with the high number of tourists visiting the island. However, it has led to the increased anthropogenic noise derived from tourism activities. This may greatly interfere with the animals such as understory birds that rely on acoustic signals as a tool for communication. Many studies in other parts of the regions reveal that anthropogenic noise does decrease species richness of avian community. However, in Malaysia, published research regarding the impact of anthropogenic noise on the understory birds is still very lacking. This study was conducted in order to fill up this gap. This study aims to investigate the anthropogenic noise’s impact towards understory bird population. There were three sites within the Primary forest of Gaya Island that were chosen to sample the level of anthropogenic noise in relation to the understory bird population. Noise mapping method was used to measure the anthropogenic noise level and identify the zone with high anthropogenic noise level (> 60dB) and zone with low anthropogenic noise level (< 60dB) based on the standard threshold of noise level. The methods that were used for this study was solely mist netting and ring banding. This method was chosen as it can determine the diversity of the understory bird population in Gaya Island. The preliminary study was conducted from 15th to 26th April and 5th to 10th May 2015 whereby there were 2 mist nets that were set up at each of the zones within the selected site. The data was analyzed by using the descriptive analysis, presence and absence analysis, diversity indices and diversity t-test. Meanwhile, PAST software was used to analyze the obtain data. The results from this study present a total of 60 individuals that consisted of 12 species from 7 families of understory birds were recorded in three of the sites in Gaya Island. The Shannon-Wiener index shows that diversity of species in high anthropogenic noise zone and low anthropogenic noise zone were 1.573 and 2.009, respectively. However, the statistical analysis shows that there was no significant difference between these zones. Nevertheless, based on the presence and absence analysis, it shows that the species at the low anthropogenic noise zone was higher as compared to the high anthropogenic noise zone. Thus, this result indicates that there is an impact of anthropogenic noise on the population diversity of understory birds. There is still an urgent need to conduct an in-depth study by increasing the sample size in the selected sites in order to fully understand the impact of anthropogenic noise towards the understory birds population so that it can then be in cooperated into the wildlife management for a sustainable environment in Gaya Island.

Keywords: anthropogenic noise, biodiversity, Gaya Island, understory bird

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Authors: Liu Yao, B. T. Wan Maseri, Wan Mohd, B. T. Nurul Izzah, Mohd Shah, Wei Wei

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Effectively managing knowledge has become a vital weapon for businesses to survive or to succeed in the increasingly competitive market. But do they perform environmental analysis when managing knowledge? If yes, how is the level and significance? This paper established a conceptual framework covering the basic knowledge management activities (KMA) to examine their contribution towards organizational performance (OP). Environmental analysis (EA) was then investigated from both internal and external aspects, to identify its effects on that contribution. Data was collected from 400 Chinese SMEs by questionnaires. Cronbach's α and factor analysis were conducted. Regression results show that the external analysis presents higher level than internal analysis. However, the internal analysis mediates the effects of external analysis on the KMA-OP relation and plays more significant role in the relation comparing with the external analysis. Thus, firms shall improve environmental analysis especially the internal analysis to enhance their KM practices.

Keywords: knowledge management, environmental analysis, performance, mediating, small sized enterprises, medium sized enterprises

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Authors: Adedeji S. Adegoke, Olakunle N. Popoola

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Promotion is indispensible and inestimable property of marketing through which different organizations persuade their prospective customers. The idea of passing information about a product to the consumer at outside the world is known as promotional activities. A study was determined whether there was relationship between promotional mix and consumer buying decision, that is may be customers were influenced by promotion. It was investigated to determine whether promotion can be used to influence competitors’ activities in the market and also research was conducted to determine if there was any problem encountered by Nigeria bottling company plc, in promoting its beverages products. The various forms of promotional mix available for an organization were examined and recommended the appropriate promotional mix that company can adopt to boost the company sales. The research design was depended on the primary and secondary data. The primary data were information collected from the subjects using methods of data collection, that is through the use of questionnaire, interview, direct observation, etc. The secondary data consist of information that already exists having been collected for another purpose by some researchers. These include internal and external sources. The questionnaire was designed and administered to the staff of production and marketing department of Nigeria bottling company plc., which served as the population of this study, out of which sample was drawn randomly from the population, using sample random technique. It was deduced that 90% of the respondents opined that advertising influenced competition in the market and that there was a good sale after they started advert while 10% of them were not sure. At advertising level, 85% of the respondents chose 81-100% as the increase in the percentage recorded in their sales level, while 10% of them agreed that increase in the percentage recorded in their sales was within 61-80% and 5% of them chose 45-60% as the percentage increase in their sales record. Due to unstable economic condition of the Nigeria, many business organizations adopted the promotional strategies. Apart from advertising, it was discovered through research that sales promotion served as an incentive to consumers of Nigeria bottling company plc at a time offer gifts and prizes to consumers which drastically increased their level of sales. Since advertising and sales promotion increased the level of sales, more money should be allocated for this purpose to maintain market share and thereby increase profit.

Keywords: consumer, marketing, organization, promotional mix

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Authors: Preeti Gacche

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A considerable part of undergraduate level English Examination papers is devoted to grammar. Hence the grammar questions in the question papers are evaluated and the opinions of both students and teachers about them are obtained and analyzed. A grammar test of 100 marks is administered to 43 students to check their performance. The question papers have been evaluated by 10 different teachers and their scores compared. The analysis of 38 University question papers reveals that on an average 20 percent marks are allotted to grammar. Almost all the grammar topics are tested. Abundant use of grammatical terminology is observed in the questions. Decontextualization, repetition, possibility of multiple correct answers and grammatical errors in framing the questions have been observed. Opinions of teachers and students about grammar questions vary in many respects. The students responses are analyzed medium-wise and sex-wise. The Medium at the School level and the sex of the students are found to play no role as far as interest in the study of grammar is concerned. English medium students solve grammar questions intuitively whereas non-English medium students are required to recollect the rules of grammar. Prepositions, Verbs, Articles and Model auxiliaries are found to be easy topics for most students whereas the use of conjunctions is the most difficult topic. Out of context items of grammar are difficult to answer in comparison with contextualized items of grammar. Hence contextualized texts to test grammar items are desirable. No formal training in setting questions is imparted to teachers by the competent authorities like the University. They need to be trained in testing. Statistically there is no significant change of score with the change in the rater in testing of grammar items. There is scope of future improvement. The question papers need to be evaluated and feedback needs to be obtained from students and teachers for future improvement.

Keywords: context, evaluation, grammar, tests

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Authors: Ayal Siegel, Moshe Inbar, Amatzya Peled

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This study examined the characteristic runoff coefficient in different urban areas. The main area studied is located in the city of Haifa, northern Israel. Haifa spreads out eastward from the Mediterranean seacoast to the top of the Carmel Mountain range with an elevation of 300 m. above sea level. For this research project, four watersheds were chosen, each characterizing a different part of the city; 1) Upper Hadar, a spacious suburb on the upper mountain side; 2) Qiryat Eliezer, a crowded suburb on a level plane of the watershed; 3) Technion, a large technical research university which is located halfway between the top of the mountain range and the coast line. 4) Keret, a remote suburb, on the southwestern outskirts of Haifa. In all of the watersheds found suitable, instruments were installed to continuously measure the water level flowing in the channels. Three rainfall gauges scattered in the study area complete the hydrological requirements for this research project. The runoff coefficient C in peak discharge events was determined by the Rational Formula. The main research finding is the significant relationship between the intensity of rainfall, and the impervious area which is connected to the drainage system of the watershed. For less intense rainfall, the full potential of the connected impervious area will not be exploited. As a result, the runoff coefficient value decreases as do the peak discharge rate and the runoff yield from the storm event. The research results will enable application to other areas by means of hydrological model to be be set up on GIS software that will make it possible to estimate the runoff coefficient of any given city watershed.

Keywords: runoff coefficient, rational method, time of concentration, connected impervious area.

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Authors: Majda Al Salti

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Tourism industry is considered globally as one of the leading industries due to its noticeable contribution to countries' gross domestic product (GDP) and job creation. However, tourism is vulnerable to crisis and disaster that requires its preparedness. With its limited capabilities, there is a need to improve links and the understanding between the tourism industry and the emergency services, thus facilitating future emergency response to any potential incident. This study aims to develop the concept of an integrated emergency management system for the tourism industry. The study used face-to-face semi-structured interviews to evaluate the level of crisis and disaster preparedness of the tourism industry in Oman. The findings suggested that there is a lack of understanding of crisis and disaster management, and hence preparedness level among Oman Tourism Authorities appears to be under-expectation. Therefore, a clear need for tourism sector inter- and intra-integration and collaboration is important in the pre-disaster stage. The need for such integrations can help the tourism industry in Oman to prepare for future incidents as well as identifying its requirements in time of crisis for effective response.

Keywords: tourism, emergency services, crisis, disaster

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Authors: Muhammad Luqman, Mujahid Karim

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Agricultural journalism considered an effective tool in the diffusion of agricultural technologies among the members of farming communities. Various agricultural journalism forms are used by the different organization in order to address the community problems and provide solutions to them. The present study was conducted for analyzing the role of agricultural journalism in the dissemination of agricultural information. The universe of the study was district Sargodha from which a sample of 100 was collected through a validating and pre-tested questionnaire. Statistical analysis of collected data was done with the help of SPSS. It was concluded that majority (64.6%) of the respondent were middle-aged (31-50) years, also indicates a high (73.23%) literacy rate above middle-level education, most (78.3%) of the respondents were connected with the occupation of farming. In various forms of agricultural journalism “Radio/T.V./F.M) is used by 99.4% of the respondent, Mobile phones (96%), Magazine/ Newspaper/ periodical (66.4%) and social media (60.9%). Regarding majors areas focused on agriculture journalism “Help farmers to enhance their productivity is on the highest level with a mean of ( =3.98/5.00). The regression model of farmer's education and various forms of agricultural journalism facilities used was found to be significant.

Keywords: agricultural information, journalism, farming community, technology diffusion and adoption

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Authors: Raif Parlakkaya, Umran Kahraman, Huseyin Cetin

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Internet financial reporting and corporate governance issues are in the focus of academic and professional studies due to their attributed importance by stakeholders of corporations. Major aim of this study is to reveal the relationship between internet financial reporting which is held as dependent variable and some indicators of corporate governance such as the ratio of managerial ownership, blockholder ownership, number of independent members in the board of directors, frequency of meetings by audit committee and education level of audit committee members which are held as independent variables. Main purpose is to reveal the effect of corporate governance on the voluntary efforts of Internet Financial reporting. The scope of the research is limited to the Turkish Corporations listed in Borsa Istanbul (Istanbul Stock Exchange) and findings which are generated by means of SPSS software are revealed in results section and interpreted in conclusions.

Keywords: audit committee, corporate governance, internet financial reporting, managerial ownership

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Authors: S. Haider, B. Bhushan

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Eye Gaze behaviour of individuals with and without intellectual disability are investigated in an eye tracking study in terms of sensitivity to Nonaccidental (NAPs) and Metric (MPs) shape properties. Total fixation time is used as an indirect measure of attention allocation. Studies have found Mean reaction times for non accidental properties (NAPs) to be shorter than for metric (MPs) when the MP and NAP differences were equalized. METHODS: Twenty-five individuals with intellectual disability (mild and moderate level of Mental Retardation) and twenty-seven normal individuals were compared on mean total fixation duration, accuracy level and mean reaction time for mild NAPs, extreme NAPs and metric properties of images. 2D images of cylinders were adapted and made into forced choice match-to-sample tasks. Tobii TX300 Eye Tracker was used to record total fixation duration and data obtained from the Areas of Interest (AOI). Variable trial duration (total reaction time of each participant) and fixed trail duration (data taken at each second from one to fifteen seconds) data were used for analyses. Both groups did not differ in terms of fixation times (fixed as well as variable) across any of the three image manipulations but differed in terms of reaction time and accuracy. Normal individuals had longer reaction time compared to individuals with intellectual disability across all types of images. Both the groups differed significantly on accuracy measure across all image types. Normal individuals performed better across all three types of images. Mild NAPs vs. Metric differences: There was significant difference between mild NAPs and metric properties of images in terms of reaction times. Mild NAPs images had significantly longer reaction time compared to metric for normal individuals but this difference was not found for individuals with intellectual disability. Mild NAPs images had significantly better accuracy level compared to metric for both the groups. In conclusion, type of image manipulations did not result in differences in attention allocation for individuals with and without intellectual disability. Mild Nonaccidental properties facilitate better accuracy level compared to metric in both the groups but this advantage is seen only for normal group in terms of mean reaction time.

Keywords: eye gaze fixations, eye movements, intellectual disability, stimulus properties

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Authors: S. Kurt, B. C. Demirbag

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Meeting employees’ expectations from an organization physically and mentally is a result of one’s assessing his or her work and its environment as well as his feeling about them. It was to determine the job satisfaction levels of the nurses in public hospitals. This descriptive study was carried out with 404 nurses (60%) accepting to take part in the study voluntarily and working in the same hospital for at least three months from 673 nurses working in hospitals depending on The Secretaryship of Public Hospital Association in Rize. The study aimed to reach the whole population by not taking samples. The data were collected by the personal information form (16 questions) prepared by the researcher, and the job satisfaction scale (36 articles) between June 1st and August 30th, 2014. According to scale, mean scores of nurses’ job satisfaction were 3.23±0.51. In addition, it was determined that the factors such as nurses’s age, marital status, childbearing, place of duty, position in workplace, being liked of job, education status, work experience, weekly working hours, maturing in professional practice, unit worked, hospital worked and colleagues affected the job satisfaction levels of nurses (p <0.05). In conclusion; the nurses’ general job satisfaction levels were moderate level.

Keywords: hospitals, job satisfaction level, nurses, public hospitals

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Authors: Jung-Ho Moon, Tae Kwon Ha

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M2 steels, the typical Co-free high speed steel (HSS) possessing hardness level of 63~65 HRc, are most widely used for cutting tools. On the other hand, Co-containing HSS’s, such as M35 and M42, show a higher hardness level of 65~67 HRc and used for high quality cutting tools. In the fabrication of HSS’s, it is very important to control cleanliness and eutectic carbide structure of the ingot and it is required to increase productivity at the same time. Production of HSS ingots includes a variety of processes such as casting, electro-slag remelting (ESR), forging, blooming, and wire rod rolling processes. In the present study, electro-slag rapid remelting (ESRR) process, an advanced ESR process combined by continuous casting, was successfully employed to fabricate HSS billets of M2, M35, and M42 steels. Distribution and structure of eutectic carbides of the billets were analysed and cleanliness, hardness, and composition profile of the billets were also evaluated.

Keywords: high speed tool steel, eutectic carbide, microstructure, hardness, fracture toughness

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Authors: Savin Phoeun

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Long time civil war, economic, infrastructure, social, and political structure were destroyed and everything starts from zero. Transport and communication are the key feature of the national economic growth, especially inland transport and other mode take a complementary role which supported by government and international organization both direct and indirect to private sector and small and medium size enterprises. The objectives of this study are to study the general characteristics, capacity and competitive KPIs of Cambodian Inland Transport Operators. Questionnaire and interview were formed from capacity and competitiveness key performance indicators to take apart in survey to Inland Transport Companies in Phnom Penh capital city of Cambodia. And descriptive statistics was applied to identify the data. The result of this study divided into three distinct sectors: 1). Management ability of transport operators – capital management, financial and qualification are in similar level which can compete between local competitors (moderated level). 2). Ability in operation: customer service providing is better but seemed in high cost operation because mostly they are in family size. 3). Local Cambodian Inland Transport Service Providers are able to compete with each other because they are in similar operation level while Thai competitors mostly higher than. The suggestion and recommendation from the result that inland transport companies should access to new technology, improve strategic management, build partnership (join/corporate) to be bigger size of capital and company in order to attract truthfulness from customers and customize the services to satisfy. Inland Service Providers should change characteristic from only cost competitive to cost saving and service enhancement.

Keywords: assessment, competitiveness, inland transport, operator

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Authors: Ghulam Zahra

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Parenting style affects the morality of their children. There is plenty of evidence to support the effect of parenting styles on the morality of their children. Therefore, this research is considered essential and suitable. Thus, the main objective of this study was to assess the correlation between the parenting style of mothers and the moral development of primary school students. The population consisted of all primary school students enrolled in the province of Punjab. The sample was comprised of twelve hundred thirty-nine primary school students. One questionnaire was adapted to explore the parenting styles of mothers and to assess the level of students’ level of morality; a moral development scale was adopted. The conclusions showed that there was a significant correlation exist among authoritarian parenting style, permissive parenting, and moral developments. Based on findings, it is recommended that parents should follow a warm style of parenting for the sake of the moral development of their children.

Keywords: maternal parenting style, moral development, authoritative parenting, authoritarian parenting, permissive parenting

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Authors: Ali Saeed Alghamdi, Basel Mazen Alsolami, Basel Saeed Alghamdi, Muhanad Saleh Alzahrani Alamri, Salman Anwar Thabet, Abdulhalim J. Kinsara

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Objectives: This study measures the knowledge of the cardiovascular disease among the general population in western regions of Saudi Arabia, and it aimed to increase the level of awareness about cardiovascular diseases among the general population by providing an awareness lecture that included information about the risk factors, major symptoms, and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. The lecture has been attached at the end of the questionnaire. Setting: This study was conducted through an online questionnaire that included our aim and main objectives that targeted the general population in the Western regions of Saudi Arabia (Makkah and Madinah regions). Participants: This study participants were 460 collected through an online questionnaire. Methods: All Saudi citizens and residents who live in the western region of Saudi Arabia aged 18 years and above will be invited to participate voluntarily. A pre-structured questionnaire was designed to collect data on age, gender, marital status, education level, occupation, lifestyle habits, and history of heart diseases, with cardiac symptoms and risk factors sections. Results: The majority of respondents were females (74.8%) and Saudis. The knowledge about cardiovascular disease risk factors was weak. Only (18.5%) scores an excellent response regarding risk factors awareness. Lack of exercise, stress, and obesity were the most known risk factors. Regarding cardiovascular disease symptoms, chest pain scores the highest symptom (87.6%) among other symptoms like dyspnea, syncope, and excessive sweating. Participants revealed a poor awareness regarding cardiovascular disease symptoms also (0.9%). However, preventable factors for cardiovascular diseases were more knowledgeable than others categories in this study (60% fall into excellent knowledge). Smoking cessation, normal cholesterol level, and normal blood pressure score the highest preventable methods (92.2%), (88.6%), and (78.7%) respectively. 83.7% of the participant have attended the awareness lecture, and 99 of the attendees reported that the lecture increased their knowledge about cardiovascular disease. Conclusion: This study discussed the level of community awareness of cardiovascular disease in terms of symptoms, risk factors, and protective factors. We found a huge lack of the participant's level of knowledge about the disease and how to prevent it. Moreover, we measure the prevalence of the comorbidities among our participants (diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia/ hypertriglyceridemia) and their extent of adherence to their medication. In conclusion, this study not only demonstrates awareness of cardiovascular disease risk factors, symptoms, management, and the association between each domain but also provides educational material. Further educational material and campaigns are required to increase awareness and knowledge about cardiovascular diseases.

Keywords: awareness, cardiovascular diseases, education, prevention, risk factors

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Authors: Oh Hyeon Jeon, WooYoung Jung

Abstract:

In this study, seepage analysis was performed by the level difference between upstream and downstream of weir structure for safety evaluation of weir structure against flooding. Monte Carlo Simulation method was employed by considering the probability distribution of the adjacent ground parameter, i.e., permeability coefficient of weir structure. Moreover, by using a commercially available finite element program (ABAQUS), modeling of the weir structure is carried out. Based on this model, the characteristic of water seepage during flooding was determined at each water level with consideration of the uncertainty of their corresponding permeability coefficient. Subsequently, fragility function could be constructed based on this response from numerical analysis; this fragility function results could be used to determine the weakness of weir structure subjected to flooding disaster. They can also be used as a reference data that can comprehensively predict the probability of failur,e and the degree of damage of a weir structure.

Keywords: weir structure, seepage, flood disaster fragility, probabilistic risk assessment, Monte-Carlo simulation, permeability coefficient

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Authors: A. H. Paul, L. J. Gizaki, E. P. Ejimbi

Abstract:

The study was carried out to determine the level of knowledge and adoption of agricultural biotechnology in Taraba state. Purposive and simple sampling techniques were used to select respondents. Questionnaires were administered to 90 respondents. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results showed that the majority (73.3%) of the respondents were small-scale farmers, whereas 24.4 percent were engaged in secondary occupations. The mean farm size was 1-5 ha. The majority (72.2%) had one form of formal education or another. About 84 percent (84.4%) had been farming for at least 10 years. There was a mean household size of 6-10 persons. Many (97.8%) of the respondents were knowledgeable about biotechnology, and about 70.0 percent (70.1%) reported that the biotechnology products which they had adopted were very good for animals and human consumption. The result of Pearson’s correlation (r = 0.699) was significant at the 0.01 alpha level. Therefore, the hypothesis that there is no significant relationship between knowledge and adoption of agricultural biotechnology was rejected. It was concluded that the agricultural biotechnologies that were adopted were very safe for animals, humans, and the environment. It was recommended that the government should employ more extension agents to help educate farmers about agricultural biotechnology.

Keywords: agricultural, adoption, biotechnology, knowledge

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Authors: Motahareh Fadaei

Abstract:

Wireless sensor networks that are used to monitor a special environment, are formed from a large number of sensor nodes. The role of these sensors is to sense special parameters from ambient and to make connection. In these networks, the most important challenge is the management of energy usage. Clustering is one of the methods that are broadly used to face this challenge. In this paper, a distributed clustering protocol based on learning automata is proposed for underwater wireless sensor networks. The proposed algorithm that is called LA-Clustering forms clusters in the same energy level, based on the energy level of nodes and the connection radius regardless of size and the structure of sensor network. The proposed approach is simulated and is compared with some other protocols with considering some metrics such as network lifetime, number of alive nodes, and number of transmitted data. The simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach.

Keywords: clustering, energy consumption‎, learning automata, underwater sensor networks

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Authors: Jarek Krajewski, Andre Wittenborn, Martin Sauerland

Abstract:

This abstract describes a promising approach for estimating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) based on prosodic speech characteristics. It illustrates the validity of this method by briefly discussing results from an Arabic refugee sample (N= 47, 32 m, 15 f). A well-established standardized self-report scale “Reaction of Adolescents to Traumatic Stress” (RATS) was used to determine the ground truth level of PTSD. The speech material was prompted by telling about autobiographical related sadness inducing experiences (sampling rate 16 kHz, 8 bit resolution). In order to investigate PTSD-induced speech changes, a self-developed set of 136 prosodic speech features was extracted from the .wav files. This set was adapted to capture traumatization related speech phenomena. An artificial neural network (ANN) machine learning model was applied to determine the PTSD level and reached a correlation of r = .37. These results indicate that our classifiers can achieve similar results to those seen in speech-based stress research.

Keywords: speech prosody, PTSD, machine learning, feature extraction

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Authors: Gheorghe Braniste

Abstract:

The management of the training process in sports is closely related to the awareness of the close connection between performance and the morphological, functional and psychological characteristics of the athlete's body. Achieving high results in Olympic sports is influenced, on the one hand, by the genetically determined characteristics of the body and, on the other hand, by the morphological, functional and motor abilities of the athlete. Taking into account the importance of properly understanding the evolutionary specificity of athletes to assess their competitive potential, this study provides a comparative analysis of the parameters that characterize the growth and development of the level of adaptation of sweeping rowers, considering the growth interval between 12 and 20 years. The study established that, in the multi-annual training process, the bodies of the targeted athletes register significant adaptive changes while analyzing parameters of the morphological, functional, psychomotor and sports-technical spheres. As a result of the influence of physical efforts, both specific and non-specific, there is an increase in the adaptability of the body, its transfer to a much higher level of functionality within the parameters, useful and economical adaptive reactions influenced by environmental factors, be they internal or external. The research was carried out for 7 years, on a group of 28 athletes, following their evolution and recording the specific parameters of each age stage. In order to determine the level of physical, morpho-functional, psychomotor development and technical training of rowers, the screening data were applied at the State University of Physical Education and Sports in the Republic of Moldova. During the research, measurements were made on the waist, in the standing and sitting position, arm span, weight, circumference and chest perimeter, vital capacity of the lungs, with the subsequent determination of the vital index (tolerance level to oxygen deficiency in venous blood in Stange and Genchi breath-taking tests that characterize the level of oxygen saturation, absolute and relative strength of the hand and back, calculation of body mass and morphological maturity indices (Kettle index), body surface area (body gait), psychomotor tests (Romberg test), test-tepping 10 s., reaction to a moving object, visual and auditory-motor reaction, recording of technical parameters of rowing on a competitive distance of 200 m. At the end of the study it was found that highly performance is sports is to be associated on the one hand with the genetically determined characteristics of the body and, on the other hand, with favorable adaptive reactions and energy saving, as well as morphofunctional changes influenced by internal and external environmental factors. The importance of the results obtained at the end of the study was positively reflected in obtaining the maximum level of training of athletes in order to demonstrate performance in large-scale competitions and mostly in the Olympic Games.

Keywords: olympics, parameters, performance, peak

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Authors: Parul Johri, Mala Trivedi

Abstract:

Major Intrinsic proteins (MIPs), actively involved in the passive transport of small polar molecules across the membranes of almost all living organisms. MIPs that specifically transport water molecules are named aquaporins (AQPs). The permeability of membranes is actively controlled by the regulation of the amount of different MIPs present but also in some cases by phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of the channel. Based on sequence similarity, MIPs have been classified into many categories. All of the proteins are made up of the 20 amino acids, the only difference is there in their orientations. Again all the 20 amino acids are made up of the basic five elements namely: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur and nitrogen. These elements are responsible for giving the amino acids the properties of hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity which play an important role in protein interactions. The hydrophobic amino acids characteristically have greater number of carbon atoms as carbon is the main element which contributes to hydrophobic interactions in proteins. It is observed that the carbon level of proteins in different species is different. In the present work, we have taken a sample set of 150 aquaporins proteins from Uniprot database and a dynamic programming code was written to calculate the carbon percentage for each sequence. This carbon percentage was further used to barcode the aqauporins of animals and plants. The protein taken from Oryza sativa, Zea mays and Arabidopsis thaliana preferred to have carbon percentage of 31.8 to 35, whereas on the other hand sequences taken from Mus musculus, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Homo sapiens, Bos Taurus, and Rattus norvegicus preferred to have carbon percentage of 31 to 33.7. This clearly demarks the carbon range in the aquaporin proteins from plant and animal origin. Hence the atom level analysis of protein sequences can provide us with better results as compared to the residue level comparison.

Keywords: aquaporins, carbon, dynamic prgramming, MIPs

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Authors: M. Suresh Kumar, K. Ramani

Abstract:

This paper proposed the harmonic elimination of Cascaded H-Bridge Multi-Level Inverter by using Selective Harmonic Elimination-Pulse Width Modulation method programmed with Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm. PSO method determine proficiently the required switching angles to eliminate low order harmonics up to the 11th order from the inverter output voltage waveform while keeping the magnitude of the fundamental harmonics at the desired value. Results demonstrate that the proposed method does efficiently eliminate a great number of specific harmonics and the output voltage is resulted in minimum Total Harmonic Distortion. The results shown that the PSO algorithm attain successfully to the global solution faster than other algorithms.

Keywords: multi-level inverter, Selective Harmonic Elimination Pulse Width Modulation (SHEPWM), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)

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Authors: Jirapan Khruesarn, Wimwipa Boonklin

Abstract:

Background: Currently, Thailand has an aging population. In 2017, the elderly population was over 11.14 million. There will be an increase in the number of elderly people, 8.39 million, some people grumble to themselves and have conflicts with their offspring or those close to them. It is a source of stress. Mental health promotion should be given to the elderly in order to cope with these changes. Due to the family characteristics of Thai society, these family members will act as caregivers for the elderly. Therefore, a group-counseling program based on Personnel-Centered Theory for Elderly Caregivers in Mental Health Promotion for Older People in Na Kaeo Municipality, Kau Ka District, Lampang Province, has been developed to compare the elderly care behavior before and after the participation. Methods: This research was study for 20 elderly' caregiver: Those aimed to compare the before and after use of group program for caregiver to promoting for the elderly by the following methods: Step 1 Establish a framework for evaluating elderly care behaviors and develop a group counseling program for promote mental health for elderly on: 1) Body 2) Willpower 3) Social and community management and 4) Organizing learning process. Step 2 Assessing an Elderly Care Behaviors by using "The behavior assessment on caring for the elderly" and assessing the mental health power level of the elderly and follow the counseling program 9 times and compare of the elderly care behaviors before and after joined a group program, and compare of mental health level of caregiver attends a group program. Results: This study is developing a group counseling program to promoting for the resilience quotient in elderly people that the results of the study could be summarized as follows: 1) Before the elderly's caregivers join a group counseling program: Mental health promotion behaviors of the elderly were at the high level of (3.32), and after: were at the high level of (3.44). 2) Before the elderly's caregiver attends a group counseling program: the mental health level of the elderly the mean score was (47.85 percent), and the standard deviation was (0.21 percent) and after. The elderly had a higher score of (51.45 percent) In summary, after the elderly caregivers joined the group, the elderly are higher in all aspects promote mental health for elderly and the statistically significance at the 0.05, It shows that programs are fit for personal and community condition in promoting the mental health of the elderly because this theory has the idea that: Humans have the ability to use their intelligence to solve problems or make decisions effectively, And member of group counseling program have ventured and express grievances that the counselor is a facilitator who focuses on personal development by building relationships among people. In other words, the factors contributing to higher levels of elderly care behaviors is group counseling, that isn't a hypothetical process but focus on building relationships that are based on mutual trust and Unconditional acceptance.

Keywords: group counseling base on person-centered theory, elderly person, resilience quotient: RQ, caregiver

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