Search results for: educational statistics

Authors: Jennifer Knudsen

Abstract:

This study observes the moderating effects of family structure on College Achievement across cohorts. Over the past half-century, social stigmas surrounding non-traditional families have shifted, as they make up an increasing proportion of American families. Using the General Social Survey, this study employs a varying coefficient model to test if family structure moderates the effects of other background variables on respondents’ educational attainment. Initial analysis suggests that living in alternative family arrangements has an increasingly negative effect on college achievement, whereas living in an intact family with a mother and father has a positive effect on college achievement.

Keywords: education, family, college, family structure

Procedia PDF Downloads 99

Authors: Ammara Mehmood, Aneela Zameer, Muhammad Asif Zahoor Raja, Muhammad Faisal Fateh

Abstract:

In this work, the strength of bio-inspired computational intelligence based technique is exploited for parameter estimation for the periodic signals using Continuous Differential Evolution (CDE) by defining an error function in the mean square sense. Multidimensional and nonlinear nature of the problem emerging in sinusoidal signal models along with noise makes it a challenging optimization task, which is dealt with robustness and effectiveness of CDE to ensure convergence and avoid trapping in local minima. In the proposed scheme of Continuous Differential Evolution based Signal Parameter Estimation (CDESPE), unknown adjustable weights of the signal system identification model are optimized utilizing CDE algorithm. The performance of CDESPE model is validated through statistics based various performance indices on a sufficiently large number of runs in terms of estimation error, mean squared error and Thiel’s inequality coefficient. Efficacy of CDESPE is examined by comparison with the actual parameters of the system, Genetic Algorithm based outcomes and from various deterministic approaches at different signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) levels.

Keywords: parameter estimation, bio-inspired computing, continuous differential evolution (CDE), periodic signals

Procedia PDF Downloads 285

Authors: Hussaini Garba Mohammed

Abstract:

Background/Significance: The lack of data gathering is affecting NGOs world-wide in general to have good data information about educational and health related issues among communities in any country and around the world. For example, HIV/AIDS smoking (Tuberculosis diseases) and COVID-19 virus carriers is becoming a serious public health problem, especially among old men and women. But there is no full details data survey assessment from communities, villages, and rural area in some countries to show the percentage of victims and patients, especial with this world COVID-19 virus among the people. These data are essential to inform programming targets, strategies, and priorities in getting good information about data gathering in any society.

Keywords: reliable information, data assessment, data mining, data communication

Procedia PDF Downloads 162

Authors: Panyarat Panthong

Abstract:

This research paper was conducted to examine the association between demographic, professional and social characteristics, and self-leadership of personnel who worked at Sub-District Administrative Organization Offices in Muang District, Udon Thani Province, and to identify the degree level of self-leadership of the selected samples in relation with the study variables. A total of 89 samples were collected from the 15 Sub-District Administrative Organization Offices. The paper employed both quantitative and qualitative methods using the Chi- Square and Cramer’s V statistics for the data analysis. The findings unveiled that constructive thought strategies showed a significant existence followed by behavior- focused strategies and natural reward strategies. Moreover, the research found that the respondents’ length of time working in the position and the respondents’ self- leadership presented a significant association in terms of the behavior-focused and constructive thought strategies. On the other hand, the respondents’ demographic characteristics placed no association with the level of self-leadership in behavior-focused strategies, natural reward strategies and constructive thought strategies. It is hoped that this finding will provide informative and practical guidance for the Ministry of Interior of Thailand and Department of Local Administration of the studied province.

Keywords: demographic characteristics, professional characteristics, self- leadership, social characteristics

Procedia PDF Downloads 402

Authors: Elisabeth Unterfrauner, Christian Voigt

Abstract:

Since the foundation of the first Fab Lab by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about 17 years ago, the Maker movement has spread globally with the foundation of maker spaces and Fab Labs worldwide. In these workshops, citizens have access to digital fabrication technologies such as 3D printers and laser cutters to develop and test their own ideas and prototypes, which makes it an attractive place for start-up companies. Know-How is shared not only in the physical space but also online in diverse communities. According to the Horizon report, the Maker movement, however, will also have an impact on educational settings in the following years. The European project ‘DOIT - Entrepreneurial skills for young social innovators in an open digital world’ has incorporated key elements of making to develop an early entrepreneurial education program for children between the age of six and 16. The Maker pedagogy builds on constructive learning approaches, learning by doing principles, learning in collaborative and interdisciplinary teams and learning through trial and error where mistakes are acknowledged as learning opportunities. The DOIT program consists of seven consecutive elements. It starts with a motivation phase where students get motivated by envisioning the scope of their possibilities. The second step is about Co-design: Students are asked to collect and select potential ideas for innovations. In the Co-creation phase students gather in teams and develop first prototypes of their ideas. In the iteration phase, the prototype is continuously improved and in the next step, in the reflection phase, feedback on the prototypes is exchanged between the teams. In the last two steps, scaling and reaching out, the robustness of the prototype is tested with a bigger group of users outside of the educational setting and finally students will share their projects with a wider public. The DOIT program involves 1,000 children in two pilot phases at 11 pilot sites in ten different European countries. The comprehensive evaluation design is based on a mixed method approach with a theoretical backbone on Lackeus’ model of entrepreneurship education, which distinguishes between entrepreneurial attitudes, entrepreneurial skills and entrepreneurial knowledge. A pre-post-test with quantitative measures as well as qualitative data from interviews with facilitators, students and workshop protocols will reveal the effectiveness of the program. The evaluation results will be presented at the conference.

Keywords: early entrepreneurial education, Fab Lab, maker education, Maker movement

Procedia PDF Downloads 110

Authors: Zainab Algharibi, Julie McAdam, Catherine Fagan

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on how Omani children in the first grade experience their needs during their transition to primary school. Theoretically, the paper was built on two perspectives: Dewey's concept of continuity of experience and the boundary objects introduced by Vygotsky (CHAT). The methodology of the study is based on the crucial role of children’s agency which is a very important activity as an educational tool to enhance the child’s participation in the learning process and develop their ability to face various issues in their life. Thus, the data were obtained from 45 children in grade one from 4 different primary schools using drawing and visual narrative activities, in addition to researcher observations during the start of the first weeks of the academic year for the first grade. As the study dealt with children, all of the necessary ethical laws were followed. This paper is considered original since it seeks to deal with the issue of children's transition from kindergarten to primary school in Oman, if not in the Arab region. Therefore, it is expected to fill an important gap in this field and present a proposal that will be a door for researchers to enter this research field later. The analysis of drawing and visual narrative was performed according to the social semiotics approach in two phases. The first is to read out the surface message “denotation,” while the second is to go in-depth via the symbolism obtained from children while they talked and drew letters and signs. This stage is known as “signified”; a video was recorded of each child talking about their drawing and expressing themself. Then, the data were organised and classified according to a cross-data network. Regarding the researcher observation analyses, the collected data were analysed according to the model was developed for the "grounded theory". It is based on comparing the recent data collected from observations with data previously encoded by other methods in which children were drawing alongside the visual narrative in the current study, in order to identify the similarities and differences, and also to clarify the meaning of the accessed categories and to identify sub-categories of them with a description of possible links between them. This is a kind of triangulation in data collection. The study came up with a set of findings, the most vital being that the children's greatest interest goes to their social and psychological needs, such as friends, their teacher, and playing. Also, their biggest fears are a new place, a new teacher, and not having friends, while they showed less concern for their need for educational knowledge and skills.

Keywords: children’s academic needs, children’s social needs, transition, primary school

Procedia PDF Downloads 96

Authors: Vladimir Korovkin, Albert Park, Evgeny Kaganer

Abstract:

The paper studies the second-level digital divide (the one defined by the way how digital technology is used in everyday life) between regions of the Russian Federation. The paper offers a systemic review of literature on the measurement of the digital divide; based upon this it suggests a composite Digital Life Index, that captures the complex multi-dimensional character of the phenomenon. The model of the index studies separately the digital supply and demand across seven independent dimensions providing for 14 subindices. The Index is based on Internet-borne data, a distinction from traditional research approaches that rely on official statistics or surveys. Regression analysis is used to determine the relative importance of factors like income, human capital, and policy in determining the digital divide. The result of the analysis suggests that the digital divide is driven more by the differences in demand (defined by consumer competencies) than in supply; the role of income is insignificant, and the quality of human capital is the key determinant of the divide. The paper advances the existing methodological literature on the issue and can also inform practical decision-making regarding the strategies of national and regional digital development.

Keywords: digital transformation, second-level digital divide, composite index, digital policy, regional development, Russia

Procedia PDF Downloads 172

Authors: Panupong Chanplin, Kathaleeya Chanda., Wilailuk Mepracha

Abstract:

The aims of this research were twofold: 1) to brand identity design of Creative Agriculture Community Enterprise, Bang Khonthi District, Samut Songkhram Province and 2) to study the level of tourist satisfaction towards brand identity design of Creative Agriculture Community Enterprise, Bang Khonthi District, Samut Songkhram Province. tourist satisfaction was measured using six criteria: clear brand positioning, likeable brand personality, memorable logo, attractive color palette, professional typography and on-brand supporting graphics. The researcher utilized a probability sampling method via simple random sampling. The sample consisted of 30 tourists in the Creative Agriculture Community Enterprise. Statistics utilized for data analysis were percentage, mean, and standard deviation. The results suggest that tourist had high levels of satisfaction towards all six criteria of the brand identity design that was designed to target them. This study proposes that specifically brand identity designed of Creative Agriculture Community Enterprise could also be implemented with other real media already available on the market.

Keywords: satisfaction, brand identity, logo, creative agriculture community enterprise

Procedia PDF Downloads 224

Authors: Aboubakr Gambo, Adama Diaw, Tobias Wunscher

Abstract:

This study attempts to identify factors affecting rural households’ resilience to food insecurity in Niger. For this, we first create a resilience index by using Principal Component Analysis on the following five variables at the household level: income, food expenditure, duration of grain held in stock, livestock in Tropical Livestock Units and number of farms exploited and second apply Structural Equation Modelling to identify the determinants. Data from the 2010 National Survey on Households’ Vulnerability to Food Insecurity done by the National Institute of Statistics is used. The study shows that asset and social safety nets indicators are significant and have a positive impact on households’ resilience. Climate change approximated by long-term mean rainfall has a negative and significant effect on households’ resilience to food insecurity. The results indicate that to strengthen households’ resilience to food insecurity, there is a need to increase assistance to households through social safety nets and to help them gather more resources in order to acquire more assets. Furthermore, early warning of climatic events could alert households especially farmers to be prepared and avoid important losses that they experience anytime an uneven climatic event occur.

Keywords: food insecurity, principal component analysis, structural equation modelling, resilience

Procedia PDF Downloads 344

Authors: Mohammad Bakhshi, Firas Al Janabi

Abstract:

High resolution rain data are very important to fulfill the input of hydrological models. Among models of high-resolution rainfall data generation, the temporal disaggregation was chosen for this study. The paper attempts to generate three different rainfall resolutions (4-hourly, hourly and 10-minutes) from daily for around 20-year record period. The process was done by DiMoN tool which is based on random cascade model and method of fragment. Differences between observed and simulated rain dataset are evaluated with variety of statistical and empirical methods: Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (K-S), usual statistics, and Exceedance probability. The tool worked well at preserving the daily rainfall values in wet days, however, the generated data are cumulated in a shorter time period and made stronger storms. It is demonstrated that the difference between generated and observed cumulative distribution function curve of 4-hourly datasets is passed the K-S test criteria while in hourly and 10-minutes datasets the P-value should be employed to prove that their differences were reasonable. The results are encouraging considering the overestimation of generated high-resolution rainfall data.

Keywords: DiMoN Tool, disaggregation, exceedance probability, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, rainfall

Procedia PDF Downloads 189

Authors: Bright E. Owusu, Nittaya McNeil

Abstract:

Rainfall is one of the most essential quantities in meteorology and hydrology. It has important impacts on people’s daily life and excess or inadequate of it could bring tremendous losses in economy and cause fatalities. Population increase around the globe tends to have a corresponding increase in settlement and industrialization. Some countries are affected by flood and drought occasionally due to climate change, which disrupt most of the daily activities. Knowledge of trends in spatial and temporal rainfall variability and their physical explanations would be beneficial in climate change assessment and to determine erosivity. This study describes the spatial-temporal variability of daily rainfall in Australia and their corresponding long-term trend during 1950-2013. The spatial patterns were investigated by using exploratory factor analysis and the long term trend in rainfall time series were determined by linear regression, Mann-Kendall rank statistics and the Sen’s slope test. The exploratory factor analysis explained most of the variations in the data and grouped Australia into eight distinct rainfall regions with different rainfall patterns. Significant increasing trends in annual rainfall were observed in the northern regions of Australia. However, the northeastern part was the wettest of all the eight rainfall regions.

Keywords: climate change, explanatory factor analysis, Mann-Kendall and Sen’s slope test, rainfall.

Procedia PDF Downloads 333

Authors: Nipon Sasithornsaowapa

Abstract:

This research aims to study the impact of personality and family status on women executives’ career success of the primary education department of Thailand. The independent variable includes three factors, namely family status, personality, and knowledge-skill-experience, while the dependent variable is the career success. The population of this study includes 2,179 female management officials in the department of primary education. A total of 400 female managers is interviewed and utilized as a sample group. A questionnaire is developed and used as a research tool for data collection. Content analysis is performed to get the quantitative data. Descriptive statistics in this research is conducted by SPSS program. The findings revealed that personality and family status of samples have an influence on the overall career success of women executives in terms of their objective career success. However, in terms of specific factors of personality or family status, it is found that there is no relevance of each factor on the women executives’ career success. It can be concluded that the factor affecting the women executives’ career success is subjective career success including the happiness and enjoyment with the job not factor concerning materials. Their success is the result of each individual working experience. However, their personal characteristics do not affect their success.

Keywords: career success, women executives, primary education, knowledge-skill-experience

Procedia PDF Downloads 467

Authors: Sai Sudarshan, Harsh Vyas, Riddhiman Sherlekar

Abstract:

The oil and gas industry has been unwilling to adopt stochastic definition of reserves. Nevertheless, Monte Carlo simulation methods have gained acceptance by engineers, geoscientists and other professionals who want to evaluate prospects or otherwise analyze problems that involve uncertainty. One of the common applications of Monte Carlo simulation is the estimation of recoverable hydrocarbon from a reservoir.Monte Carlo Simulation makes use of random samples of parameters or inputs to explore the behavior of a complex system or process. It finds application whenever one needs to make an estimate, forecast or decision where there is significant uncertainty. First, the project focuses on performing Monte-Carlo Simulation on a given data set using U. S Department of Energy’s MonteCarlo Software, which is a freeware e&p tool. Further, an algorithm for simulation has been developed for MATLAB and program performs simulation by prompting user for input distributions and parameters associated with each distribution (i.e. mean, st.dev, min., max., most likely, etc.). It also prompts user for desired probability for which reserves are to be calculated. The algorithm so developed and tested in MATLAB further finds implementation in Python where existing libraries on statistics and graph plotting have been imported to generate better outcome. With PyQt designer, codes for a simple graphical user interface have also been written. The graph so plotted is then validated with already available results from U.S DOE MonteCarlo Software.

Keywords: simulation, probability, confidence interval, sensitivity analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 366

Authors: Anucha Taiwong, Nirobol Kanogsunthornrat

Abstract:

This predictive research aimed to investigate the symptom clusters that influence the quality of life among patients with chronic kidney disease, as indicated in the Theory of Unpleasant Symptoms. The purposive sample consisted of 150 patients with stage 3-4 chronic kidney disease who received care at an outpatient chronic kidney disease clinic of a tertiary hospital in Roi-Et province. Data were collected from January to March 2016 by using a patient general information form, unpleasant symptom form, and quality of life (SF-36) and were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis. Findings revealed six core symptom clusters including symptom cluster of the mental and emotional conditions, peripheral nerves abnormality, fatigue, gastro-intestinal tract, pain and, waste congestion. Significant predictors for quality of life were the two symptom clusters of pain (Beta = -.220; p < .05) and the mental and emotional conditions (Beta=-.204; p<.05) which had predictive value of 19.10% (R2=.191, p<.05). This study indicated that the symptom cluster of pain and the mental and emotional conditions would worsen the patients’ quality of life. Nurses should be attentive in managing the two symptom clusters to facilitate the quality of life among patients with chronic kidney disease.

Keywords: chronic kidney disease, symptom clusters, predictors of quality of life, pre-dialysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 301

Authors: Ezeoke Callistus Obiora, Ezeoke Nneka Angela

Abstract:

The study investigated the effect of deficit financing on macroeconomic variables in Nigeria. The specific objectives included to find out the relationship between deficit financing and GDP, interest rate, inflation rate, money supply, exchange rate and private investment respectively on a time series covering a period of 44 years (1970 – 2013). The Ordinary Least Square multiple regression produced statistics for the coefficient of determination (R2), F-test, t-test used for the interpretation of the study. The findings revealed that Deficit financing has significant positive effect on GDP and exchange rate. Again, deficit financing has a positive and insignificant relationship inflation, money supply and investment. Only interest rate recorded negative yet insignificant relationship with deficit financing. The implications of the findings are that deficit financing can be a veritable tool for boosting economic development in Nigeria, but the influential positively rising exchange rate implies that deficit financing devalues the Naira exchange rate to other currencies indicating that deficit financing can affect Nigerians competitive advantage at the world market. Thus, the study concludes that deficit financing has not encouraged economic growth in Nigeria.

Keywords: deficit financing, money supply, exchange rate, inflation, GDP, investment, Nigeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 458

Authors: Medha Talpade, Salil Talpade

Abstract:

The intent of this quantitative project was to compare the values and perceptions of students from a predominantly white college (PWI) to those from a historically black college (HBCU) about culturally relevant teaching and learning practices in the academic realm. The reason for interrelating student culture with teaching practices is to enable a pedagogical response to the low retention rates of African American students and first generation Caucasian students in high schools, colleges, and their low rates of social mobility and educational achievement. Culturally relevant pedagogy, according to related research, is deemed rewarding to students, teachers, the local and national community. Critical race theory (CRT) is the main framework used in this project to explain the ubiquity of a culturally relevant pedagogy. The purpose of this quantitative study was to test the critical race theory that relates the presence of the factors associated with culturally relevant teaching strategies with perceived relevance. The culturally relevant teaching strategies were identified based on the recommendations and findings of past research. Participants in this study included approximately 145 students from a HBCU and 55 students from the PWI. A survey consisting of 37 items related to culturally relevant pedagogy was administered. The themes used to construct the items were: Use of culturally-specific examples in class whenever possible; use of culturally-specific presentational models, use of relational reinforcers, and active engagement. All the items had a likert-type response scale. Participants reported their degree of agreement (5-point scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree) and importance (3-point scale ranging from not at all important to very important) with each survey item. A new variable, Relevance was formed based on the multiplicative function of importance and presence of a teaching and learning strategy. A set of six demographic questions were included in the survey. A consent form based on NIH and APA ethical standards was distributed prior to survey administration to the volunteers. Results of a Factor Analyses on the data from the PWI and the HBCU, and a ANOVA indicated significant differences on ‘Relevance’ related to specific themes. Results of this study are expected to inform educational practices and improve teaching and learning outcomes.

Keywords: culturally relevant pedagogy, college students, cross-cultural, applied psychology

Procedia PDF Downloads 416

Authors: Şule Yanık, Emel Ertürk-Mustul, Zerrin Turan, Hasan Gürgür

Abstract:

It is known that there are policies that will support the early special education (ESE) for children requiring special care including the children with hearing loss (CHL) in many countries that give importance to early childhood (0-6 years) education, accordingly ESE services have been gradually increasing and these services provide positive contributions to the child and family. These services begin with medical diagnostics, provision of the use of assistive technologies for hearing and the orientation of children towards early education program (EEP) for the CHL. In 0-3 years of age EEP, education and support services are provided to the children and their families. In 3-6 years of age, children are supported in a pre-school education program (PSE) in which their peers and teachers are present. Therefore, the children with hearing loss and their families are going through a series of medical, educational and social transition process after diagnosed with hearing loss. Depending on their age and development, CHL also go through a transition period from hospital to home, from home to EEP and from EEP to PSE. It is seen that there is no legal regulation regarding the transition process in Turkey and hence different processes have been carried out in the transition process from EEP to PSE. The aim of this study is to reveal the problems confronted by the CHL during the transition period from EEP to PSE and the solution proposals for these problems. In this study, a document review was made by reviewing the national and international studies about transition processes of the CHL in Turkey from EEP to PSE. Accordingly, in the study carried out in two stages, firstly, a review of the body of literature was performed by creating key words related to the subject. Secondly, the problems confronted by the CHL in Turkey during the transition period from EEP to PSE and the solution proposals for these problems were demonstrated by analyzing the obtained data. According to the body of literature, it is seen that there are no laws concerning the transition processes of the children who require special care including the CHL in Turkey from EEP (sending) to PSE (receiving), and correspondingly numerous problems have been experienced during the transition period. It seems that the EEP adopts family-centered approaches for strengthening the families of the CHL. However, PSE program aims to prepare the children to school life by focusing on their social and academical development rather with the adoption of children-centered approaches. Therefore, while the families feel an inseparable part of the team in EEP, they indicated that they felt like a stranger in the school team after their children have started to PSE. Therefore, families find the transition processes worrisome and state that they are not satisfied with the process. We discovered that in the process of transition from EEP to PSE, families are not informed, there is a limited number of PSE options available, children cannot adapt to the new educational environment and cannot benefit from the existing PSE.

Keywords: early education program, early special education, children with hearing loss, transition

Procedia PDF Downloads 127

Authors: Zijiao Chai, Wangming Li

Abstract:

Under the background of increasing aging population, the situation of city endowment resources shortage gradually revealed. And many villages in the metropolitan area with the good natural ecological environment and leisure tourism base, have become one of the main destinations of urban old people for the off-site pension. This paper is based on a survey of more than ten villages which are characterized by leisure and endowment in Hangzhou metropolitan area, China. The satisfaction degree of the two main groups in the villages, dwellers, and aged visitors, is researched using the method of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. The statistics are obtained from 535 questionnaires and qualitative interview. According to the satisfaction scores, it could be determined whether the dwellers and aged visitors have reached the equilibrium state. The equilibrium state is the development target of the villages, and it`s defined by environmentally friendly, proper for employment and pension, facilities sharing and harmonious life for each other. Furthermore, this paper comes up with some planning countermeasures in order to avoid "imbalance between dwellers and aged visitors" and obtain sustainable development while maintaining the economic benefit.

Keywords: aged visitors, balance between dwellers and aged visitors, dwellers, fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, Hangzhou metropolitan area, leisure and endowment characteristic villages

Procedia PDF Downloads 259

Authors: Clifford Kwakwa Amoah, De-Graft Owusu-Manu, Prince Antwi-Afari

Abstract:

Infrastructure is the lifeline for economic development of any country. Hence, obtaining infrastructure quality cannot be overemphasized. Nevertheless, challenges of infrastructure quality persist, and it is worse in developing countries despite the diverse study on the subject matter. Therefore, this study was formulated to identify the prevalent determinants of infrastructure quality using synthesis of extant literature (to identify key variables), and analysis of survey questionnaire of data collected by means of the inductive methodology approach, mean score ranking and descriptive statistics. The variables “partner with the private sector, growth stimulation and poverty reduction, and adherence to procurement core principles” were the most significant challenges that the government faces. Moreover, it would be of utmost concern to adopt some stringent measures to help improve and accelerate on the growth and development of the nation, thereby achieving the best quality required. This study is novel conducted to provide insight into some of the punitive measures, considered in ensuring that quality infrastructure is obtained in both developing (specifically) and developed economies. The research findings therefore provide some guidance for overcoming the accumulative challenges. Application of the stated findings will help bridge the gap of infrastructure challenges; this is because the study found strong empirical evidence that infrastructure plays a pivotal role in the productivity enhancement.

Keywords: challenges, development, economic growth, government, infrastructure quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 116

Authors: Franklin Chu Buh, Irene Ule Ngole Sumbele, Andrew I. R. Maas, Mathieu Motah, Jogi V. Pattisapu, Eric Youm, Basil Kum Meh, Firas H. Kobeissy, Kevin W. Wang, Peter J. A. Hutchinson, Germain Sotoing Taiwe

Abstract:

Introduction: Studying TBI characteristics and their relation to outcomes can identify initiatives to improve TBI prevention and care. The objective of this study was to define the features and outcomes of TBI patients seen over a 1-year period in a level-I trauma center in Cameroon. Methods: Data on demographics, causes, injury mechanisms, clinical aspects, and discharge status were prospectively collected over a period of 12 months. The Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE) and the Quality of Life Questionnaire after Brain Injury (QoLIBRI) were used to evaluate outcomes 6-months after TBI. Categorical variables were described as frequencies and percentages. Comparisons between 2 categorical variables were done using Pearson's Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. Results: A total of 160 TBI patients participated in the study. The age group 15-45 years (78%; 125) was most represented. Males were more affected (90%; 144). Low educational level was recorded in 122 (76%) cases. Road traffic incidents (RTI) were the main cause of TBI (85%), with professional bike riders being frequently involved (27%, 43/160). Assaults (7.5%) and falls (2.5%) represent the second and third most common causes of TBI in Cameroon, respectively. Only 15 patients were transported to the hospital by ambulance, and 14 of these were from a referring hospital. CT-imaging was performed in 78% (125/160) of cases intracranial traumatic abnormality was identified in 77/125 (64%) cases. Financial constraints were the main reason for not performing a CT scan on 35 patients. A total of 46 (33%) patients were discharged against medical advice (DAMA) due to financial constraints. Mortality was 14% (22/160) but disproportionately high in patients with severe TBI (46%). DAMA had poor outcomes with QoLIBRI. Only 4 patients received post-injury physiotherapy services. Conclusion: TBI in Cameroon mainly results from RTIs and commonly affects young adult males, and low educational or socioeconomic status and commercial bike riding appear to be predisposing factors. Lack of pre-hospital care, financial constraints limiting both CT-scanning and medical care, and lack of acute physiotherapy services likely influenced care and outcomes adversely.

Keywords: characteristics, traumatic brain injury, outcome, disparities in care, prospective study

Procedia PDF Downloads 105

Authors: Ruangdech Sirikit

Abstract:

The purposes of this study were analyzed differential item functioning and differential test functioning of SWUSAT aptitude test classification by sex variable. The data used in this research is the secondary data from Srinakharinwirot University Scholastic Aptitude Test 2011 (SWUSAT 2011) SWUSAT test consists of four subjects. There are verbal ability test, number ability test, reasoning ability test and spatial ability test. The data analysis was carried out in 2 steps. The first step was analyzing descriptive statistics. In the second step were analyzed differential item functioning (DIF) and differential test functioning (DTF) by using the DIFAS program. The research results were as follows: The results of data analysis for all 10 tests in year 2011. Sex was the characteristic that found DIF all 10 tests. The percentage of item number that found DIF was between 10% - 46.67%. There are 4 tests that most of items favors female group. There are 3 tests that most of items favors male group and there are 3 tests that the number of items favors female group equal favors male group. For Differential test functioning (DTF), there are 8 tests that have small DIF effect variance.

Keywords: differential item functioning, differential test functioning, SWUSAT, aptitude test

Procedia PDF Downloads 591

Authors: Peter Akayuure, Michael Johnson Nabie

Abstract:

Similar to many colonized nations in the world, one indelible mark left by colonial masters after Ghana’s independence in 1957 has been the fact that many contexts used to teach statistics and probability concepts are often alien and do not resonate with the social domain of our indigenous Ghanaian child. This has seriously limited the understanding, discoveries, and applications of mathematics for national developments. With the recent curriculum demands of making the Ghanaian child mathematically literate, this qualitative study involved video recordings and mathematical analysis of play sessions of an indigenous girl game called Ampe with the aim to demystify the concepts in probability theorem, which is applied in mathematics related fields of study. The mathematical analysis shows that the game of Ampe, which is widely played by school girls in Ghana, is suitable for learning concepts of the probability theorems. It was also revealed that as a girl game, the use of Ampe provides good lessons to educators, textbook writers, and teachers to rethink about the selection of mathematics tasks and learning contexts that are sensitive to gender. As we undertake to transform teacher education and student learning, the use of indigenous games should be critically revisited.

Keywords: Ampe, mathematical analysis, probability theorem, Ghanaian girl game

Procedia PDF Downloads 351

Authors: Guebli Abdelkader, Regiueg Madani, Sbaa Bouabdellah

Abstract:

The goals of this study are to find ways to determine the value of dynamic priorities in motor learning between some basic skills in beginner’s basketball (U14), based on skills of shooting and defense against the shooter. Our role is to expose the statistical results in compare & correlation between samples of study in tests skills for the shooting and defense against the shooter. In order to achieve this objective, we have chosen 40 boys in middle school represented in four groups, two controls group’s (CS1, CS2) ,and two experimental groups (ES1: training on skill of shooting, skill of defense against the shooter, ES2: experimental group training on skill of defense against the shooter, skill of shooting). For the statistical analysis, we have chosen (F & T) tests for the statistical differences, and test (R) for the correlation analysis. Based on the analyses statistics, we confirm the importance of classifying priorities of basketball basic skills during the motor learning process. Admit that the benefits of experimental group training are to economics in the time needed for acquiring new motor kinetic skills in basketball. In the priority of ES2 as successful dynamic motor learning method to enhance the basic skills among beginner’s basketball.

Keywords: basic skills, basketball, motor learning, children

Procedia PDF Downloads 152

Authors: Melodi Mbuyi Mata, Blessing Olamide Taiwo, Afolabi Ayodele David

Abstract:

The purpose of this research is to create empirical models for assessing the profitability of granite aggregate production in Akure, Ondo state aggregate quarries. In addition, an artificial neural network (ANN) model and multivariate predicting models for granite profitability were developed in the study. A formal survey questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. The data extracted from the case study mine for this study includes granite marketing operations, royalty, production costs, and mine production information. The following methods were used to achieve the goal of this study: descriptive statistics, MATLAB 2017, and SPSS16.0 software in analyzing and modeling the data collected from granite traders in the study areas. The ANN and Multi Variant Regression models' prediction accuracy was compared using a coefficient of determination (R²), Root mean square error (RMSE), and mean square error (MSE). Due to the high prediction error, the model evaluation indices revealed that the ANN model was suitable for predicting generated profit in a typical quarry. More quarries in Nigeria's southwest region and other geopolitical zones should be considered to improve ANN prediction accuracy.

Keywords: national development, granite, profitability assessment, ANN models

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: L. Abdou, O. Taibaoui, A. Moumen, A. Talib Ahmed

Abstract:

This paper proposes an application of the simulated annealing to optimize the detection threshold in an ordered statistics constant false alarm rate (OS-CFAR) system. Using conventional optimization methods, such as the conjugate gradient, can lead to a local optimum and lose the global optimum. Also for a system with a number of sensors that is greater than or equal to three, it is difficult or impossible to find this optimum; Hence, the need to use other methods, such as meta-heuristics. From a variety of meta-heuristic techniques, we can find the simulated annealing (SA) method, inspired from a process used in metallurgy. This technique is based on the selection of an initial solution and the generation of a near solution randomly, in order to improve the criterion to optimize. In this work, two parameters will be subject to such optimisation and which are the statistical order (k) and the scaling factor (T). Two fusion rules; “AND” and “OR” were considered in the case where the signals are independent from sensor to sensor. The results showed that the application of the proposed method to the problem of optimisation in a distributed system is efficiency to resolve such problems. The advantage of this method is that it allows to browse the entire solutions space and to avoid theoretically the stagnation of the optimization process in an area of local minimum.

Keywords: distributed system, OS-CFAR system, independent sensors, simulating annealing

Procedia PDF Downloads 486

Authors: Alfalah Tasneem, Abdallah Bataineh, Falah Jannat, Alfalah Salsabeel

Abstract:

The term emotional intelligence has been unnoticed by a number of scholars in the early 1990s, which was then a major factor that many business managers became interested in understanding its meaning, functions and how it could be integrated in their business life, emotional intelligence is very important for the top managers, to operate in emotionally intelligence way to meet the needs of their employees. Speaking of emotional intelligence success is influenced by personal qualities such as self-awareness, motivation, empathy and relationship skills. The aim of this research is to critically evaluate the potential contribution of emotional intelligence for the Jordanian universities on the level of job satisfaction and the performance of faculty as well as its positive impact on the educational standards.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, higher education, job performance, job satisfaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 333

Authors: M. Azharul Islam, M. Russel Sarker, M. Shahadat Hossen

Abstract:

Air pollution is one of the major environmental problems that have gained importance in all over the world. Air pollution is a problem for all of us. The present study was conducted to explore the people’s perception level and awareness of air pollution in selected areas of Mymensingh in Bangladesh. Health impacts of air pollution also studied through personal interview and structured questionnaire. The relationship of independent variables (age, educational qualification, family size, residence and communication exposure) with the respondent’s perception level and awareness of air pollution (dependent variable) was studied to achieve the objectives of the study. About 600 respondents were selected randomly from six sites for collecting data during the period of July 2016 to June 2017. Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficients were computed to examine the relationship between the concerned variables. The results revealed that about half (46.67%) of the respondents had a medium level of perception and awareness about air pollution in their areas where 31.67 percent had low, and 21.67 percent had a high level. In rural areas of the study sites, 43.33 percent respondents had low, 50 percent had medium, and only 6.67 percent had high perception and awareness on air pollution. In case of urban areas, 20 percent respondents had low, 43.33 percent had medium, and 36.67 percent had a high level of awareness and perception on air pollution. The majority of the respondents (93.33 percent) were lacking of proper awareness about air pollution in rural areas while 63.33 percent in urban areas. Out of five independent variables, three variables such as- educational qualification, residence status and communication exposure had positive and significant relationship. Age of respondents had negative and significant relationship with their awareness of air pollution where family size of the respondents had no significant relationship with their perception and awareness of air pollution. Thousands of people live in urban areas where urban smog, particle pollution, and toxic pollutants pose serious health concerns. But most of the respondents of the urban sites are not familiarize about the real causes of air pollution. Respondents exposed higher level of experience for air pollutants, such as- irritation of the eyes, coughing, tightness of chest and many health difficulties. But respondents of both rural and urban area hugely suffered such health problems and the tendency of certain difficulties increased day by day. In this study, most of the respondents had lack of knowledge on the causes of such health difficulties due to their lower perception level. Proper attempts should be taken to raise literacy level, communication exposure to increase the perception and awareness of air pollution among the respondents of the study areas. Extra care with above concerned fields should be taken to increase perception and awareness of air pollution in rural areas.

Keywords: air pollution, awareness, health impacts, perception of people

Procedia PDF Downloads 214

Authors: Suppawan Lertpongpakpoom, Anongnat Boonrat, Kunya BoontummoSuppawan

Abstract:

This descriptive cost analysis aimed to analyze the unit cost of patients in medical intensive care unit. Purposive sampling was used to select 20 nurses, 6 practical nurses, 5 nurses aid and select samples 30 patients. Data were collected from both primary source (activity and average time of nursing care) and secondary source Z bill of payment and patient record). Instruments were cost recording form, activity observation form, and service recording form. Content validity of all instruments were evaluated by three experts (CVI = 0.87). Descriptive statistics was employed for data analysis. The results of the Activity-Based Costing Analysis showed that total activity cost of 4 service types for the patients was 14,776.92 Bath. The highest cost was nursing record was 5,674.78 Bath, followed direct nursing activity was 5,176.18 Bath, medical treatment was 1,976.6 Bath. The lowest cost was management activity was 1,003.64 Bath per visit. The result suggested that Activity-Base Costing Analysis could be applied to give better understanding of cost structure, enabling better consideration wasted expense and non-value-added activity, and improvement of effective utilization.

Keywords: activity-based costing, medical intensive care, nursing care, cost analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 387

Authors: Nahid Ehsani, Amir Hossein Rezvanfar

Abstract:

The main objective of this study is to investigate psychological and socio-cultural factors effective on the tendency of the villagers to use e-banking services. The current paper is an applied study considering its objectives. The main data gathering tool in the current study is a made questionnaire which is designed and executed based on the conceptual background of the subject matter and the objectives and hypotheses of the study. The statistical population of this study includes all the customers of rural branches of Agricultural Bank in Ilam Province (N=82885). Among these 120 participants were chosen through sample size determination formula and they were studied using stratified random sampling method. In the analytical statistics level the results obtained from calculating Spearman’s Correlative Coefficient showed that socio-cultural and psychological factors had a significant impact of the extent of the tendency of the villagers to use e-banking services of the Agricultural Bank at the 99% level. Furthermore, stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that both sets of psychological factors as well as socio-economic factors were able to explain 50 percent of the variance of the independent variable; namely the tendency of villagers to use e-banking services.

Keywords: e-banking, agricultural bank, tendency, socio-economic factors, psychological factors

Procedia PDF Downloads 517

Authors: L. Ozoliņa

Abstract:

Place branding as a strategic marketing tool is applied in Latvia since 2000. The main objective of the study is to find unique connecting aspects of the intangible cultural heritage elements on the development of sustainable place branding. The study is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with Latvian place branding experts and content analysis of Latvia's place brand identities. The study indicates place branding as an internal co-creational and educational process of all involved stakeholders of the place and highlights a critical view on the local place branding practices on the notability of the in-depth research of the intangible cultural heritage.

Keywords: belonging, identity, intangible cultural heritage, narrative, self-image, place branding

Procedia PDF Downloads 127