Search results for: teaching resources

Authors: Samira Mahmoudkelayeh, Katayoun Taghizade, Mitra Pourvaziri, Elnaz Asadian

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Over the recent decades, depletion of resources and environmental concerns made researchers and practitioners present sustainable approaches. Since construction process consumes a great deal of both renewable and non-renewable resources, it is of great significance regarding environmental impacts. Choosing sustainable construction materials is a remarkable strategy presented in many researches and has a significant effect on building’s environmental footprint. This paper represents an assessment framework for selecting best sustainable materials for exterior enclosure in the city of Tehran based on sustainability principles (eco-friendly, cost effective and socio-cultural viable solutions). To perform a comprehensive analysis of environmental impacts, life cycle assessment, a cradle to grave approach is used. A questionnaire survey of construction experts has been conducted to determine the relative importance of criteria. Analytic Network Process (ANP) is applied as a multi-criteria decision-making method to choose sustainable material which consider interdependencies of criteria and sub-criteria. Finally, it prioritizes and aggregates relevant criteria into ultimate assessed score.

Keywords: sustainable materials, building, analytic network process, life cycle assessment

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Authors: Monika Benedek

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

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

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Authors: Mei-Hsia Dai

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Venerable Master Di-Chiao has been devoted all her life practicing the Earth Store Bodhisattva’s spirit and is one of the greatest masters in modern Buddhism. All Buddha and Bodhisattvas pay great respect to the Earth Store Bodhisattva because He vowed that He would not become Buddha until the hell is empty, and He would only achieve Bodhi until all sentient beings have been saved. The aim of this study is to investigate Venerable Master Di-Chiao, who actualizes the Buddha’s teaching and practices the Earth Store Bodhisattva’s compassion and apply them to help people. In fact, she has integrated her learning to teach people how to eliminate their karmic suffering with her close attention and full effort, even though she would be hurt all over or she had to sacrifice her own life. This qualitative research gathers data in terms of a field study, including an interview with Venerable Master Di-Chiao, a book about the Master and three books about true stories of people saved by the Master, and about 300 online feedbacks from her disciples and followers explaining how they were helped by the Master through their difficulties, together with a year-long observation at the Dharma services held in Taipei Di-Zang Temple. This article is divided into four parts: The first part depicts Master Di-Chiao’s original intent of being a nun and her three-step-one-bow pilgrimage experience around Taiwan. Part two illustrates the invitation of the Master’s being the Abbess of Tsiang-Te Temple, which was designated by Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara in a manager’s dream of the temple, and many unexpected difficulties ahead of the cultivation in the Master’s Buddha Path. In addition to maintenance of Tsiang-Te Temple, the third part will discuss the purpose of founding Taipei Di-Zang Temple, in which the Master always tries her best with various methods to cultivate good seeds for her disciples and followers and watches out for their karma and does her utmost effort to help them overcome it. The final part will briefly explain the Three Buddhalization: Buddhist wedding, Buddhist prenatal education and Buddhist family, which the Master has been advocating and considers them the essence of constructing a harmonious society and having a meaningful and enlightening life. Extraordinary results of practicing the Three Buddhalization will be given. Findings show that Master’s Di-Chiao’s actualization of Buddha’s teaching and Bodhisattva’s compassion is incredibly amazing and powerful, and she has helped countless people to conquer their difficulties and purify their evil habits. With the Master’s assistance and their hardworking and faith to the Master’s teaching, some of her disciples and followers have gone to the Maitreya Inside Realm, where the future Buddha has resided, and continue their cultivation. True stories will be presented to illuminate the incredibility of the Master’s compassion, her brevity and perseverance in the course of the Buddhahood. Venerable Master Di-Chiao is the embodiment of the Earth Store Bodhisattva for her disciples and followers.

Keywords: compassion, the Earth Store Bodhisattva, three Buddhalization, venerable Master Di-Chiao

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Authors: Pinar Sali, Esim Gursoy, Ebru Atak Damar

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Teachers’ awareness of and involvement in educational research (ER) is regarded as an indispensable aspect of professional growth and development. It is also believed to be a catalyst for effective teaching and learning. This strong emphasis on the significance of teacher research engagement has sparked inquiry into how teachers construe ER and whether or not they practice it. However, there seems to exist a few researches on teachers’ perceptions of and experience with ER in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT). The present study thus attempts to fill this gap in the ELT literature and aims to unearth English language teachers’ perceptions of ER. Understanding these perceptions would undoubtedly aid in the development of strategies to promote teacher interest and involvement in research. The participants of the present study are 70 English language teachers in public and private schools in Turkey. A mixed-method approach has been used in the study. Both qualitative and quantitative data have been gathered by means of a questionnaire consisting of two parts. The first part of the questionnaire consists of 20 close-ended items of Teachers’ Attitude Scale Towards Educational Research (TASTER). The second part of the questionnaire has been developed by the researchers via an extensive literature review and consists of a mixture of close- and open-ended questions. In addition, 15 language teachers have been interviewed for an in-depth understanding of the results. Descriptive statistics and dual comparisons have been employed for the quantitative data, and the qualitative data have been analyzed by means of content analysis. The present study provides intriguing information as to the English language teachers’ perceptions of the usefulness and practicality of ER as well as the value they attain to it. The findings are discussed in relation to language teacher education. The research has implications for the teacher education process, teacher trainers and policy makers.

Keywords: attitudes toward educational research, educational research, language teachers, teacher research

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Authors: Kiran Kumar Gellaboina, Padmaja Kaja

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Agricultural Education and Research in India needs a transformation to serve the needs of the farmers and that of the nation. The fact that Agriculture and allied activities act as main source of livelihood for more than 70% population of rural India reinforces its importance in administrative and policy arena. As per Census 2011 of India it provides employment to approximately 56.6 % of labour. India has achieved significant growth in agriculture, milk, fish, oilseeds and fruits and vegetables owing to green, white, blue and yellow revolutions which have brought prosperity to farmers. Many factors are responsible for these achievement viz conducive government policies, receptivity of the farmers and also establishment of higher agricultural education institutions. The new breed of skilled human resources were instrumental in generating new technologies, and in its assessment, refinement and finally its dissemination to the farming community through extension methods. In order to sustain, diversify and realize the potential of agriculture sectors, it is necessary to develop skilled human resources. Agricultural human resource development is a continuous process undertaken by agricultural universities. The Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) coordinates and promotes agricultural research & education in India. In India, agricultural universities were established on ‘land grant’ pattern of USA which helped incorporation of a number of diverse subjects in the courses as also provision of hands-on practical exposure to the student. The State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) established through the legislative acts of the respective states and with major financial support from them leading to administrative and policy controls. It has been observed that pace and quality of technology generation and human resource development in many of the SAUs has gone down. The reason for this slackening are inadequate state funding, reduced faculty strength, inadequate faculty development programmes, lack of modern infrastructure for education and research etc. Establishment of new state agricultural universities and new faculties/colleges without providing necessary financial and faculty support has aggrieved the problem. The present work highlights some of the key issues affecting agricultural education and research in India and the impact it would have on farm productivity and sustainability. Secondary data pertaining to budgetary spend on agricultural education and research will be analyzed. This paper will study the trends in public spending on agricultural education and research and the per capita income of farmers in India. This paper tries to suggest that agricultural education and research has a key role in equipping the human resources for enhanced agricultural productivity and sustainable use of natural resources. Further, a total re-orientation of agricultural education with emphasis on other agricultural related social sciences is needed for effective agricultural policy research.

Keywords: agriculture, challenges, education, research

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Authors: Sumaya Ismail, Aijaz Ahmad Reshi

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The advances in sensor and embedded technologies have led to rapid developments in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Presently researchers focus on the integration of WSNs to the Internet for their pervasive availability to access these network resources as the interoperable subsystems. The recent computing technologies like cloud computing has made resource sharing as a converged infrastructure with required service interfaces for the shared resources over the Internet. This paper presents application architecture for wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSANS) following web of things, which allows easy integration of each node to the Internet in order to provide them with web accessibility. The architecture enables the sensors and actuator nodes accessed and controlled using cloud interface on WWW. The application architecture was implemented using existing web and its emerging technologies. In particular, the Representational State Transfer protocol (REST) was extended for the specific requirements of the application. The Cloud computing environment has been used as a development platform for the application to assess the possibility of integrating the WSAN nodes to Cloud services. The mushroom farm environment monitoring and control using WSANs has been taken as a research use case.

Keywords: WSAN, REST, web of things, ZigBee, cloud interface, PaaS, sensor gateway

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Authors: Ben-Caleb Egbide, Iyoha Francis, Egharevba Mathew, Oduntan Emmanuel

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The prosperity of any nation is determined not just by the availability of resources, but also by the discipline exercised in the management of those resources. This paper examines the functional association between adherence to budgetary estimates or budget discipline (BDISC) and national prosperity proxied by Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP) and Relative Poverty Index (RPI)/Human Development Index (HDI). Adopting a longitudinal retrospective research strategy, time series data relating to both the endogenous and exogenous variables were extracted from official government publications for 36 years’ (1980-2015 in the case of RGDP and RPI), and for 26 years (1990-2015 in the case of HDI). Ordinary Least Square (OLS), as well as cointegration regressions, were employed to gauge both the short term and long term impact of BDISC on RPI/HDI and RGDP. The results indicated that BDISC is directly related with RGDP but indirectly related with RPI. The implication is that while adherence to budgetary estimate can enhance economic growth, it has the capacity to slow down the rate of poverty in the long run. The paper, therefore, recommend stricter adherence to budgets as a way out of economic under performance in Nigeria and engender the process of promoting human development and national prosperity.

Keywords: budget discipline, human development index, national prosperity, Nigeria

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Authors: Elena Carcano, James Ball, Betty Tiko

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Carrying capacity refers to the maximum population that a given level of resources can sustain over a specific period. In undisturbed environments, the maximum population is determined by the availability and distribution of resources, as well as the competition for their utilization. This information is typically obtained through long-term data collection. In regulated environments, where resources are artificially modified, populations must adapt to changing conditions, which can lead to additional challenges due to fluctuations in resource availability over time and throughout development. An example of this is observed in hydropower plants, which alter water flow and impact fish migration patterns and behaviors. To assess how fish species can adapt to these changes, specialized surveys are conducted, which provide valuable information on fish populations, sample sizes, and density before and after flow modifications. In such situations, it is highly recommended to conduct hydrological and biological monitoring to gain insight into how flow reductions affect species adaptability and to prevent unfavorable exploitation conditions. This analysis involves several planned steps that help design appropriate hydropower production while simultaneously addressing environmental needs. Consequently, the study aims to strike a balance between technical assessment, biological requirements, and societal expectations. Beginning with a small hydro project that requires restoration, this analysis focuses on the lower tail of the Flow Duration Curve (FDC), where both hydrological and environmental goals can be met. The proposed approach involves determining the threshold condition that is tolerable for the most vulnerable species sampled (Telestes Muticellus) by identifying a low flow value from the long-term FDC. The results establish a practical connection between hydrological and environmental information and simplify the process by establishing a single reference flow value that represents the minimum environmental flow that should be maintained.

Keywords: carrying capacity, fish bypass ladder, long-term streamflow duration curve, eta-beta method, environmental flow

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Authors: Moet Moet Myint Lay

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Continuing professional development involves acquiring new knowledge and skills for current work and improving career opportunities in the field through continuing education (OECD, 2000). This article examines the effectiveness of CPD in improving teacher quality and the resulting need for CPD for teacher educators in Myanmar. The purpose of this study is to explore a deeper understanding of teacher-to-teacher continuing professional development in improving teacher education programs. Research questions: (1) How do teachers in Myanmar understand the idea of continuous professional development for professional development? (2) What CPD activities are required for all teachers in teachers' colleges? (3) What are the main challenges of CPD implementation in Myanmar Education College? A qualitative method using semi-structured interviews was used in this study. Seven teacher educators from Mandalay Education College participated in this study. There are three male teacher educators and four female teacher educators. All participants who responded to the semi-structured interviews were between 29 and 45 years old.The interviews revealed that professional development involves acquiring the necessary pedagogical knowledge and skills to encourage students to think creatively and critically. Teachers must participate in a variety of activities, including professional interviews, lesson study, training programs, workshops, and seminars. All results showed that teachers need English and ICT skills for teaching and learning, including extended ICT courses for those who have completed a foundation course, access to e-libraries, and inclusive education (including language teaching and learning), facilitate the assessment (formative and summative), practicum, mentoring, and coaching skills. The study concludes with practical findings that suggest an urgent need for CPD activities for teachers.

Keywords: continuous professional development, teacher educator, teacher training program), mentoring

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Authors: Zabeehullah, Fahim Arif, Yawar Abbas

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Software Defined Network (SDN) is a next genera-tion networking model which simplifies the traditional network complexities and improve the utilization of constrained resources. Currently, most of the SDN based Internet of Things(IoT) environments use traditional network routing strategies which work on the basis of max or min metric value. However, IoT network heterogeneity, dynamic traffic flow and complexity demands intelligent and self-adaptive routing algorithms because traditional routing algorithms lack the self-adaptions, intelligence and efficient utilization of resources. To some extent, SDN, due its flexibility, and centralized control has managed the IoT complexity and heterogeneity but still Software Defined IoT (SDIoT) lacks intelligence. To address this challenge, we proposed a model called Deep Routing Strategy (DRS) which uses Deep Learning algorithm to perform routing in SDIoT intelligently and efficiently. Our model uses real-time traffic for training and learning. Results demonstrate that proposed model has achieved high accuracy and low packet loss rate during path selection. Proposed model has also outperformed benchmark routing algorithm (OSPF). Moreover, proposed model provided encouraging results during high dynamic traffic flow.

Keywords: SDN, IoT, DL, ML, DRS

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Authors: Aysegul Evren Yapicioglu

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The social roles and responsibilities expected from citizens are increasing due to changing global living conditions. Science education is expected to prepare conscious and sensitive students. Because today’s students are the adults of future. Precondition of this task is Teacher Education. In the past decade, one of the most important research field is socioscientific issues. This study deals with advantages and disadvantages of socioscientific issue based instruction in science classroom according to pre-service science teachers’ views. A case study approach that is one of the qualitative research design was used to explore their views. Fourteen pre-service science teachers participated to instruction process. Dolphinariums, Kyoto Protocol, genetically modified organisms, recyclable black bags’ benefits and damages, genetic tests, alternative energy sources and organ donation are examples of socioscientific issues, which were taught through activities in a special teaching course. Diaries and focus group interview were used as data collection tools. As a result of the study, the advantages of socioscientific issue based instruction in science classroom comprise of six sub-categories which are multi-skilling, social awareness development of thinking, meaningful learning, character and professional development, contribution of scientific literacy whereas disadvantages of this instruction process are challenges teachers and students, limitations of teaching and learning process in pre-service science teachers’ perspectives. Finally, this study contributes to science teachers and researchers to overcome disadvantages and benefit from the advantage of socioscientific issue based instruction in science classroom.

Keywords: science education, socioscientific issues, socioscientific issue based instruction, pre-service science teacher

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Authors: R. Kenova, K. Anguelov, R. Nikolova

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The human factor plays a major role in boosting the competitive capacity of logistic enterprises. This is of particular importance when it comes to logistic companies. On the one hand they should be strictly compliant with legislation; on the other hand, they should be competitive in terms of pricing and of delivery timelines. Moreover, their policies should allow them to be as flexible as possible. All these circumstances are reason for very serious challenges for the qualification, motivation and experience of the human resources, working in logistic companies or in logistic departments of trade and industrial enterprises. The geographic place of Bulgaria puts it in position of a country with some specific competitive advantages in the goods transport from Europe to Asia and back. Along with it, there is a number of logistic companies, that operate in this sphere in Bulgaria. In the current paper, the authors aim to establish the condition of the administrative capacity and human resources in the logistic companies and logistic departments of trade and industrial companies in Bulgaria in order to propose some guidelines for improving of their effectiveness. Due to independent empirical research, conducted in Bulgarian logistic, trade and industrial enterprises, the authors investigate both the impact degree and the interdependence of various factors that characterize the administrative capacity. The study is conducted with a prepared questionnaire, in format of direct interview with the respondents. The volume of the poll is 50 respondents, representatives of: general managers of industrial or trade enterprises; logistic managers of industrial or trade enterprises; general managers of forwarding companies – either with own or with hired transport; experts from Bulgarian association of logistics; logistic lobbyist and scientists of the relevant area. The data are gathered for 3 months, then arranged by a specialized software program and analyzed by preset criteria. Based on the results of this methodological toolbox, it can be claimed that there is a correlation between the individual criteria. Also, a commitment between the administrative capacity and other factors that determine the competitiveness of the studied companies is established. In this paper, the authors present results of the empirical research that concerns the number and the workload in the logistic departments of the enterprises. Also, what is commented is the experience, related to logistic processes management and human resources competence. Moreover, the overload level of the logistic specialists is analyzed as one of the main threats for making mistakes and losing clients. The paper stands behind the thesis that there is indispensability of forming an effective and efficient administrative capacity, based on the number, qualification, experience and motivation of the staff in the logistic companies. The paper ends with recommendations about the qualification and experience of the specialists in logistic departments; providing effective and efficient administrative capacity in the logistic departments; interdependence of the human factor and the other factors that influence the enterprise competitiveness.

Keywords: administrative capacity, human resources, logistic competitiveness, staff qualification

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Authors: Diana F. Lopes, Jorge Simoes, José Martins, Eduardo Castro

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Health professionals are the keystone of any health system, by delivering health services to the population. Given the time and cost involved in training new health professionals, the planning process of the health workforce is particularly important as it ensures a proper balance between the supply and demand of these professionals and it plays a central role on the Health 2020 policy. In the past 40 years, the planning of the health workforce in Portugal has been conducted in a reactive way lacking a prospective vision based on an integrated, comprehensive and valid analysis. This situation may compromise not only the productivity and the overall socio-economic development but the quality of the healthcare services delivered to patients. This is even more critical given the expected shortage of the health workforce in the future. Furthermore, Portugal is facing an aging context of some professional classes (physicians and nurses). In 2015, 54% of physicians in Portugal were over 50 years old, and 30% of all members were over 60 years old. This phenomenon associated to an increasing emigration of young health professionals and a change in the citizens’ illness profiles and expectations must be considered when planning resources in healthcare. The perspective of sudden retirement of large groups of professionals in a short time is also a major problem to address. Another challenge to embrace is the health workforce imbalances, in which Portugal has one of the lowest nurse to physician ratio, 1.5, below the European Region and the OECD averages (2.2 and 2.8, respectively). Within the scope of the HEALTH 2040 project – which aims to estimate the ‘Future needs of human health resources in Portugal till 2040’ – the present study intends to get a comprehensive dynamic approach of the problem, by (i) estimating the needs of physicians and nurses in Portugal, by specialties and by quinquenium till 2040; (ii) identifying the training needs of physicians and nurses, in medium and long term, till 2040, and (iii) estimating the number of students that must be admitted into medicine and nursing training systems, each year, considering the different categories of specialties. The development of such approach is significantly more critical in the context of limited budget resources and changing health care needs. In this context, this study presents the drivers of the healthcare needs’ evolution (such as the demographic and technological evolution, the future expectations of the users of the health systems) and it proposes a Bayesian methodology, combining the best available data with experts opinion, to model such evolution. Preliminary results considering different plausible scenarios are presented. The proposed methodology will be integrated in a user-friendly decision support system so it can be used by politicians, with the potential to measure the impact of health policies, both at the regional and the national level.

Keywords: bayesian estimation, health economics, health workforce planning, human health resources planning

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Authors: Young Sik Kim, Tae Kwon Ha

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Russia was one of the world’s leading mineral- producing countries. In 2012, Russia was ranked among the world’s leading producers or was a leading regional producer of such mineral commodities as aluminum, arsenic, asbestos, bauxite, boron, cadmium, cement, coal, cobalt, copper, diamond, fluorspar, gold, iron ore, lime, magnesium compounds and metals, mica (flake, scrap, and sheet), natural gas, nickel, nitrogen, oil shale, palladium, peat, petroleum, phosphate, pig iron, platinum, potash, rhenium, silicon, steel, sulfur, titanium sponge, tungsten, and vanadium. Russia has large reserves of a variety of mineral resources and undoubtedly will continue to be one of the world’s leading mineral producers. Although the country’s economy is expected to grow in 2012, some problems are likely to remain. In 2011, the Russian economy returned to economic growth after the significant decline in 2010. According to some analysts, however, the recovery of 2011 did not appear sufficiently vigorous to carry the country’s strong economic growth into the next decade. Even in the sectors of the economy where the country is among the world leaders (ferrous metals, gas, petroleum), Russian industry has obsolete plants and equipment, a slow rate of innovation, and low labor productivity.

Keywords: Russia, energy resources, economic growth, strategy, oil complex

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Authors: Masoud Swalehe, Semra Günay

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Developed countries are losing many lives to non-communicable diseases as compared to their developing counterparts. The effects of these diseases are mostly sudden and manifest at a very short time prior to death or a dangerous attack and this has consolidated the significance of emergency medical system (EMS) as one of the vital areas of healthcare service delivery. The primary objective of this research is to reduce ambulance response times (RT) of Eskişehir province EMS since a number of studies have established a relationship between ambulance response times and survival chances of patients especially out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) victims. It has been found out that patients who receive out of hospital medical attention in few (4) minutes after cardiac arrest because of low ambulance response times stand higher chances of survival than their counterparts who take longer times (more than 12 minutes) to receive out of hospital medical care because of higher ambulance response times. The study will make use of geographic information systems (GIS) technology to dynamically reallocate ambulance resources according to demand and time so as to reduce ambulance response times. Geospatial-time distribution of ambulance calls (demand) will be used as a basis for optimal ambulance deployment using system status management (SSM) strategy to achieve much demand coverage with the same number of ambulance resources to cause response time reduction. Drive-time polygons will be used to come up with time specific facility coverage areas and suggesting additional facility candidate sites where ambulance resources can be moved to serve higher demands making use of network analysis techniques. Emergency Ambulance calls’ data from 1st January 2014 to 31st December 2014 obtained from Eskişehir province health directorate will be used in this study. This study will focus on the reduction of ambulance response times which is a key Emergency Medical Services performance indicator.

Keywords: emergency medical services, system status management, ambulance response times, geographic information system, geospatial-time distribution, out of hospital cardiac arrest

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Authors: C. F. Jones Couto, L. C. Motlhaolwa, K. Williams

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This article explores the re-imagining of physical education teacher education in South African higher education. Utilising student reflections from a physical education practical module, valuable insights into student experiences were obtained about the current physical education pedagogical approaches and potential areas for improvement. The traditional teaching model of physical education is based on the idea of teaching students a variety of sports and physical activities. However, this model has been shown to be ineffective in promoting lifelong physical activity. The modern world demands a more holistic approach to health and wellness. Data was collected using the arts-based collage method in combination with written group reflections from 139 second-year undergraduate physical education students. This study employed thematic analysis methods to gain a comprehensive understanding of the data and extract a broader perspective on the students' experiences. The study aimed to empower student teachers to learn, think, and act creatively within the many educational models that impact their experience, contributing to the ongoing efforts of re-imagining physical education teacher education in South African higher education. This research is significant as the students' valuable insights reflected that they can think and work across disciplines. Sustainable development goals and graduate attributes are important concepts that can contribute to student preparation. Using a multi-model educational approach based on the cultural-historical theory, higher education institutions can help develop graduate attributes that will prepare students for success in the workplace and life.

Keywords: holistic education, graduate attributes, physical education, teacher education, student experiences, sustainable development goals

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Authors: Soheila Sadeghi

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— The growing integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into Human Resources (HR) processes has transformed the way organizations manage recruitment, performance evaluation, and employee engagement. While AI offers numerous advantages—such as improved efficiency, reduced bias, and hyper-personalization—it raises significant concerns about employee well-being, job security, fairness, and transparency. The study examines how AI shapes employee perceptions, job satisfaction, mental health, and retention. Key findings reveal that: (a) while AI can enhance efficiency and reduce bias, it also raises concerns about job security, fairness, and privacy; (b) transparency in AI systems emerges as a critical factor in fostering trust and positive employee attitudes; and (c) AI systems can both support and undermine employee well-being, depending on how they are implemented and perceived. The research introduces an AI-employee well-being Interaction Framework, illustrating how AI influences employee perceptions, behaviors, and outcomes. Organizational strategies, such as (a) clear communication, (b) upskilling programs, and (c) employee involvement in AI implementation, are identified as crucial for mitigating negative impacts and enhancing positive outcomes. The study concludes that the successful integration of AI in HR requires a balanced approach that (a) prioritizes employee well-being, (b) facilitates human-AI collaboration, and (c) ensures ethical and transparent AI practices alongside technological advancement.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, human resources, employee well-being, job satisfaction, organizational support, transparency in AI

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Authors: Rachel S. Chang, Samuel P. Massion, Alan Z. Grusky, Heather A. Ridinger

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Introduction Health advocacy is defined as activities that improve access to care, utilize resources, address health disparities, and influence health policy. Advocacy is increasingly being recognized as a critical component of a physician’s role, as understanding social determinants of health and improving patient care are important aspects within the American Medical Association’s Health Systems Science framework. However, despite this growing prominence, educational interventions that address advocacy topics are limited and variable across medical school curricula. Furthermore, few recent studies have evaluated attitudes toward health advocacy among physicians-in-training in the United States. This study examines medical student attitudes towards health advocacy, along with perceived knowledge, ability, and current level of engagement with health advocacy during their clerkships. Methods This study employed a cross-sectional survey design using a single anonymous, self-report questionnaire to all second-year medical students at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (n=96) in December 2020 during clerkship rotations. The survey had 27 items with 5-point Likert scale (15), multiple choice (11), and free response questions (1). Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were utilized to analyze responses. The study was approved by the Vanderbilt University Institutional Review Board. Results There was an 88% response rate among second-year clerkship medical students. A majority (83%) agreed that formal training in health advocacy should be a mandatory part of the medical student curriculum Likewise, 83% of respondents felt that acting as a health advocate or patients should be part of their role as a clerkship student. However, a minority (25%) felt adequately prepared. While 72% of respondents felt able to identify a psychosocial need, 18% felt confident navigating the healthcare system and only 9% felt able to connect a patient to a psychosocial resource to fill that gap. 44% of respondents regularly contributed to conversations with their medical teams when discussing patients’ social needs, such as housing insecurity, financial insecurity, or legal needs. On average, respondents reported successfully connecting patients to psychosocial resources 1-2 times per 8-week clerkship block. Barriers to participating in health advocacy included perceived time constraints, lack of awareness of resources, lower emphasis among medical teams, and scarce involvement with social work teams. Conclusions In this single-institutional study, second-year medical students on clerkships recognize the importance of advocating for patients and support advocacy training within their medical school curriculum. However, their perceived lack of ability to navigate the healthcare system and connect patients to psychosocial resources, result in students feeling unprepared to advocate as effectively as they hoped during their clerkship rotations. Our results support the ongoing need to equip medical students with training and resources necessary for them to effectively act as advocates for patients.

Keywords: clerkships, medical students, patient advocacy, social medicine

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Authors: Sevket Ceyhun Cetin, Mehmet Oren

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According to existing educational research studies, students learn better with high teacher quality. Therefore, professional development has become a crucial way of increasing the quality of novices and veteran in-service teachers by providing support regarding content and pedagogy. To answer what makes PD effective, researchers have studied different PD models and revealed some critical elements that need to be considered, such as duration of a PD and the manner of delivery (e.g., lecture vs. engaging). Also, it has been pointed out that if PDs are prepared as one-size-fits-all, they most likely be ineffective in addressing teachers’ needs toward improving instructional quality. Instead, teachers’ voices need to be heard, and the foci of PDs should be determined based on their specific needs. Thus, this study was conducted to identify professional development needs of middle school mathematics teachers based on their self-evaluation of their performances in light of teaching standards. This study also aimed to explore whether the PD needs with respect to years of teaching experience (novice vs. veteran). These teachers had participated in a federally-funded research grant, which aimed to improve the competencies of 6-9 grade-level mathematics teachers in pedagogy and content areas. In the research project, the participants had consistently videoed their lessons throughout a school year and reflected on their performances, using Teacher Advanced Program (TAPTM) rubric, which was based on the best practices of teaching. Particularly, they scored their performances in the following areas and provided evidence as the justifications of their scores: Standards and Objectives, Presenting Instructional Content, Lesson Structure and Pacing, Activities and Materials, Academic Feedback, Grouping Students, and Questioning. The rating scale of the rubric is 1 through 5 (i.e., 1=Unsatisfactory [performance], 3=Proficient, and 5=Exemplary). For each area mentioned above, the numerical scores of 77 written reports (for 77 videoed lessons) of 24 teachers (nnovices=12 and nveteran=12) were averaged. Overall, the average score of each area was below 3 (ranging between 2.43 and 2.86); in other words, teachers judged their performances incompetent across the seven areas. In the second step of the data analysis, the lowest three areas in which novice and veteran teachers performed poorly were selected for further qualitative analysis. According to the preliminary results, the lowest three areas for the novice teachers were: Questioning, Grouping Students, and Academic Feedback. Grouping Students was also one of the lowest areas of the veteran teachers, but the other two areas for this group were: Lesson Structure & Pacing, and Standards & Objectives. Identifying in-service teachers’ needs based on their reflective practitioner experiences provides educators very crucial information that can be used to create more effective PD that improves teacher quality.

Keywords: mathematics teacher, professional development, self-reflection, video data

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Authors: Michał Witas

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This paper presents a technical approach to analysis of security of SCADA systems. Main goal of the paper is to make SCADA administrators aware of risks resulting from SCADA systems usage and to familiarize with methods that can be adopt to existing or planned system, to increase overall system security level. Because SCADA based systems become a industrial standard, more attention should be paid to the security of that systems. Industrial Control Systems (ICS) like SCADA are responsible for controlling crucial aspects of wide range of industrial processes. In pair with that responsibility, goes a lot of money that can be earned or lost – this fact is main reason of increased interest of attackers. Additionally ICS are often responsible for maintaining resources strategic from the point of view of national economy, like electricity (including nuclear power plants), heating, water resources or military facilities, so they can be targets of terrorist cybernetic attacks. Without proper risk analysis and management, vulnerabilities resulting from the usage of SCADA can be easily exploited by potential attacker. Paper is based mostly on own experience in systems security, gathered during academic studies and professional work in international company. As title suggests, it will cover only basics of topic, because every of points mentioned in the document can be base for additional research and papers.

Keywords: denial of service, SCADA, security policy, distributed network

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Authors: Elena Bulmer

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The research for this study has found that the formation of alliances for the successful revitalization of the global partnership for sustainable development, as defined by UN Sustainable Development Goal 17, entails considerable difficulty. This study uses for its empirical work marine environmental conservation projects and analyses the potential involvement of nonhuman actors as primordial stakeholders in these types of projects. The idea is to extend the scope of SDG 17 for it to also consider nonhuman subjects in order for it to better achieve its goal. The results of this study may be extrapolated to the business and management fields, which depend on natural resources for the development of their products. In the same way, in these areas, natural resources as nonhuman actors are not present in the stakeholder maps of these projects. Environmental Conservation projects are thus especially interesting to study with regards to their stakeholder context and have been used as the experimental setting for the empirical work of this study. The primordial stakeholders of these projects are not social objects and therefore go beyond the present limits of present stakeholder theory. The study that has been used to analyse this concept is a marine conservation project based in Spain, and to shed light in potential extending the role of the 17th Sustainable Development Goal to include nonhuman beings to be able to better achieve the rest of the SDGs, in this case, SDG 14 whose aim is to promote the conservation and sustainability of the world´s oceans.

Keywords: SDG 17, sustainability, stakeholder management, environmental conservation projects

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Authors: Catia S. A. Sima, K. Bousson

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Congestion in the Terminal Maneuvering Areas (TMAs) of larger airports impacts all aspects of air traffic flow, not only at national level but may also induce arrival delays at international level. Hence, there is a need to monitor appropriately the air traffic flow in TMAs so that efficient decisions may be taken to manage their occupancy rates. It would be desirable to physically increase the existing airspace to accommodate all existing demands, but this question is entirely utopian and, given this possibility, several studies and analyses have been developed over the past decades to meet the challenges that have arisen due to the dizzying expansion of the aeronautical industry. The main objective of the present paper is to propose concepts to manage and reduce the degree of uncertainty in the air traffic operations, maximizing the interest of all involved, ensuring a balance between demand and supply, and developing and/or adapting resources that enable a rapid and effective adaptation of measures to the current context and the consequent changes perceived in the aeronautical industry. A central task is to emphasize the increase in air traffic flow management capacity to the present day, taking into account not only a wide range of methodologies but also equipment and/or tools already available in the aeronautical industry. The efficient use of these resources is crucial as the human capacity for work is limited and the actors involved in all processes related to air traffic flow management are increasingly overloaded and, as a result, operational safety could be compromised. The methodology used to answer and/or develop the issues listed above is based on the advantages promoted by the application of Markov Chain principles that enable the construction of a simplified model of a dynamic network that describes the air traffic flow behavior anticipating their changes and eventual measures that could better address the impact of increased demand. Through this model, the proposed concepts are shown to have potentials to optimize the air traffic flow management combined with the operation of the existing resources at each moment and the circumstances found in each TMA, using historical data from the air traffic operations and specificities found in the aeronautical industry, namely in the Portuguese context.

Keywords: air traffic flow, terminal maneuvering area, TMA, air traffic management, ATM, Markov chains

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Authors: Salim Hiziroglu

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Rice straw, jute, coconut fiber, oil palm, bagasse and bamboo are some of agricultural resources that can be used to produce different types of value-added composite panels including particleboard and medium density fiberboard (MDF). Invasive species such as Eastern red cedar in South Western states in the USA would also be considered as viable raw material to manufacture above products. The main objective of this study was to investigate both physical and mechanical properties of both structural and non-structural panels manufactured from underutilized and agricultural species. Eastern red cedar, bamboo and rice straw were used to manufacture experimental panels. Properties of such samples including bending, internal bond strength, thickness swelling, density profiles and surface roughness were evaluated. Panels made 100% bamboo had the best properties among the other samples. Having rice straw in particleboard and medium density fiberboard panels reduced overall properties of the samples. Manufacturing interior sandwich type of panels having fibers on the face layers while particle of the same type of materials in the core improved their surface quality. Based on the findings of this work such species could have potential to be used as raw material to manufacture value-added panels with accepted properties.

Keywords: composite panels, wood and non-wood fibers, mechanical properties, bamboo

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Authors: R. M. Kashim

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The study investigated primary school teachers’ conceptual and procedural knowledge of rational numbers and its effects on pupil’s achievement in rational numbers. Specifically, primary school teachers’ level of conceptual knowledge about rational numbers, primary school teachers’ level of procedural knowledge about rational numbers, and the effects of teachers conceptual and procedural knowledge on their pupils understanding of rational numbers in primary schools is investigated. The study was carried out in Bauchi metropolis in the Bauchi state of Nigeria. The design of the study was a multi-stage design. The first stage was a descriptive design. The second stage involves a pre-test, post-test only quasi-experimental design. Two instruments were used for the data collection in the study. These were Conceptual and Procedural knowledge test (CPKT) and Rational number achievement test (RAT), the population of the study comprises of three (3) mathematics teachers’ holders of Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) teaching primary six and 210 pupils in their intact classes were used for the study. The data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, analysis of variance, analysis of covariance and t- test. The findings indicated that the pupils taught rational number by a teacher that has high conceptual and procedural knowledge understand and perform better than the pupil taught by a teacher who has low conceptual and procedural knowledge of rational number. It is, therefore, recommended that teachers in primary schools should be encouraged to enrich their conceptual knowledge of rational numbers. Also, the superiority performance of teachers in procedural knowledge in rational number should not become an obstruction of understanding. Teachers Conceptual and procedural knowledge of rational numbers should be balanced so that primary school pupils will have a view of better teaching and learning of rational number in our contemporary schools.

Keywords: conceptual, procedural knowledge, rational number, pupils

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Authors: Hamed Mohammed Al Gheilani

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Red tide, one of the harmful algal blooms (HABs) is a natural ecological phenomenon and often this event is accompanied by severe impacts on coastal resources, local economies, and public health. The occurrence of red tides has become more frequent in Omani waters in recent years. Some of them caused fish kill, damaged fishery resources and mariculture, threatened the marine environment and the osmosis membranes of desalination plants. However, a number of them have been harmless. The most common dinoflagellate Noctiluca scintillans is associated with the red tide events in Omani waters. Toxic species like Karenia selliformis, Prorocentrum arabianum, and Trichodesmium erythraeum have also been reported recently. Although red tides in Oman have been considered a consequence of upwelling in the summer season (May to September), recent phytoplankton outbreaks in Oman are not restricted to summer. Frequent algal blooms have been reported during winter (December to March). HABs may have contributed to hypoxia and/or other negative ecological impacts. The effects of HABs on desalination plan were increased in last three years, by blooms of Cochlodinium, noctiluca species, and blooms of jellyfish. Most of these blooms were affected Al Batinah and Muscat coast. These effects include millions of Omani Rials and several shutdowns of desalination plans during these years.

Keywords: red tide, environment, hypoxia, noctiluca

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Authors: Taher Abofol, Yaakov Kareev, Judith Avrahami, Peter M. Todd

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Are children sensitive to their relative strength in competitions against others? Performance on tasks that require cooperation or coordination (e.g. the Ultimatum Game) indicates that early precursors of adult-like notions of fairness and reciprocity, as well as altruistic behavior, are evident at an early age. However, not much is known regarding developmental changes in interactive decision-making, especially in competitive interactions. Thus, it is important to study the developmental aspects of strategic behavior in these situations. The present research focused on cognitive-developmental changes in a competitive interaction. Specifically, it aimed at revealing how children engage in strategic interactions that involve the allocation of limited resources over a number of fields of competition, by manipulating relative strength. Relative strength refers to situations in which player strength changes midway through the game: the stronger player becomes the weaker one, while the weaker player becomes the stronger one. An experiment was conducted to find out if the behavior of children of different age groups differs in the following three aspects: 1. Perception of relative strength. 2. Ability to learn while gaining experience. 3. Ability to adapt to change in relative strength. The task was composed of a resource allocation game. After the players allocated their resources (privately and simultaneously), a competition field was randomly chosen for each player. The player who allocated more resources to the field chosen was declared the winner of that round. The resources available to the two competitors were unequal (or equal, for control). The theoretical solution for this game is that the weaker player should give up on a certain number of fields, depending on the stronger opponent’s relative strength, in order to be able to compete with the opponent on equal footing in the remaining fields. Participants were of three age groups, first-graders (N = 36, mean age = 6), fourth-graders (N = 36, mean age = 10), and eleventh-graders (N = 72, mean age = 16). The games took place between players of the same age and lasted for 16 rounds. There were two experimental conditions – a control condition, in which players were of equal strength, and an experimental condition, in which players differed in strength. In the experimental condition, players' strength was changed midway through the session. Results indicated that players in all age groups were sensitive to their relative strength, and played in line with the theoretical solution: the weaker players gave up on more fields than the stronger ones. This understanding, as well as the consequent difference in allocation between weak and strong players, was more pronounced among older participants. Experience led only to minimal behavioral change. Finally, the children from the two older groups, particularly the eleventh graders adapted quickly to the midway switch in relative strength. In contrast, the first-graders hardly changed their behavior with the change in their relative strength, indicating a limited ability to adapt. These findings highlight young children’s ability to consider their relative strength in strategic interactions and its boundaries.

Keywords: children, competition, decision making, developmental changes, strategic behavior

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Authors: Hussain Ali Bekhet, Nor Salwati Othman

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Malaysia has achieved remarkable economic growth since 1957, moving toward modernization from a predominantly agriculture base to manufacturing and—now—modern services. The development policies (i.e., New Economic Policy [1970–1990], the National Development Policy [1990–2000], and Vision 2020) have been recognized as the most important drivers of this transformation. The transformation of the economic structure has moved along with rapid gross domestic product (GDP) growth, urbanization growth, and greater demand for energy from mainly fossil fuel resources, which in turn, increase CO2 emissions. Malaysia faced a great challenge to bring down the CO2 emissions without compromising economic development. Solid policies and a strategy to reduce dependencies on fossil fuel resources and reduce CO2 emissions are needed in order to achieve sustainable development. This study provides an overview of the Malaysian economic, energy, and environmental situation, and explores the existing policies and strategies related to energy and the environment. The significance is to grasp a clear picture on what types of policies and strategies Malaysia has in hand. In the future, this examination should be extended by drawing a comparison with other developed countries and highlighting several options for sustainable development.

Keywords: energy policies, energy efficiency, renewable energy, green building, Malaysia, sustainable development

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Authors: Mukhtar Sarkin-Kebbi

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Insurgency, religious extremism and other related religious crises become hydra-headed in Nigeria, which caused destruction of human lives and properties worth of billions naira. As result, millions people were displaced and million children were out of school most of whom from Muslims community. The wrong teaching and misinterpretation of Islam by some Muslim community fuel the spread of extremist ideology hatred among Muslim sects, non-Muslims and emergency of extremist groups, like Boko Haram. A multi-religious country like Nigeria to realise its development in all human aspects, there must be unity and religious tolerance. Many agreed that changing the ideologies of insurgents and religious extremism will require intellectual role with vigorous campaign. Muslim scholars can play a vital role in promoting social reform and peaceful coexistence. This paper discusses the importance of unity among Muslim community and religious tolerance in light of the Qur’an and the Hadith. The paper also reviews the relationship between Muslims and non Muslims during the life time the Prophet (S.A.W.) in order to serve as exemplary model. Contemporary issues such as religious extremism, sectarians, intolerance and their consequences were examined. To minify religious intolerance and extremism,the paper identifies the roles to be played by Muslim scholars with references from Qur’an and Sunnah. The paper concludes that to realise overall human development and eternal salvation, Muslim should shun away from any religious crises and embrace unity and religious tolerance. Finally the paper recommends among others that only pious and learned scholars should be allowed to preach in any religious gathering, Muslim should exercise patience, tolerance in dealing with Muslims and non Muslims. Muslims should leave by example from the teaching of Qur’an and Sunnah of the Prophet (S.A.W.).

Keywords: Muslim scholars, peace building, religious extremism, religious tolerance

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Authors: Venuste Kayinamura, V. Iyamuremye, A. Ngirabakunzi

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Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for HIV patient can cause a deficiency in glucose metabolism by promoting insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, and diabetes, diabetes mellitus keep increasing among HIV-infected patients worldwide but there is limited data on levels of blood glucose and its relationship with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) and HIV-infection worldwide, particularly in Rwanda. A convenient sampling strategy was used in this study and it involved 323 HIV patients (n=323). Patients who are HIV positive under ARVs were involved in this study. The patient’s blood glucose was analyzed using an automated machine or glucometer (COBAS C 311). Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS V. 20.0 and presented in percentages. The highest diabetes mellitus prevalence was 93.33 % in people aged >40 years while the lowest diabetes mellitus prevalence was 6.67% in people aged between 21-and 40 years. The P-value was (0.021). Thus, there is a significant association between age and diabetes occurrence. The highest diabetes mellitus prevalence was 28.2% in patients under ART treatment for more than 10 years, 16.7% were <5years while 20% of patients were on ART treatment between 5-10 years. The P-value here is (0.03), thus the incidence of diabetes is associated with long-term ART use in HIV-infected patients. This study assessed the prevalence of diabetes among HIV-infected patients under ARVs attending the University Teaching Hospital of Butare (CHUB), it shows that the prevalence of diabetes is high in HIV-infected patients under ARTs. This study found no significant relationship between gender and diabetes mellitus growth. Therefore, regular assessment of diabetes mellitus especially among HIV-infected patients under ARVs is highly recommended to control other health issues caused by diabetes mellitus.

Keywords: anti-retroviral, diabetes mellitus, antiretroviral therapy, human immune deficiency virus

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Authors: Sahara Piang Brahim

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This paper looks at the current state of water governance in the Philippines. It is mainly descriptive and relies on an analysis of secondary data gathered during the author’s fieldwork as well as those found in available scholarly literature, legal and government policy documents, reports and publicly available information on the official websites of government agencies and departments. This paper finds that despite the Philippines having relatively abundant water resources due to its topographical characteristics, it is facing a number of water-related problems, including the availability of water supply in light of growing water demand, increasing population and urbanization as well as climate change. Another key finding is that the sheer number of agencies, which have overlapping legal mandates and functions in relation to water governance and management, make coordination, planning and data collection difficult especially since they are neither vertically nor horizontally integrated. These findings have obvious implications for water policy and governance in the country. This study also finds that 'predict and control' characterizes the government’s approach to water resources management and allocation. This paper argues that taking such an approach and the existing institutional context into account is quite relevant not only in terms of making sense of how decision-making and policymaking take place but also when contemplating the kinds of alternative governance arrangements that could address water-related issues and challenges and that might work 'best' in the Philippines.

Keywords: Philippines, water governance, water issues, water policy

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