Search results for: academic training

Authors: Mohanad Moustafa, Julia Sieberer, Rhys Davies

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Background: Orbital compartment syndrome (OCS) is a sight-threatening Ophthalmologic emergency caused by rapidly increasing intraorbital pressure. It is usually caused by a retrobulbar hemorrhage as a result of trauma. If not treated in a timely manner, permanent vision loss can occur. Lateral canthotomy and cantholysis are minor procedures that can be performed bedside with equipment available in the emergency department. The aim of the procedure is to release the attachments between the suspensory ligaments of the eye and the bony orbital wall, leading to a decrease in intraorbital pressure and preventing irreversible loss of vision. As most Ophthalmologists across the UK provide non-resident on-call service, this may lead to a delay in the treatment of OCS and stresses the need for Emergency medical staff to be able to provide this sight-saving procedure independently. Aim: To survey current training, experience, and confidence levels among Emergency Medicine doctors in performing emergency lateral canthotomy and to establish whether these variables change the following teaching from experienced ophthalmologists. RESULTS: Most EM registrars had little to no experience in performing lateral canthotomy and cantholysis. The majority of them showed a significant increase in their confidence to perform the procedure following ophthalmic-led teaching. The survey also showed that the registrars felt such training should be added to/part of the EM curriculum. Conclusion: The involvement of Ophthalmologists in the teaching of EM doctors to recognise and treat OCS independently may prevent delays in treatment and reduce the risk of permanent sight loss. This project showed potential in improving patient care and will lead to a National Survey of EM doctors across the UK.

Keywords: lateral canthotomy, retrobulbar hemorrhage, Ophthalmology, orbital compartment syndrome, sight loss, blindness

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Authors: Yehjune Heo

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As biometric systems become widely deployed, the security of identification systems can be easily attacked by various spoof materials. This paper contributes to finding a reliable and practical anti-spoofing method using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) based on the types of loss functions and optimizers. The types of CNNs used in this paper include AlexNet, VGGNet, and ResNet. By using various loss functions including Cross-Entropy, Center Loss, Cosine Proximity, and Hinge Loss, and various loss optimizers which include Adam, SGD, RMSProp, Adadelta, Adagrad, and Nadam, we obtained significant performance changes. We realize that choosing the correct loss function for each model is crucial since different loss functions lead to different errors on the same evaluation. By using a subset of the Livdet 2017 database, we validate our approach to compare the generalization power. It is important to note that we use a subset of LiveDet and the database is the same across all training and testing for each model. This way, we can compare the performance, in terms of generalization, for the unseen data across all different models. The best CNN (AlexNet) with the appropriate loss function and optimizers result in more than 3% of performance gain over the other CNN models with the default loss function and optimizer. In addition to the highest generalization performance, this paper also contains the models with high accuracy associated with parameters and mean average error rates to find the model that consumes the least memory and computation time for training and testing. Although AlexNet has less complexity over other CNN models, it is proven to be very efficient. For practical anti-spoofing systems, the deployed version should use a small amount of memory and should run very fast with high anti-spoofing performance. For our deployed version on smartphones, additional processing steps, such as quantization and pruning algorithms, have been applied in our final model.

Keywords: anti-spoofing, CNN, fingerprint recognition, loss function, optimizer

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Authors: Shaista Meghani, Rozina Karmaliani, Khairulnissa Ajani, Shireen Shahzad, Nadeem Ullah Khan

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Background: The concept of Family Presence During Resuscitation (FPDR) is gradually gaining recognition in western countries, however, it is rarely considered in South Asian countries including Pakistan. Over time, patients’ and families’ rights have gained recognition and healthcare has progressed to become more patient-family centered. Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of an educational program on the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of healthcare professionals (HCPs) towards FPDR in Emergency Department (ED), at a tertiary care setting, in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: This was a Pre-test and Post-test study design. A convenient universal sampling was done, and all ED nurses and physicians with more than one year of experience were eligible. The intervention included one-hour training sessions for physicians (three sessions) and nurses (eight sessions), The KAP of nurses and physicians were assessed immediately after (post-test I), and two weeks(post-test II) after the intervention using a pretested questionnaire. Results: The findings of the study revealed that the mean scores of knowledge and attitude of HCPs at both time points were statistically significant (p-value=<0.001), however, an insignificant difference was found on practice of FPDR (p-value=>0.05). Conclusion: The study findings recommend that the educational program on FPDR for HCPs needs to be offered on an ongoing basis. Moreover, training modules need to be developed for the staff, and formal guidelines need to be proposed for FPDR, through a multidisciplinary team approach.

Keywords: family presence, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, attitude, education, practices, health care professionals

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Authors: İsmail Ay

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In this study, it was aimed to determine the relations between need for psychological help and psychological symptoms. The sample of the study consists of 530 university students getting educated in University of Atatürk in 2015-2016 academic years. Need for Psychological Help Scale and Brief Symptom Inventory were used to collect data in the study. In data analysis, correlation analysis and structural equation model with latent variables were used. Normality and homogeneity analyses were used to analyze the basic conditions of parametric tests. The findings obtained from the study show that as the psychological symptoms increase, need for psychological help also increases. The findings obtained through the study were approached according to the literature.

Keywords: psychological symptoms, need for psychological help, structural equation model, correlation

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Authors: Boularas El-Alia, Arbi Raja, Bachir Bouiadjra Sara, Rezk-Kallah Haciba, Rezkkallah Baghdad

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Objectives : To determine the handling practices of cytotoxic drugs and to describe clinical manifestations expressed by hospital personnel of Sidi Bel Abbes during the year 2014. Methods: Sectional descriptive study conducted in 3 center university hospital units (Hematology, Oncology and Urology) and Gynecology of EHS Sidi Bel Abbes. A questionnaire was administered to hospital workers regulary exposed to cytotoxic drugs. A work-place visit was performed to have an overview about working conditions. The Cytotoxic Contact Index (CCI) was calculated for each nurse on a period of 15 working days. Treatment of the results was done using SPSS software. Results: The survey reveals that 22 men and 58 women are exposed to cytotoxic drugs for an average of 7 years. Many symptoms such as ocular irritation (38,75%), throat irritation (56,25%), headache (68,75%), dizziness (43,75%), nausea (37,5%), metallic taste (30%), were reported with high frequency. Are noted in the offspring, 3 congenital anomalies,2 diaphragmatic hernia and a cleft palate. The Cytotoxic Contact Index (CCI) was higher than 3 among Oncology nurses and higher than 1 for most of the nurses of Hematology and Gynecology service. The wearing of personal protective clothing was not respected by all workers: (22/23) wear gloves and (20/23) wear a mask,(5/23) wear a cap, (2/23) wear glasses. Only 3 nurses have benefited from continuous training on handling cytotoxic drugs. Conclusion: This study shows a high occupational exposure risk to cytotoxic drugs among persons handling these drugs and the necessity to apply rigorously all measures related to personal protection awareness and training of personnel to minimize these exposure.

Keywords: cytotoxic drugs, handling, clinical manifestations, hospital staff

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Authors: Marc Sebastián-Romagosa, Woosang Cho, Rupert Ortner, Christy Li, Christoph Guger

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Neurorehabilitation based on Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) shows important rehabilitation effects for patients after stroke. Previous studies have shown improvements for patients that are in a chronic stage and/or have severe hemiparesis and are particularly challenging for conventional rehabilitation techniques. For this publication, seven stroke patients in the chronic phase with hemiparesis in the lower extremity were recruited. All of them participated in 25 BCI sessions about 3 times a week. The BCI system was based on the Motor Imagery (MI) of the paretic ankle dorsiflexion and healthy wrist dorsiflexion with Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) and avatar feedback. Assessments were conducted to assess the changes in motor improvement before, after and during the rehabilitation training. Our primary measures used for the assessment were the 10-meters walking test (10MWT), Range of Motion (ROM) of the ankle dorsiflexion and Timed Up and Go (TUG). Results show a significant increase in the gait speed in the primary measure 10MWT fast velocity of 0.18 m/s IQR = [0.12 to 0.2], P = 0.016. The speed in the TUG was also significantly increased by 0.1 m/s IQR = [0.09 to 0.11], P = 0.031. The active ROM assessment increased 4.65º, and IQR = [ 1.67 - 7.4], after rehabilitation training, P = 0.029. These functional improvements persisted at least one month after the end of the therapy. These outcomes show the feasibility of this BCI approach for chronic stroke patients and further support the growing consensus that these types of tools might develop into a new paradigm for rehabilitation tools for stroke patients. However, the results are from only seven chronic stroke patients, so the authors believe that this approach should be further validated in broader randomized controlled studies involving more patients. MI and FES-based non-invasive BCIs are showing improvement in the gait rehabilitation of patients in the chronic stage after stroke. This could have an impact on the rehabilitation techniques used for these patients, especially when they are severely impaired and their mobility is limited.

Keywords: neuroscience, brain computer interfaces, rehabilitat, stroke

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Authors: Caiwei Zhu, Remke Klapwijk

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Spatial thinking, a way of thinking based on the understanding and reasoning of spatial concepts and representations, is embedded in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) learning. Aside from many studies that successfully used targeted training to improve students’ spatial thinking skills, few have closely examined how spatial thinking can be trained in classroom settings. Design and technology education, which receives increasing attention towards its integration into formal curriculums, inherently encompasses a wide range of spatial activities, such as constructing mental representations of design ideas, mentally transforming objects and materials to form designs, visually communicating design plans through annotated drawings, and creating 2D and 3D design artifacts. Among different design topics, biomimicry offers a unique avenue for students to recognize and analyze the shapes and structures in nature. By mapping the forms of plants and animals onto functions, students gain inspiration to solve human design challenges. This study is one of the first to highlight opportunities for training spatial thinking in a biomimicry design project for primary school students. Embracing methodological principles of educational design-based research, this case study is conducted along with iterations in the design of the intervention and collaboration with teachers. Data are harvested from small groups of 10- to 12-year-olds at an international school in the Netherlands. Classroom videos, semi-structured interviews with students, design drawings and artifacts, formative assessment, and the pre- and post-intervention spatial test triangulate evidence for students' spatial thinking. In addition to contributing to a theory of integrating spatial thinking in the primary curriculum, mechanisms underlying such improvement in spatial thinking are explored and discussed.

Keywords: biomimicry, design and technology education, primary education, spatial thinking

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Authors: Muhammad Saleem

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Background: The teaching of sports sciences encompasses a broad spectrum of disciplines, including biomechanics, physiology, psychology, and coaching. Effective pedagogical techniques are crucial in imparting both theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary for students to excel in the field. The impact of these techniques on students’ learning outcomes, engagement, and professional preparedness remains a vital area of study. Objective: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of various pedagogical techniques used in the teaching of sports sciences. It seeks to identify which methods most significantly enhance student learning, retention, engagement, and practical application of knowledge. Methods: A mixed-methods approach was employed, including both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The study involved a comparative analysis of traditional lecture-based teaching, experiential learning, problem-based learning (PBL), and technology-enhanced learning (TEL). Data were collected through surveys, interviews, and academic performance assessments from students enrolled in sports sciences programs at multiple universities. Statistical analysis was used to evaluate academic performance, while thematic analysis was applied to qualitative data to capture student experiences and perceptions. Results: The findings indicate that experiential learning and PBL significantly improve students' understanding and retention of complex sports science concepts compared to traditional lectures. TEL was found to enhance engagement and provide students with flexible learning opportunities, but its impact on deep learning varied depending on the quality of the digital resources. Overall, a combination of experiential learning, PBL, and TEL was identified as the most effective pedagogical approach, leading to higher student satisfaction and better preparedness for real-world applications. Conclusion: The study underscores the importance of adopting diverse and student-centered pedagogical techniques in the teaching of sports sciences. While traditional lectures remain useful for foundational knowledge, integrating experiential learning, PBL, and TEL can substantially improve student outcomes. These findings suggest that educators should consider a blended approach to pedagogy to maximize the effectiveness of sports science education.

Keywords: sport sciences, pedagogical techniques, health and physical education, problem-based learning, student engagement

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Authors: Ange Meghane Hakizimana, Landry Ndikuriyo

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Retention of employees in the hospitality industry is a recurrent agenda in the organization involving all the combined efforts to maintain the best available laborer. The general objective of this research is to assess the impact of effective employee retention strategies on the success of the hotel industry at Galileo Hotel, Huye District in Rwanda, for the period of 2019-2021. Herzberg Two Factor Theory and Equity Theory were used. The study adopted a descriptive research design. Descriptive research design allowed us to study the elements in their natural form without making any alterations to them. Secondary data and primary data and the data collected were sorted and entered into the statistical packages for social sciences for analysis (SPSS) version 26. Frequencies, descriptive statistics and percentages were used to analyze and establish extent to which employee retention strategies impact the success of the hotel industry of Rwanda and this was analyzed using regression and correlation analysis. The results revealed that employee training and development had an influence of 24.8% on the success of the hotel industry in Rwanda. According to the results of our study, the employee reward system contributes 20.7% to the success of the hotel industry in Rwanda, the value of t is 3.475 and this is greater than the standard t value score of 1.96, p-value is 0.002. Therefore the employee reward system has a great positive impact on the success of the hotel industry in Rwanda. The results also show that 15.7% of the success of the hospitality industry in Rwanda is due to the work environment of employees. With a t-value of 4.384 and a p-value of 0.000, the above statistics show a positive impact of the employees' working environment on success of the hospitality industry in Rwanda. A priority to the retention of their employees should be given by the hotel industry and its managers because it has already been proven that it is an effective approach to offering good customer service. In addition, employee retention reduces expenses associated with employee recruitment and turnover.

Keywords: success, hotel industry, training and development, employee reward system, employee work environment

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Authors: Veliswa Nonfundo Hoho, Jabulani Gilford Kheswa

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This paper reports on teenage motherhood and its adverse outcomes on the academic performance, emotional well-being and sexual relationships that adolescent females encounter. Drawing from Ryff’s six dimensions of psychological well-being and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model which underpinned this study, teenage motherhood has been found to link with multiple factors such as poverty, negative self-esteem, substance abuse, cohabitation, intimate partner violence and ill-health. Furthermore, research indicates that in schools where educators fail to perform their duties as loco-parentis to motivate adolescent females learners who are mothers, absenteeism, poor academic performance and learned helplessness, are likely. The aim of this research was two-fold, namely; (i) to determine the impact of teenage motherhood on the psychological well-being of the teenage mothers and (ii) to investigate the policies which protect the human rights of teenage mothers attending secondary schools. In a qualitative study conducted in one secondary school, Fort Beaufort, Eastern Cape, South Africa, fifteen Xhosa-speaking teenage mothers, aged 15-18 years old, were interviewed. The sample was recruited by means of snow-ball sampling. To safeguard the human dignity of the respondents, informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity and privacy of the respondents were assured. For trustworthiness, this research ensured that credibility, neutrality, and transferability, are met. Following an axial and open coding of responses, five themes were identified; Health issues of teenage mothers, lack of support, violation of human rights, impaired sense of purpose in life and intimate partner-violence. From these findings, it is clear that teenage mothers lack resilience and are susceptible to contract sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS because they are submissive and hopeless. Furthermore, owing to stigma that the teenage mothers' experience from family members, they resort to alcohol and drug abuse, and feel demotivated to bond with their babies. In conclusion, the recommendations are that the Health and Social Development departments collaborate to empower the psychological well-being of teenage mothers. Furthermore, school policies on discrimination should be enacted and consistently implemented.

Keywords: depression, discrimination, self-esteem, teenage mothers

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Authors: Cezarina da Conceição Santinho Maurício, José Duque Vicente

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Established in 1987, the Erasmus Programme is a program for the exchange of higher education students. Its purposes are several. The mobility developed has contributed to the promotion of multiple learning, the internalization the feeling of belonging to a community, and the consolidation of cooperation between entities or universities. It also allows the experience of a European experience, considering multilingualism one of the bases of the European project and vehicle to achieve the union in diversity. The program has progressed and introduced changes Erasmus+ currently offers a wide range of opportunities for higher education, vocational education and training, school education, adult education, youth, and sport. These opportunities are open to students and other stakeholders, such as teachers. Portugal was one of the countries that readily adhered to this program, assuming itself as an instrument of internationalization of polytechnic and university higher education. Students and social work teachers have been involved in this mobility of learning and multicultural interactions. The presence and activation of this program was made possible by Portugal's joining the European Union. This event was reflected in the field of portuguese social work and contributes to its approach to the reality of european social work. Historically, the Portuguese social work has built a close connection with the Latin American world and, in particular, with Brazil. There are several examples that can be identified in the different historical stages. This is the case of the post-revolution period of 1974 and the presence of the reconceptualization movement, the struggle for enrollment in the higher education circuit, the process of winning a bachelor's degree, and postgraduate training (the first doctorates of social work were carried out in Brazilian universities). This influence is also found in the scope of the authors and the theoretical references used. This study examines the participation of graduates and students of social work in the Erasmus program. The following specific goals were outlined: to identify the host countries and universities; to investigate the dimension and type of mobility made, understand the learning and experiences acquired, identify the difficulties felt, capture their perspectives on social work and the contribution of this experience in training. In the methodological field, the option fell on a qualitative methodology, with the application of semi-structured interviews to graduates and students of social work with Erasmus mobility experience. Once the graduates agreed, the interviews were recorded and transcribed, analyzed according to the previously defined analysis categories. The findings emphasize the importance of this experience for students and graduates in informal and formal learning. The authors conclude with recommendations to reinforce this mobility, either at the individual level or as a project built for the group or collective.

Keywords: erasmus programme, graduates and students of social work, participation, social work

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Authors: Moira Cordiner

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As a result of an Australian university approving a policy to improve the quality of assessment practices, as an academic developer (AD) with expertise in criterion-referenced assessment commenced in 2008. The four-year appointment was to support 40 'champions' in their Schools. This presentation is based on the experiences of a group of Chemistry academics who worked with the AD to develop and implement an honours dissertation rubric. Honours is a research year following a three-year undergraduate year. If the standard of the student's work is high enough (mainly the dissertation) then the student can commence a PhD. What became clear during the process was that much more was at stake than just the successful development and trial of the rubric, including academics' reputations, university rankings and research outputs. Working with the champion-Head of School(HOS) and the honours coordinator, the AD helped them adapt an honours rubric that she had helped create and trial successfully for another Science discipline. A year of many meetings and complex power plays between the two academics finally resulted in a version that was critiqued by the Chemistry teaching and learning committee. Accompanying the rubric was an explanation of grading rules plus a list of supervisor expectations to explain to students how the rubric was used for grading. Further refinements were made until all staff were satisfied. It was trialled successfully in 2011, then small changes made. It was adapted and implemented for Medicine honours with her help in 2012. Despite coming to consensus about statements of quality in the rubric, a few academics found it challenging matching these to the dissertations and allocating a grade. They had had no time to undertake training to do this, or make overt their implicit criteria and standards, which some admitted they were using - 'I know what a first class is'. Other factors affecting grading included: the small School where all supervisors knew each other and the students, meant that friendships and collegiality were at stake if low grades were given; no external examiners were appointed-all were internal with the potential for bias; supervisors’ reputations were at stake if their students did not receive a good grade; the School's reputation was also at risk if insufficient honours students qualified for PhD entry; and research output was jeopardised without enough honours students to work on supervisors’ projects. A further complication during the study was a restructure of the university and retrenchments, with pressure to increase research output as world rankings assumed greater importance to senior management. In conclusion, much more was at stake than developing a usable rubric. The HOS had to be seen to champion the 'new' assessment practice while balancing institutional demands for increased research output and ensuring as many honours dissertations as possible met high standards, so that eventually the percentage of PhD completions and research output rose. It is therefore in the institution's best interest for this cycle to be maintained as it affects rankings and reputations. In this context, are rubrics redundant?

Keywords: explicit and implicit standards, judging quality, university rankings, research reputations

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Authors: Rhoda N. Kayongo

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As behavior analysts in education continue to debate on how higher institutions can continue to benefit from their social and academic related programs, higher education is facing challenges in the area of character development. This is manifested in the percentages of college completion rates, teen pregnancies, drug abuse, sexual abuse, suicide, plagiarism, lack of academic integrity, and violence among their students. Attending college is a perceived opportunity to positively influence the actions and behaviors of the next generation of society; thus colleges and universities have to provide opportunities to develop students’ values and behaviors. Prior studies were mainly conducted in private institutions and more so in developed countries. However, with the complexity of the nature of student body currently due to the changing world, a multidimensional approach combining multiple factors that enhance character development outcomes is needed to suit the changing trends. The main purpose of this study was to identify opportunities in colleges and develop a model for predicting character development outcomes. A survey questionnaire composed of 7 scales including in-classroom interaction, out-of-classroom interaction, school climate, personal lifestyle, home environment, and peer influence as independent variables and character development outcomes as the dependent variable was administered to a total of five hundred and one students of 3rd and 4th year level in selected public colleges and universities in the Philippines and Rwanda. Using structural equation modelling, a predictive model explained 57% of the variance in character development outcomes. Findings from the results of the analysis showed that in-classroom interactions have a substantial direct influence on character development outcomes of the students (r = .75, p < .05). In addition, out-of-classroom interaction, school climate, and home environment contributed to students’ character development outcomes but in an indirect way. The study concluded that in the classroom are many opportunities for teachers to teach, model and integrate character development among their students. Thus, suggestions are made to public colleges and universities to deliberately boost and implement experiences that cultivate character within the classroom. These may contribute tremendously to the students' character development outcomes and hence render effective models of behaviour analysis in higher education.

Keywords: character development, tertiary institutions, predictive model, behavior analysis

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Authors: Karolina Wieczorek, Zofia Przypaśniak

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Climate change is a rapidly growing threat to global health, and part of the responsibility to combat it lies within the healthcare sector itself, including adequate education of future medical professionals. To mitigate the consequences, the General Medical Council (GMC) has equipped medical schools with a list of outcomes regarding sustainability teaching. Students are expected to analyze the impact of the healthcare sector’s emissions on climate change. The delivery of the related teaching content is, however, often inadequate and insufficient time is devoted for exploration of the topics. Teaching curricula lack in-depth exploration of the learning objectives. This study aims to assess the extent and characteristics of climate change and sustainability subjects teaching in the curriculum of a chosen UK medical school (Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry). It compares the data to the national average scores from the Climate Change and Sustainability Teaching (C.A.S.T.) in Medical Education Audit to draw conclusions about teaching on a regional level. This is a single-center audit of the timetabled sessions of teaching in the medical course. The study looked at the academic year 2020/2021 which included a review of all non-elective, core curriculum teaching materials including tutorials, lectures, written resources, and assignments in all five years of the undergraduate and graduate degrees, focusing only on mandatory teaching attended by all students (excluding elective modules). The topics covered were crosschecked with GMC Outcomes for graduates: “Educating for Sustainable Healthcare – Priority Learning Outcomes” as gold standard to look for coverage of the outcomes and gaps in teaching. Quantitative data was collected in form of time allocated for teaching as proxy of time spent per individual outcomes. The data was collected independently by two students (KW and ZP) who have received prior training and assessed two separate data sets to increase interrater reliability. In terms of coverage of learning outcomes, 12 out of 13 were taught (with the national average being 9.7). The school ranked sixth in the UK for time spent per topic and second in terms of overall coverage, meaning the school has a broad range of topics taught with some being explored in more detail than others. For the first outcome 4 out of 4 objectives covered (average 3.5) with 47 minutes spent per outcome (average 84 min), for the second objective 5 out of 5 covered (average 3.5) with 46 minutes spent (average 20), for the third 3 out of 4 (average 2.5) with 10 mins pent (average 19 min). A disproportionately large amount of time is spent delivering teaching regarding air pollution (respiratory illnesses), which resulted in the topic of sustainability in other specialties being excluded from teaching (musculoskeletal, ophthalmology, pediatrics, renal). Conclusions: Currently, there is no coherent strategy on national teaching of climate change topics and as a result an unstandardized amount of time spent on teaching and coverage of objectives can be observed.

Keywords: audit, climate change, sustainability, education

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Authors: Tadewos Awugchew Wudineh

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Health and safety issues have always been a major problem and concern in the building construction industry. The health and safety regulations are stated to eliminate the potential hazards and to reduce the consequential risks. However, the importance of the regulations seems to be overlooked in building construction sites of Hawassa City. Accordingly, many companies don’t follow the regulations as construction workers are more likely to be injured and killed by construction accident than any other type of employment. This paper aimed to identify factors that affect the implementation of construction health and safety regulations, their effects and mitigation measures in building construction project sites of Hawassa City. To reach this objective, a review of literature as well as the Ethiopian construction health and safety regulations have been undertaken. Mainly a five-point Likert scale questionnaire was distributed, and statistical analysis was used to summarize, interpret the data, and to find the significances of the responses. In addition, interviews were carried out. Accordingly, the findings indicate that the top factors which affect the implementation of CHS regulations are, availability and development of a clear health and safety policy, health and safety inspections by top management, conducting health and safety training and orientation, provision of healthy and safe working environment and employment of trained safety officers. The study revealed that implementation or non-implementation of CHS regulations have effects on the worker’s productivity, job satisfaction, rate of accidents, and cost greatly. Thus, the suggestion to minimize the impact on worker’s job performance are, developing of a clear health and safety policy, management commitment towards implementation of health and safety regulations, health and safety education and training and conducting regular health and safety inspections. It was concluded from the study that good implementation of health and safety regulations are the results from administrative and management commitment which calls for more attention to be paid to improve the implementation of CHS regulations in building construction sites of Hawassa City.

Keywords: construction health and safety regulations, effects, factors, mitigation

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Authors: Gehad S. Kaseb, Mona F. Ahmed

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Arabic Sentiment Analysis (SA) is one of the most common research fields with many open areas. Few studies apply SA to Arabic dialects. This paper proposes different pre-processing steps and a modified methodology to improve the accuracy using normal Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification. The paper works on two datasets, Arabic Sentiment Tweets Dataset (ASTD) and Extended Arabic Tweets Sentiment Dataset (Extended-AATSD), which are publicly available for academic use. The results show that the classification accuracy approaches 86%.

Keywords: Arabic, classification, sentiment analysis, tweets

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Authors: K. O'Malley

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Background: The emergence and rapid evolution of large language models (LLMs) (i.e., models of generative artificial intelligence, or AI) has been unprecedented. ChatGPT is one of the most widely used LLM platforms. Using natural language processing technology, it generates customized responses to user prompts, enabling it to mimic human conversation. Responses are generated using predictive modeling of vast internet text and data swathes and are further refined and reinforced through user feedback. The popularity of LLMs is increasing, with a growing number of students utilizing these platforms for study and revision purposes. Notwithstanding its many novel applications, LLM technology is inherently susceptible to bias and error. This poses a significant challenge in the educational setting, where academic integrity may be undermined. This study aims to evaluate the performance of the latest iteration of ChatGPT (ChatGPT4.0) in standardized state medical licensing examinations. Methods: A considered search strategy was used to interrogate the PubMed electronic database. The keywords ‘ChatGPT’ AND ‘medical education’ OR ‘medical school’ OR ‘medical licensing exam’ were used to identify relevant literature. The search included all peer-reviewed literature published in the past five years. The search was limited to publications in the English language only. Eligibility was ascertained based on the study title and abstract and confirmed by consulting the full-text document. Data was extracted into a Microsoft Excel document for analysis. Results: The search yielded 345 publications that were screened. 225 original articles were identified, of which 11 met the pre-determined criteria for inclusion in a narrative synthesis. These studies included performance assessments in national medical licensing examinations from the United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Taiwan, Japan and Germany. ChatGPT 4.0 achieved scores ranging from 67.1 to 88.6 percent. The mean score across all studies was 82.49 percent (SD= 5.95). In all studies, ChatGPT exceeded the threshold for a passing grade in the corresponding exam. Conclusion: The capabilities of ChatGPT in standardized academic assessment in medicine are robust. While this technology can potentially revolutionize higher education, it also presents several challenges with which educators have not had to contend before. The overall strong performance of ChatGPT, as outlined above, may lend itself to unfair use (such as the plagiarism of deliverable coursework) and pose unforeseen ethical challenges (arising from algorithmic bias). Conversely, it highlights potential pitfalls if users assume LLM-generated content to be entirely accurate. In the aforementioned studies, ChatGPT exhibits a margin of error between 11.4 and 32.9 percent, which resonates strongly with concerns regarding the quality and veracity of LLM-generated content. It is imperative to highlight these limitations, particularly to students in the early stages of their education who are less likely to possess the requisite insight or knowledge to recognize errors, inaccuracies or false information. Educators must inform themselves of these emerging challenges to effectively address them and mitigate potential disruption in academic fora.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, generative ai, large language models, licensing exam, medical education, medicine, university

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Authors: Changaiz Khan

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Pakistan has the highest rates of maternal mortality in South Asia. From the year 2000 to 2017 the global rate of maternal mortality has decreased up to 39 %. In the context of South Asia, it has decreased by 59% since 2000s. Pakistan has also reduced the rate of maternal mortality, but there is a difference on the provincial level. According to the report of the National Institute of Population Studies (NIPS) conducted in 2020, the MMR in Balochistan has crossed the ratio of most of the South Asian countries, i.e., 298 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. In comparison, the province of Punjab has the lowest maternal mortality rate i.e. 157 deaths (per 100,000 live births). The rate of maternal mortality is much higher in Balochistan as compared to the other provinces. This research is aimed to discuss the supply side barriers and utilization of maternal healthcare services in the District Gwadar. Likert scale survey method has been used to collect data from the Healthcare Professionals from hospitals -private and government- and the maternal healthcare receiver, that is patient. Semi-structured interviews of healthcare professionals such as doctors, nurses, and Lab technicians have also been conducted. It has been found in this research study that the hospitals in Gwadar district are lagging behind in providing modern maternal healthcare to women due to the lack of staff training, medicine supply, and Laboratories. Moreover, the system of the lady health worker is also not catering to the needs of the women in District Gwadar. It has been recommended in the study that first of all the government should fulfill the supply of the medicine in the hospital. Secondly, the government should open laboratories in the hospitals. Thirdly, the government should increase the funding of the government hospital and the allocation of lady health workers in District Gwadar, Balochistan should be increased.

Keywords: maternal mortality, neonatal, postnatal, supply barriers, patients, healthcare professionals, laboratory, medical supply, training

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Authors: A. Pallavi, N. Vijay Mohan

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A nation can be economically progressive only when the citizens have sufficient capacity to work efficiently to increase the productivity. So, good health must be regarded as a primary need of the community. This helps the growth and development of the body and the mind, which in turn leads to progress and prosperity of the nation. An optimum growth is a necessity for an efficient existence in a biologically adverse and economically competitive world. It is also necessary for the execution of daily routine work. Yoga is a method or a system for the complete development of the personality in a human being. It can be further elaborated as an all-around and complete development of the body, mind, morality, intellect and soul of a being. Sri Aurobindo defines yoga as 'a methodical effort towards self-perfection by the development of the potentialities in the individual.' Aerobic exercise as any activity that uses large muscle groups, can be maintained continuously, and is rhythmic I nature. It is a type of exercise that overloads the heart and lungs and causes them to work harder than at rest. The important idea behind aerobic exercise today, is to get up and get moving. There are more activities that ever to choose from, whether it is a new activity or an old one. Find something you enjoy doing that keeps our heart rate elevated for a continuous time period and get moving to a healthier life. Middle aged selected and served as the subjects for the purpose of this study. The selected subjects were in the age group of 30 to 40 years. By going through the literature and after consulting the experts in yoga and aerobic training, the investigator had chosen the variables which are specifically related to the middle-aged men. The selected physiological variables are pulse rate, diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure; percent body fat and vital capacity. The selected psychological variables are job anxiety, occupational stress. The study was formulated as a random group design consisting of aerobic exercise and yogic exercises groups. The subjects (N=60) were at random divided into three equal groups of twenty middle-aged men each. The groups were assigned the names as follows: 1. Experimental group I- aerobic exercises group, 2. Experimental group II- yogic exercises, 3. Control group. All the groups were subjected to pre-test prior to the experimental treatment. The experimental groups participated in their respective duration of twenty-four weeks, six days in a week throughout the study. The various tests administered were: prior to training (pre-test), after twelfth week (second test) and twenty-fourth weeks (post-test) of the training schedule.

Keywords: pulse rate, diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure; percent body fat and vital capacity, psychological variables, job anxiety, occupational stress, aerobic exercise, yogic exercise

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Authors: Masita Mokeira, Kimani Rita, Obonyo Brian, Kwenda Kennedy, Mugambi Purity, Kirui Joan, Chomba Eric, Orwa Daniel, Waiganjo Peter

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Rugby is a highly intense and physical game requiring speed and strength. The need for physical fitness therefore cannot be over-emphasized. Sports are no longer about lifting weights so as to build muscle. Most professional teams are investing much more in the sport in terms of time, equipment and other resources. To play competitively, Kenyan players may therefore need to complement their ‘home-grown’ and sometimes ad-hoc training and nutrition regimes with carefully measured strength and conditioning, diet, nutrition, and supplementation. Nokia Research Center and University of Nairobi conducted an exploratory study on needs and behaviours surrounding sports in Africa. Rugby being one sport that is gaining ground in Kenya was selected as the main focus. The end goal of the research was to identify areas where mobile technology could be used to address gaps, challenges and/or unmet needs. Themes such as information gap, social culture, growth, and development, revenue flow, and technology adoption among others emerged about the sport. From the growth and development theme, it was clear that as rugby continues to grow in the country, teams, coaches, and players are employing interesting techniques both in training and playing. Though some of these techniques are indeed scientific, those employing them are sometimes not fully aware of their scientific basis. A further case study on sports science in rugby in Kenya focusing on physical fitness and nutrition revealed interesting findings. This paper discusses findings on emerging adoption of techniques in managing physiological and nutritional needs of rugby players across different levels of rugby in Kenya namely high school, club and national levels.

Keywords: rugby, nutrition, physiological needs, sports science

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Authors: Antonio Casero Martínez, María de Lluch Rayo Llinas

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This work is part of an investigation into the relationship between romantic love and self-esteem in college students, performed by the students of matter "methods and techniques of social research", of the Master Gender at the University of Balearic Islands, during 2014-2015. In particular, we have investigated the relationships that may exist between self-esteem, gender and field of study. They are known as gender differences in self-esteem, and the relationship between gender and branch of study observed annually by the distribution of enrolment in universities. Therefore, in this part of the study, we focused the spotlight on the differences in self-esteem between the sexes through the various branches of study. The study sample consists of 726 individuals (304 men and 422 women) from 30 undergraduate degrees that the University of the Balearic Islands offers on its campus in 2014-2015, academic year. The average age of men was 21.9 years and 21.7 years for women. The sampling procedure used was random sampling stratified by degree, simple affixation, giving a sampling error of 3.6% for the whole sample, with a confidence level of 95% under the most unfavorable situation (p = q). The Spanish translation of the Rosenberg Self-Esteen Scale (RSE), by Atienza, Moreno and Balaguer was applied. The psychometric properties of translation reach a test-retest reliability of 0.80 and an internal consistency between 0.76 and 0.87. In this paper we have obtained an internal consistency of 0.82. The results confirm the expected differences in self-esteem by gender, although not in all branches of study. Mean levels of self-esteem in women are lower in all branches of study, reaching statistical significance in the field of Science, Social Sciences and Law, and Engineering and Architecture. However, analysed the variability of self-esteem by the branch of study within each gender, the results show independence in the case of men, whereas in the case of women find statistically significant differences, arising from lower self-esteem of Arts and Humanities students vs. the Social and legal Sciences students. These findings confirm the results of numerous investigations in which the levels of female self-esteem appears always below the male, suggesting that perhaps we should consider separately the two populations rather than continually emphasize the difference. The branch of study, for its part has not appeared as an explanatory factor of relevance, beyond detected the largest absolute difference between gender in the technical branch, one in which women are historically a minority, ergo, are no disciplinary or academic characteristics which would explain the differences, but the differentiated social context that occurs within it.

Keywords: study branch, gender, self-esteem, applied psychology

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Authors: Hao Min Chuah, Tatsuya Yamazaki, Ryosui Iwasawa, Tatsumi Suto

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In recent years, with the advancement of digital technology, the movement to introduce so-called ICT (Information and Communication Technology), such as computer technology and network technology, to civil engineering construction sites and construction sites is accelerating. As part of this movement, attempts are being made in various situations to reproduce actual sites inside computers and use them for designing and construction planning, as well as for training inexperienced engineers. The installation of wave-dissipating blocks on coasts, etc., is a type of work that has been carried out by skilled workers based on their years of experience and is one of the tasks that is difficult for inexperienced workers to carry out on site. Wave-dissipating blocks are structures that are designed to protect coasts, beaches, and so on from erosion by reducing the energy of ocean waves. Wave-dissipating blocks usually weigh more than 1 t and are installed by being suspended by a crane, so it would be time-consuming and costly for inexperienced workers to train on-site. In this paper, therefore, a block installation simulator is developed based on Unity 3D, a game development engine. The simulator computes porosity. Porosity is defined as the ratio of the total volume of the wave breaker blocks inside the structure to the final shape of the ideal structure. Using the evaluation of porosity, the simulator can determine how well the user is able to install the blocks. The voxelization technique is used to calculate the porosity of the structure, simplifying the calculations. Other techniques, such as raycasting and box overlapping, are employed for accurate simulation. In the near future, the simulator will install an automatic block installation algorithm based on combinatorial optimization solutions and compare the user-demonstrated block installation and the appropriate installation solved by the algorithm.

Keywords: 3D simulator, porosity, user interface, voxelization, wave-dissipating blocks

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Authors: Fauzanah Fauzan El Muhammady

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In the recent years, the Indonesian government has made tremendous efforts to improve the quality of Indonesia’s Islamic Higher Education Institutions (IHEIs) through the implementation of the institutional transformation policy. This policy has encouraged some IHEIs, such as Islamic Collages and Islamic Institutes to shift their institution from college to Institute or from Institute to university. As one of the requirements, the IHEIs should provide non-religious curriculum and integrate it with the religious curriculum (as the core curriculum of IHEIs). As results, since the 2000s, some Islamic Collages and Islamic Institutes have successfully developed the non-religious curriculum and achieved institutional transformation. However, after 15 years, the impact of the institutional transformation to the IHEIs is still debatable. The institutional transformation policy can be questioned as to whether the goal of status transformation has truly brought significant improvement to the quality of IHEIs. Therefore, based on the situation above, this study aims to explore how far the institutional transformation has effectively brought significant impact to the quality improvement of IHEIs. This study has used literature review method to investigate the current development of the institutional transformation in Indonesia’s IHEIs context. This is a part of literature review development to support the process of doctoral research. Based on the literature review, some studies found that the institutional transformation has led pro and cons to the academic community, society, and local government. Some agreed the institutional transformation has effectively facilitated non-religious curriculum development and it has significantly improved the number of prospective students and the student admitted at Islamic Universities. Meanwhile, others argue the development of non-religious curriculum will gradually eliminate the existence of the religious curriculum itself. On the other hand, the government suggests that the institutional transformation should be based on the quality standards. As a result, recently, the government has taken an initiative to restrict the institutional transformation (moratorium) in order to ensure the quality control of the institutional transformation application and to control the increasing number of the institutional transformation demands. This study provided the current issues that related to the contemporary of the institutional transformation in IHEIs context to disclosure how far both IHEIs and government overcome the quality issues of the institutional transformation development. The study results are expected can be used to advocate government, policymakers, and academic leaders in 1) reviewing the sustainability impact of the institutional transformation to the quality improvement of higher education institutions; 2) and finding effective solutions for the continuity of the institutional transformation in the future, particularly in the IHEIs context.

Keywords: curriculum, higher education, institutional transformation, quality

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Authors: Saeedeh Eshkil, Seyedeh Farnaz Mousavi, Hamid Reza Kianifar, Seyed Java Sayyedi, Mehdi Sohrabi, Elham Bakhtiari, Morteza Mashoughi, Ezzat Khodashenas

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Background: The effect of the SPARK physical education program on lung function in cystic fibrosis patients is not yet determined.).SPARK is Sports, play and active recreation for kids, including moving skills, aerobic games, jogging or walking, aerobic dance and jump rope. Regarding the high prevalence of cystic fibrosis and its destructive effects on the lungs, the aim of this study is to evaluate lung function and quality of life before and after undergoing the SPARK physical education program in children with cystic fibrosis. Method: In this quasi-experimental study, all patients with cystic fibrosis aged 6-18 years referred to the cystic fibrosis clinic of Dr. Sheikh Hospital were enrolled. The patients went under 12 weeks of SPARK training program (3 sessions per week, each session 45 minutes). The quality of life questionnaire ( Cystic Fibrosis Questionnaire includes self-examination, parental ) for patients with cystic fibrosis and spirometry indices (FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC, FEF25-75) was filled out before and after intervention for all patients. Results The mean and standard deviation of patients' age were 9.85±2.67 years, and 65% of patients were female. The FEV1 was significantly different before and after the SPARK physical education program (P=0.03), and the respiratory component of quality of life significantly increased after intervention (P=0.002). The overall score of quality of life from parents’ point of view was 2.87 ± 0.38, which increased to 2.99 ± 0.38 after the intervention. Conclusion: The SPARK training program may improve the spirometric parameters in children with cystic fibrosis. It also had a significant effect on improving the quality of life of patients, especially in the respiratory component.

Keywords: cystic fibrosis, pediatrics, SPARK motor program, spirometry

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Authors: Herbert Ntuli, Edwin Muchapondwa

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This study used a sample of 336 households and community level data from 30 communities around the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe to analyse the association between ability to self-organize or cooperation and institutions on one hand and the relationship between success of biodiversity outcomes and cooperation on the other hand. Using both the ordinary least squares and instrumental variables estimation with heteroskedasticity-based instruments, our results confirmed that sound institutions are indeed an important ingredient for cooperation in the respective communities and cooperation positively and significantly affects biodiversity outcomes. Group size, community level trust, the number of stakeholders and punishment were found to be important variables explaining cooperation. From a policy perspective, our results show that external enforcement of rules and regulations does not necessarily translate into sound ecological outcomes but better outcomes are attainable when punishment is rather endogenized by local communities. This seems to suggest that communities should rather be supported in such a way that robust institutions that are tailor made to suit the needs of local condition will emerge that will in turn facilitate good environmental husbandry. Cooperation, training, benefits, distance from the nearest urban canter, distance from the fence, social capital average age of household head, fence and information sharing were found to be very important variables explaining the success of biodiversity outcomes ceteris paribus. Government programmes should target capacity building in terms of institutional capacity and skills development in order to have a positive impact on biodiversity. Hence, the role of stakeholders (e.g., NGOs) in capacity building and government effort should complement each other to ensure that the necessary resources are mobilized and all communities receive the necessary training and resources.

Keywords: institutions, self-organize, common pool resources, wildlife, conservation, Zimbabwe

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Authors: Aline V. Arroteia, Gustavo G. Do Amaral, Simone Z. Kikuti, Norberto C. S. Moura, Silvio B. Melhado

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Despite the significant advances made by the construction industry in recent years, the crystalized absence of integration between the design and construction phases is still an evident and costly problem in building construction. Globally, the construction industry has sought to adopt collaborative practices through new technologies to mitigate impacts of this fragmented process and to optimize its production. In this new technological business environment, professionals are required to develop new methodologies based on the notion of collaboration and integration of information throughout the building lifecycle. This scenario also represents the industry’s reality in developing nations, and the increasing need for overall efficiency has demanded new educational alternatives at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. In countries like Brazil, it is the common understanding that Architecture, Engineering and Building Construction educational programs are being required to review the traditional design pedagogical processes to promote a comprehensive notion about integration and simultaneity between the phases of the project. In this context, the coherent inclusion of computation design to all segments of the educational programs of construction related professionals represents a significant research topic that, in fact, can affect the industry practice. Thus, the main objective of the present study was to comparatively measure the effectiveness of the Building Information Modeling courses offered by the University of Sao Paulo, the most important academic institution in Brazil, at the Schools of Architecture and Civil Engineering and the courses offered in well recognized BIM research institutions, such as the School of Design in the College of Architecture of the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, to evaluate the dissemination of BIM knowledge amongst students in post graduate level. The qualitative research methodology was developed based on the analysis of the program and activities proposed by two BIM courses offered in each of the above-mentioned institutions, which were used as case studies. The data collection instruments were a student questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, participatory evaluation and pedagogical practices. The found results have detected a broad heterogeneity of the students regarding their professional experience, hours dedicated to training, and especially in relation to their general knowledge of BIM technology and its applications. The research observed that BIM is mostly understood as an operational tool and not as methodological project development approach, relevant to the whole building life cycle. The present research offers in its conclusion an assessment about the importance of the incorporation of BIM, with efficiency and in its totality, as a teaching method in undergraduate and graduate courses in the Brazilian architecture, engineering and building construction schools.

Keywords: building information modeling (BIM), BIM education, BIM process, design teaching

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Authors: Mark Christian Inductivo Siwa, Jesrelle Ormoc Bontuyan

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This study was conducted in selected tertiary schools in selected universities in Asian countries such as Philippines, Thailand, and China, which are the top performing countries in Southeast Asian Games or SEA Games and Asian School Games (ASG), also known as the Youth SEA Games and Asian Games. The respondents of the study are sports administrators/directors and coaches in selected Southeast Asian countries such as Philippines, Thailand, and in Asia which is China. This study has generated a progressive sports operational model of Sports Leadership and Management in Selected Universities in Asia. This study utilized mixed-method research. It is a methodology for conducting research that involves collecting, analyzing and integrating quantitative (e.g., experiments, surveys) and qualitative (e.g., focus groups, interviews) research. This approach to research is used to provide integration for a better understanding of the research problem than either of each alone. This study particularly employed the explanatory sequential design of mixed methods, which involved two phases: the quantitative phase, which involves the collection and analysis of quantitative data, followed by the qualitative phase, which involves the collection and analysis of qualitative data. This study will prioritize the quantitative data and the findings will be followed up during the interpretation phase in the qualitative data of the study. The qualitative data help explain or build upon initial quantitative results. In phase I, the researcher began with the collection and analysis of the quantitative data. His investigation gave greater emphasis on the quantitative methods, particularly employed surveys with the coaches and sports directors of the three selected universities in Asia. In Phase II, the researcher subsequently collected and analyzed the qualitative data obtained through an interview with the sports directors to follow from or connect to the results of the quantitative phase. This study followed the data analysis spiral so that the researcher could follow – up or explain the quantitative results. The researcher engaged in the process of moving in analytic circles. Based on the school's mission and vision, the sports leadership and management consistently followed the key factors to take into account when leading the organization and managing the process in sports leadership and management when formulating objectives/goals, budget, equipment care and maintenance, facilities, training matrix, and consideration. Also, sports management demonstrates the need for development in terms of the upkeep and care of equipment as well as athlete funding. The development of goals or sports management goals, sports facilities and equipment, as well as improvements in demonstrating training and consideration, and incentives, should also include a maintenance plan. The study concluded with a progressive sports operational model that was created based on the result of the study.

Keywords: sports leadership and management, formulating objectives, budget, equipment care and maintenance, training, consideration, incentives, progressive sports operational model

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Authors: Zhen Cheng, Xinyu Dai, Shujian Huang, Jiajun Chen

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Recently, explanatory natural language inference has attracted much attention for the interpretability of logic relationship prediction, which is also known as explanation generation for Natural Language Inference (NLI). Existing explanation generators based on discriminative Encoder-Decoder architecture have achieved noticeable results. However, we find that these discriminative generators usually generate explanations with correct evidence but incorrect logic semantic. It is due to that logic information is implicitly encoded in the premise-hypothesis pairs and difficult to model. Actually, logic information identically exists between premise-hypothesis pair and explanation. And it is easy to extract logic information that is explicitly contained in the target explanation. Hence we assume that there exists a latent space of logic information while generating explanations. Specifically, we propose a generative model called Variational Explanation Generator (VariationalEG) with a latent variable to model this space. Training with the guide of explicit logic information in target explanations, latent variable in VariationalEG could capture the implicit logic information in premise-hypothesis pairs effectively. Additionally, to tackle the problem of posterior collapse while training VariaztionalEG, we propose a simple yet effective approach called Logic Supervision on the latent variable to force it to encode logic information. Experiments on explanation generation benchmark—explanation-Stanford Natural Language Inference (e-SNLI) demonstrate that the proposed VariationalEG achieves significant improvement compared to previous studies and yields a state-of-the-art result. Furthermore, we perform the analysis of generated explanations to demonstrate the effect of the latent variable.

Keywords: natural language inference, explanation generation, variational auto-encoder, generative model

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Authors: Breno Barrreto Silva, Agnieszka Otwinowska, Katarzyna Kutylowska

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Research comparing lexical learning following the writing of sentences and longer texts with keywords is limited and contradictory. One possibility is that the recursivity of writing may enhance processing and increase lexical learning; another possibility is that the higher cognitive load of complex-text writing (e.g., essays), at least when timed, may hinder the learning of words. In our study, we selected 2 sets of 10 academic keywords matched for part of speech, length (number of characters), frequency (SUBTLEXus), and concreteness, and we asked 90 L1-Polish advanced-level English majors to use the keywords when writing sentences, timed (60 minutes) or untimed essays. First, all participants wrote a timed Control essay (60 minutes) without keywords. Then different groups produced Timed essays (60 minutes; n=33), Untimed essays (n=24), or Sentences (n=33) using the two sets of glossed keywords (counterbalanced). The comparability of the participants in the three groups was ensured by matching them for proficiency in English (LexTALE), and for few measures derived from the control essay: VocD (assessing productive lexical diversity), normed errors (assessing productive accuracy), words per minute (assessing productive written fluency), and holistic scores (assessing overall quality of production). We measured lexical learning (depth and breadth) via an adapted Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) and a free association test. Cognitive load was measured in the three essays (Control, Timed, Untimed) using normed number of errors and holistic scores (TOEFL criteria). The number of errors and essay scores were obtained from two raters (interrater reliability Pearson’s r=.78-91). Generalized linear mixed models showed no difference in the breadth and depth of keyword knowledge after writing Sentences, Timed essays, and Untimed essays. The task-based measurements found that Control and Timed essays had similar holistic scores, but that Untimed essay had better quality than Timed essay. Also, Untimed essay was the most accurate, and Timed essay the most error prone. Concluding, using keywords in Timed, but not Untimed, essays increased cognitive load, leading to more errors and lower quality. Still, writing sentences and essays yielded similar lexical learning, and differences in the cognitive load between Timed and Untimed essays did not affect lexical acquisition.

Keywords: learning academic words, writing essays, cognitive load, english as an L2

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Authors: Nargiza Nuralieva

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This meta-analysis investigates the effectiveness of mental health interventions tailored for international students in China, with a specific focus on Uzbek students and Silk Road scholarship recipients. The comprehensive literature review synthesizes existing studies, papers, and reports, evaluating the outcomes, limitations, and cultural considerations of these programs. Data selection targets mental health programs for international students, honing in on a subset analysis related to Uzbek students and Silk Road scholarship recipients. The analysis encompasses diverse outcome measures, such as reported stress levels, utilization rates of mental health services, academic performance, and more. Results reveal a consistent and statistically significant reduction in reported stress levels, emphasizing the positive impact of these interventions. Utilization rates of mental health services witness a significant increase, highlighting the accessibility and effectiveness of support. Retention rates show marked improvement, though academic performance yields mixed findings, prompting nuanced exploration. Psychological well-being, quality of life, and overall well-being exhibit substantial enhancements, aligning with the overarching goal of holistic student development. Positive outcomes are observed in increased help-seeking behavior, positive correlations with social support, and significant reductions in anxiety levels. Cultural adaptation and satisfaction with interventions both indicate positive outcomes, underscoring the effectiveness of culturally sensitive mental health support. The findings emphasize the importance of tailored mental health interventions for international students, providing novel insights into the specific needs of Uzbek students and Silk Road scholarship recipients. This research contributes to a nuanced understanding of the multifaceted impact of mental health programs on diverse student populations, offering valuable implications for the design and refinement of future interventions. As educational institutions continue to globalize, addressing the mental health needs of international students remains pivotal for fostering inclusive and supportive learning environments.

Keywords: international students, mental health interventions, cross-cultural support, silk road scholarship, meta-analysis

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