Search results for: subjective and objective indicators

Authors: Sultan S. Alsajjan

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Understanding the public governance in Middle East's countries is one of the challenging matters for any researcher. The Middle East, for the last century, has been in fluctuated situations. Understating the public governance in Saudi Arabia is an extra challenge because Saudi Arabia has its unique culture and political system. The World Bank had launched 1996 Worldwide Governance Indicators. These indicators assist any country to rank its position in public governance how it is performing in this field. Saudi Arabia had ranked in some worldwide governance indicators at the bottom of indicators' list. For instance, according to the Worldwide Governance indicator (2018), Saudi Arabia had ranked in 192 out of 204 countries in 'Voice and Accountability Indicator'. In this paper, the reader will find in-depth analysis and evaluation of Saudi Arabia's positions in Worldwide Governance Indicators. Saudi Arabia had never considered the concept of public governance and worldwide governance indicators because of its economic situation, political characteristics, and social nature.

Keywords: pubic governance, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, and worldwide governance indicators

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Authors: Tzu-Hao Li, Yen-Ying Kung, Chang-Youh Tsai

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Oral dryness is a common chief complaint among patients with Sjőgren syndrome (SS), which is a disorder currently known as autoantibodies production; however, to author’s best knowledge, there has been no satisfying pharmacy to relieve the associated symptoms. Hence the effectiveness of other non-pharmacological interventions such as acupuncture should be accessed. We conducted a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) which evaluated the effectiveness of xerostomia in SS. PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Chongqing Weipu Database (CQVIP), China Academic Journals Full-text Database, AiritiLibrary, Chinese Electronic Periodicals Service (CEPS), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) Database were searches through May 12, 2018 to select studies. Data for evaluation of subjective and objective xerostomia was extracted and was assessed with random-effects meta-analysis. After searching, a total of 541 references were yielded and five RCTs were included, covering 340 patients dry mouth resulted from SS, among whom 169 patients received acupuncture and 171 patients were control group. Acupuncture group was associated with higher subjective response rate (odds ratio 3.036, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.828 – 5.042, P < 0.001) and increased salivary flow rate (weighted mean difference [WMD] 3.066, 95% CI 2.969 – 3.164, P < 0.001), as an objective marker. In addition, two studies examined IgG levels, which were lower in the acupuncture group (WMD -166.857, 95% CI -233.138 - -100.576, P < 0.001). Therefore, in the present meta-analysis, acupuncture improves both subjective and objective markers of dry mouth with autoantibodies reduction in patients with SS and is considered as an option of non-pharmacological treatment for SS.

Keywords: acupuncture, meta-analysis, Sjogren syndrome, xerostomia

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Authors: S. Karklina, I. Erins

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The main problem is that there is a very low innovation performance in Latvia. Since Latvia is a Member State of European Union, it also shall have to fulfill the set targets and to improve innovative results. Universities are one of the main performers to provide innovative capacity of country. University, industry and government need to cooperate for getting best results. The intellectual property is one of the indicators to determine innovation level in the country or organization and patents are one of the characteristics of intellectual property. The objective of the article is to determine indicators characterizing innovative environment in Latvia and influence of the development of universities on them. The methods that will be used in the article to achieve the objectives are quantitative and qualitative analysis of the literature, statistical data analysis, and graphical analysis methods.

Keywords: HEI, innovations, Latvia, patents

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Authors: Ramkumar R., Gaurav Shinde, Pratik Shroff, Sachin Kumar Jain, Nagesh Walke

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Advancements in electric vehicles have significantly reduced the powertrain noise and moving components of vehicles. As a result, in-cab noises have become more noticeable to passengers inside the car. To ensure a comfortable ride for drivers and other passengers, it has become crucial to eliminate undesirable component noises during the development phase. Standard practices are followed to identify the severity of noises based on subjective ratings, but it can be a tedious process to identify the severity of each development sample and make changes to reduce it. Additionally, the severity rating can vary from jury to jury, making it challenging to arrive at a definitive conclusion. To address this, an automotive component was identified to evaluate squeak and rattle noise issue. Physical tests were carried out for random and sine excitation profiles. Aim was to subjectively assess the noise using jury rating method and objectively evaluate the same by measuring the noise. Suitable jury evaluation method was selected for the said activity, and recorded sounds were replayed for jury rating. Objective data sound quality metrics viz., loudness, sharpness, roughness, fluctuation strength and overall Sound Pressure Level (SPL) were measured. Based on this, correlation co-efficients was established to identify the most relevant sound quality metrics that are contributing to particular identified noise issue. Regression analysis was then performed to establish the correlation between subjective and objective data. Mathematical model was prepared using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithm. The developed model was able to predict the subjective rating with good accuracy.

Keywords: BSR, noise, correlation, regression

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Authors: Veruska C. Dutra, Afonso R. Aquino

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Since the 1980s, global tourism activity has consolidated worldwide to become an important economic contributor, and consequently, the sociocultural and environmental impacts are starting to become evidenced. This raises the need of discussing about actions for sustainable tourism that should be linked not only to the economy, but also to the environment and social aspects. The work that is going to be presented is part of a doctoral research project in Sciences undertaken at the Sao Paulo University, Brazil. It aims to analyze whether the monitoring of the tourism sector with a focus on sustainability is applicable or not, through those indicators, put in a case study in the Jalapão State Park (JSP) conservation unit, in the state of Tocantins, Brazil. This is a study of an interdisciplinary nature that had the deductive method as its guide. We concluded that the key points of the sustainable tourism, when analyzed with the focal point in environmental indicators, are an important evaluation and quantification tool of that activity in the study locus. It displayed itself as an adequate tool for monitoring, thus decoding, the main environmental impacts that occur in tourism regions and their intensity, which is made possible through analysis, and has the objective to trace ways to prevent and correct the presented impacts.

Keywords: indicators, tourism, sustainability, Jalapão

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Authors: Nazli Uren, Ayse Okur

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Tactile comfort of a textile product is an essential property and a major concern when it comes to customer perceptions and preferences. The subjective nature of comfort and the difficulties regarding the simulation of human hand sensory feelings make it hard to establish a well-accepted link between tactile comfort and objective evaluations. On the other hand, shear behavior of a fabric is a mechanical parameter which can be measured by various objective test methods. The principal aim of this study is to determine the tactile comfort of commercially available denim fabrics by subjective measurements, create a tactile score database for denim fabrics and investigate the relations between tactile comfort and shear behavior. In-plane shear behaviors of 17 different commercially available denim fabrics with a variety of raw material and weave structure were measured by a custom design shear frame and conventional bias extension method in two corresponding diagonal directions. Tactile comfort of denim fabrics was determined via subjective customer evaluations as well. Aforesaid relations were statistically investigated and introduced as regression equations. The analyses regarding the relations between tactile comfort and shear behavior showed that there are considerably high correlation coefficients. The suggested regression equations were likewise found out to be statistically significant. Accordingly, it was concluded that the tactile comfort of denim fabrics can be estimated with a high precision, based on the results of in-plane shear behavior measurements.

Keywords: denim fabrics, in-plane shear behavior, linear regression estimation, tactile comfort

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Authors: Shirley Kuo

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The main purpose of this study is to develop sustainable indicators for Taiwan, and using the Delphi method to find that our tourist areas can progress in a sustainable way. We need a lot of infrastructures and policies to develop tourist areas, and with proper KPI indicators can reduce the destruction of the natural and ecological environment. This study will first study the foreign certification experiences, because Taiwan is currently in the development stage, and then the methodology will explain in-depth interviews using the Delphi method, and then there is discussion about which KPI indicators Taiwan currently needs. In this study current progress is a deep understanding of national sustainable tourism certification and KPI indicators.

Keywords: sustainable tourism, certification, KPI indicators, Delphi method

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Authors: Ismail Ay

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In this study, it is aimed to analyze the relations of the factors such as the learned resourcefulness, self-efficacy, self-regulation and subjective well-being which are thought to affect the needs of the university students for psychological help and to determine if the subjective well-being mediates other factors in the prediction of the needs of the university students for psychological help. The population of the study is formed of undergraduates who get education in 16 faculties in the central campus of the University of Atatürk in the spring term of 2012-2013 academic years. The sample of the study is formed of 1205 undergraduates (female=666, 55,3 %; male=539, 44,7 %; average of age =21,49; Sd=2,18) selected from the mentioned universe by convenience sampling method. “Need for Psychological Help Scale” has been developed as a part of the study to determine the needs for psychological help. “Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire” has been adapted into Turkish to determine the self-regulation skills. Apart from these, Rosenbaum’s Learned Resourcefulness Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale and to determine subjective well-being; Satisfaction with Life Scale and Positive and Negative Affect Scale have been used within the study. SPSS 22.0 and LISREL 9.1 have been used in the analysis of the data. Pearson product-moment correlation, descriptive analysis, factor analysis and path analysis to test the research hypothesis has been used in the study. According to obtained data, the learned resourcefulness factor does not predict the subjective well-being; however, it highly predicts the self-regulation and self-efficacy factors. It has been determined that the self-regulation and self-efficacy factors predict the subjective well-being in a positive way and medium level, and subjective well-being mediates self-regulation and self-efficacy factors to predict the needs for psychological help. It was also determined that subjective well-being predicts the needs for psychological help in a negative way and fair level. All these results have been discussed in terms of the related theories and literature, and several suggestions have been made.

Keywords: need for psychological help, self-regulation, self-efficacy, learned resourcefulness, subjective well-being, Maslow, psychological needs

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Authors: Reza Safari, Ali Rajabzadeh Ghatari, Raheleh Hossseinzadeh Mahabadi

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In the present world, there are different pressures on firms such as competition, legislations, social etc. these pressures force the firms to follow “survival” as their primary goal and then growth. One of the main factors that helps firms to reach their goals is proper financial performance. To find out about the financial performance, a firm should monitors its financial performance. Financial performance affected by many factors. This research seeks to clear which financial performance indicators are most important according to Environmental situation of a firm and what are their priorities. To do so, environmental indicators specified as presented on OECD Key Environmental Indicators 2008 and so the financial performance indicators such as Profitability, Liquidity, Gearing, Investor ratios, and etc. At this stage, the affections questioned through questionnaires. After gaining the results, data analyzed using Promethee technique. By using decision matrixes extracted from those techniques an expert system designed. This expert system suggests the suitable financial performance indicators and their ranking by receiving the environment situation given environment indicators weight.

Keywords: environment indicators, financial performance indicators, promethee, expert system

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Authors: Yu Chen, Xiaoguang Yang, Lin Lin

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Traffic engineering construction is an important infrastructure for economic and social development. In the process of construction and operation, the ability to make a correct evaluation of the project's environmental impact appears to be crucial to the rational operation of existing transportation projects, the correct development of transportation engineering construction and the adoption of corresponding measures to scientifically carry out environmental protection work. Most of the existing research work on ecological and environmental impact assessment is limited to individual aspects of the environment and less to the overall evaluation of the environmental system; in terms of research conclusions, there are more qualitative analyses from the technical and policy levels, and there is a lack of quantitative research results and quantitative and operable evaluation models. In this paper, a comprehensive analysis of the ecological and environmental impacts of transportation construction projects is conducted, and factors such as the accessibility of data and the reliability of calculation results are comprehensively considered to extract indicators that can reflect the essence and characteristics. The qualitative evaluation indicators were screened using the expert review method, the qualitative indicators were measured using the fuzzy statistics method, the quantitative indicators were screened using the principal component analysis method, and the quantitative indicators were measured by both literature search and calculation. An environmental impact evaluation index system with the general objective layer, sub-objective layer and indicator layer was established, dividing the environmental impact of the transportation construction project into two periods: the construction period and the operation period. On the basis of the evaluation index system, the index weights are determined using the hierarchical analysis method, and the individual indicators to be evaluated are dimensionless, eliminating the influence of the original background and meaning of the indicators. Finally, the thesis uses the above research results, combined with the actual engineering practice, to verify the correctness and operability of the evaluation method.

Keywords: transportation construction projects, ecological and environmental impact, analysis and evaluation, indicator evaluation system

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Authors: Xuling Zhang, Yong Wang, Xingyun Liu, Shuangxue Xu

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Based on positive psychology, this study presented a mediated moderation model in which character strengths moderated the relationship between interpersonal relationship, job satisfaction and subjective well-being, with job satisfaction taking the mediation role among them. A total of 912 teachers participated in four surveys, which include the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, Values in Action Inventory of Strengths, job satisfaction questionnaire, and the interpersonal relationship questionnaire. The results indicated that: (1) Taking interpersonal relationship as a typical work environmental variable, the result shows that it is significantly correlated to subjective well-being. (2) The character strengths of "kindness", “authenticity” moderated the effect of the teachers’ interpersonal relationship on subjective well-being. (3) The teachers’ job satisfaction mediated the above mentioned moderation effects. In general, this study shows that the teachers’ interpersonal relationship affects their subjective well-being, with their job satisfaction as mediation and character strengths of “kindness” and “authenticity” as moderation. The managerial implications were also discussed.

Keywords: character strength, subjective well-being, job satisfaction, interpersonal relationship

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Authors: Maryam Azimi, Amin Banitalebi-Dehkordi, Yuanyuan Dong, Mahsa T. Pourazad, Panos Nasiopoulos

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While there exists a wide variety of Low Dynamic Range (LDR) quality metrics, only a limited number of metrics are designed specifically for the High Dynamic Range (HDR) content. With the introduction of HDR video compression standardization effort by international standardization bodies, the need for an efficient video quality metric for HDR applications has become more pronounced. The objective of this study is to compare the performance of the existing full-reference LDR and HDR video quality metrics on HDR content and identify the most effective one for HDR applications. To this end, a new HDR video data set is created, which consists of representative indoor and outdoor video sequences with different brightness, motion levels and different representing types of distortions. The quality of each distorted video in this data set is evaluated both subjectively and objectively. The correlation between the subjective and objective results confirm that VIF quality metric outperforms all to their tested metrics in the presence of the tested types of distortions.

Keywords: HDR, dynamic range, LDR, subjective evaluation, video compression, HEVC, video quality metrics

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Authors: Reihaneh Rafiemanzelat, Maryam Baradaran

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Creating healthy communities that are sustainable and livable is a desire of policy makers in European countries. Indicators have used at the level of international, national, state to evaluate the level of health in cities and regions. Therefore, there are many challenges in the assumption of health and planning indicators. This research provides an overview of health indicators used to date in Europe according to World Health Organization (WHO) strategy. It then discusses on how indicators have been successful to the creation of healthy, livable and sustainable cities in Europe. This research is based on qualitative research to review the documentary researches on health issue and urban planning. The result will show the positive and negative effects of in process indicators on European cities.

Keywords: healthy community, livability, sustainability, WHO strategy

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Authors: Akbar Jamali

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According to Hegel’s philosophy, constitution of any given nation is the best expression of its national Self-Consciousness. Since constitution is the place in which freedom and Universal Rights is expressed, and since the essence of Self-consciousness is freedom, the development of self-consciousness and consequently freedom, is the direct cause of the development of constitution. Self-consciousness develops in the human history according to its own internal and external dialectic; therefore, it is essentially a dynamic phenomenon. However, constitution is supposed to be a stable foundation for the legal system of state and society. Therefore, the dilemma is: how the dynamic and contradictory nature of Self-Consciousness is the foundation of constitution that supposed to be the stable base of legal system of state and society. According to Hegel’s philosophy, the contradiction between the dynamic self- consciousness and the static constitution and state has an essential role in the formation of social movements within any given state. Self-consciousness is the phenomenology of Spirit in the human history. Subjective Spirit expresses itself in the different shapes of Self-consciousness in human spirit. These different shapes of self-consciousness must be identical with its contradiction; Objective Spirit. State is the highest form of the objective Spirit. Therefore, state and its foundation namely ‘constitution’ must be identical with Self-consciousness. "Spirit cannot remain forever alienated from its expression." Hegel states. Self-consciousness is the Subjective Spirit, it freely develops according to its internal and external contradictions, but since it must be always identical with its expression namely constitution, its development results to alienation. They way by which self-consciousness became again identical with the constitution determines the nature of legal and political development of any given society and state. In the democratic states, self-consciousness shows itself partially in the public opinion. In the process of election, this public opinion changes the ruling parties that construct the government. In democracies, self-consciousness or subjective spirit is in a dialectical relationship with state or the Objective Spirit. Therefore, it cannot remain alienated with its expression that is political system and its constitution. But, in the autocracies Self-consciousness cannot easily express itself in the government and its constitution. More Self-consciousness develops more it becomes alienated with its expression that is the state and its constitution. Rebel and revolution are the symptom of alienation of Spirit (self-consciousness) with its expression (state and its constitution).

Keywords: alienation, constitution, self-consciousness, spirit

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Authors: Sonia Lippke, Eric Rost, Volker Cihlar

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Objective: To examine the interrelation of physical activity with work-related variables in older individuals to determine pathways to promote the maintenance of an aging workforce’s ability and motivation to work. Design/methodology/approach: An interview-study was conducted with N=5,002 community-dwelling people aged 55 to 70 years (for T1). N=2,501 (50%) were interviewed 3 years later again (T2). Correlation-, Chi²-, MANOVA and moderated mediation analyses were performed. Findings: The less people worked, the more physically active they were. Working was only related to calendar age but not to subjective age. Men and women only differed in working hours and an interaction of gender and pension regarding working hours and subjective health revealed: Controlled for calendar age, the amount of worked hours while receiving pension was about the same in men and women, however, men worked significantly more hours if they did not receive pension. The relationship between physical activity and worked hours was mediated by life investment and subjective health in women, and by subjective health in men. Practical implications: Developing good health through performing physical activity should be done as part of work-place health promotion or by work organization and HR management to enable, and motivate older individuals to work even when receiving pension. Thus, such initiates should not only offered for younger and middle aged employees. Physical activity and company-facilitated sports activities can be an integral part in this. Originality/value: This is the first study testing these mechanisms in this age group, indicating the importance of not only understanding physical activity as a time challenge to work but also the potential to protect workability and to work aside from receiving pension.

Keywords: life investment, moderated mediation, physical activity, older workers, subjective health

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Authors: Miguel José Oliveira, Fátima Farinha, Elisa M. J. da Silva, Rui Lança, Manuel Duarte Pinheiro, Cátia Miguel

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The Observatory of Sustainability of the Algarve Region for Tourism (OBSERVE) will be a valuable tool to assess the sustainability of this region. The OBSERVE tool is designed to provide data and maintain an up-to-date, consistent set of indicators defined to describe the region on the environmental, sociocultural, economic and institutional domains. This ongoing two-year project has the active participation of the Algarve’s stakeholders, since they were consulted and asked to participate in the discussion for the indicators proposal. The environmental and sociocultural indicators chosen must indicate the characteristics of the region and should be in alignment with other global systems used to monitor the sustainability. This paper presents a review of sustainability indicators systems that support the first proposal for the environmental and sociocultural indicators. Others constraints are discussed, namely the existing data and the data available in digital platforms in a format suitable for automatic importation to the platform of OBSERVE. It is intended that OBSERVE will be a valuable tool to assess the sustainability of the region of Algarve.

Keywords: Algarve, development, environmental indicators, observatory, sociocultural indicators, sustainability, tourism

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Authors: Milan N. A. Van Der Kuil, Anne M. A. Visser-Meily, Andrea W. M. Evers, Ineke J. M. Van Der Ham

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Navigation ability is essential for autonomy and mobility in daily life. In patients with acquired brain injury, navigation impairment is frequently impaired; however, in this study, we tested the effectiveness of a serious gaming training protocol as a tool for cognitive rehabilitation to reduce navigation impairment. In total, 38 patients with acquired brain injury and subjective navigation complaints completed the experiment, with a partially blind, randomized control trial design. An objective navigation test was used to construct a strengths and weaknesses profile for each patient. Subsequently, patients received personalized compensation training that matched their strengths and weaknesses by addressing an egocentric or allocentric strategy or a strategy aimed at minimizing the use of landmarks. Participants in the experimental condition received psychoeducation and a home-based rehabilitation game with a series of exercises (e.g., map reading, place finding, and turn memorization). The exercises were developed to stimulate the adoption of more beneficial strategies, according to the compensatory approach. Self-reported navigation ability (wayfinding questionnaire), participation level, and objective navigation performance were measured before and after 1 and 4 weeks after completing the six-week training program. Results indicate that the experimental group significantly improved in subjective navigation ability both 1 and 4 weeks after completion of the training, in comparison to the score before training and the scores of the control group. Similarly, goal attainment showed a significant increase after the first and fourth week after training. Objective navigation performance was not affected by the training. This navigation training protocol provides an effective solution to address navigation impairment after acquired brain injury, with clear improvements in subjective performance and goal attainment of the participants. The outcomes of the training should be re-examined after implementation in a clinical setting.

Keywords: spatial navigation, cognitive rehabilitation, serious gaming, acquired brain injury

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Authors: Davod Ahmadigheidari

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The main objective of this study was to explore prevalence of anthropometric indicators as well the factors associated with the anthropometric indications in Mali. Data on 2015, downloaded from the website of Unicef, were analyzed. A total of 16,467 women (ages 15-49 years) and 16,467 children (ages 0-59 months) were selected for the sample. Different statistical analyses, such as descriptive, crosstabs and binary logistic regression form the basis of this study. Child anthropometric indicators (i.e., wasting, stunting, underweight and BMI for age) were used as the dependent variables. SPSS Syntax from WHO was used to create anthropometric indicators. Different factors, such as child’s sex, child’s age groups, child’s diseases symptoms (i.e., diarrhea, cough and fever), maternal education, household wealth index and area of residence were used as independent variables. Results showed more than forty percent of Malian households were in nutritional crises (stunting (42%) and underweight (34%). Findings from logistic regression analyses indicated that low score of wealth index, low maternal education and experience of diarrhea in last two weeks increase the probability of child malnutrition.

Keywords: Mali, wasting, stunting, underweight, BMI for age and wealth index

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Authors: Benchamat Laksaniyanon, Padcharee Phasuk, Rungtawan Boonphanakan

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With globalization, organizations had to adjust to an unstable environment in order to survive in a competitive arena. Typically within the field of management, different types of organizations include mechanistic, bureaucratic and organic ones. In fact, bureaucratic and mechanistic organizations have some characteristics in common. Bureaucracy is one type of Thailand organization which adapted from mechanistic concept to develop an organization that is suitable for the characteristic and culture of Thailand. The objective of this study is to compare the adjustment strategies of both organizations in order to find key performance indicators (KPI) suitable for improving organization in Thailand. The methodology employed is binary logistic regression. The results of this study will be valuable for developing future management strategies for both bureaucratic and mechanistic organizations.

Keywords: mechanistic, bureaucratic and organic organization, binary logistic regression, key performance indicators (KPI)

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Authors: Theresa Zagers, Rita Guerra

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Most research investigating how receiving communities perceive, and experience migration has overlooked the potential role of subjective social class and social class identity in positive intergroup relations and social cohesion of migrants and host societies. The present study aimed to provide insights to understand this relationship and focused on three important features: prosocial behaviour, attitudes and emotions towards Muslim immigrants in Flanders, Belgium. Building on relative deprivation-gratification theory we examined the indirect relationships of subjective social class on prosocial behaviour/intentions, attitudes and emotions via relative deprivation (RD), as well as the moderator role of the importance of social class identity. 431 Belgian participants participated in an online survey study. Overall, our results supported the predicted indirect effect of subjective social class: the lower the subjective social class, the higher the perceptions of relative deprivation, which in turn is related to less prosocial behaviour intentions, and more negative attitudes and emotions towards immigrants. This indirect effect was, however, not moderated by the importance of social class identity. Interestingly, the direct effects of subjective social class showed a different pattern: when bypassing deprivation our results showed higher subjective social class was detrimental for intergroup relations (more negative attitudes and emotions), and that lower subjective social class was positively related to prosocial intentions for those identifying highly with their class identity. Overall, we gained valuable insights in the relationship of subjective social class and the three features of intergroup relations.

Keywords: social class, relative deprivation-gratification, prosocial behavior, attitudes, emotions, Muslim immigrants

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Authors: Christina Kirsch, Adam Hatzigiannis

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Rail operators and maintainers worldwide are increasingly replacing walking patrols in the rail corridor with mechanized track patrols -essentially data capture on trains- and on-screen reviews of track infrastructure in centralized review facilities. The benefit is that infrastructure workers are less exposed to the dangers of the rail corridor. The impact is a significant change in work design from walking track sections and direct observation in the real world to sedentary jobs in the review facility reviewing captured data on screens. Defects in rail infrastructure can have catastrophic consequences. Reviewer performance regarding accuracy and efficiency of reviews within the available time frame is essential to ensure safety and operational performance. Rail operators must optimize workload and resource loading to transition to on-screen reviews successfully. Therefore, they need to know what workload assessment methodologies will provide reliable and valid data to optimize resourcing for on-screen reviews. This paper compares objective workload measures, including track difficulty ratings and review distance covered per hour, and subjective workload assessments (NASA TLX) and analyses the link between workload and reviewer performance, including sensitivity, precision, and overall accuracy. An experimental study was completed with eight on-screen reviewers, including infrastructure workers and engineers, reviewing track sections with different levels of track difficulty over nine days. Each day the reviewers completed four 90-minute sessions of on-screen inspection of the track infrastructure. Data regarding the speed of review (km/ hour), detected defects, false negatives, and false positives were collected. Additionally, all reviewers completed a subjective workload assessment (NASA TLX) after each 90-minute session and a short employee engagement survey at the end of the study period that captured impacts on job satisfaction and motivation. The results showed that objective measures for tracking difficulty align with subjective mental demand, temporal demand, effort, and frustration in the NASA TLX. Interestingly, review speed correlated with subjective assessments of physical and temporal demand, but to mental demand. Subjective performance ratings correlated with all accuracy measures and review speed. The results showed that subjective NASA TLX workload assessments accurately reflect objective workload. The analysis of the impact of workload on performance showed that subjective mental demand correlated with high precision -accurately detected defects, not false positives. Conversely, high temporal demand was negatively correlated with sensitivity and the percentage of detected existing defects. Review speed was significantly correlated with false negatives. With an increase in review speed, accuracy declined. On the other hand, review speed correlated with subjective performance assessments. Reviewers thought their performance was higher when they reviewed the track sections faster, despite the decline in accuracy. The study results were used to optimize resourcing and ensure that reviewers had enough time to review the allocated track sections to improve defect detection rates in accordance with the efficiency-thoroughness trade-off. Overall, the study showed the importance of a multi-method approach to workload assessment and optimization, combining subjective workload assessments with objective workload and performance measures to ensure that recommendations for work system optimization are evidence-based and reliable.

Keywords: automation, efficiency-thoroughness trade-off, human factors, job design, NASA TLX, performance optimization, subjective workload assessment, workload analysis

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Authors: Maha Rashid Al-Azib, Almuzn Qasem Alqathradi, Amal Munir Alshahrani, Bilqis Mohammed Assiri, Ali Almuflih

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The Occupational Safety and Health Management System in one of the largest Saudi companies has been experiencing in the last 10 years extensive direct and indirect expenses due to lack of proactive leading indicators and safety leadership effective procedures. And since there are no studies that are associated with this department of safety in the company, this research has been conducted. In this study we used a mixed method approach containing a literature review and experts input, then a qualitative questionnaire provided by Institute for Work and Health related to determining the company’s occupational safety and health management system level out from three levels (Compliance - Improvement - Continuous Learning) and the output regarding the company’s level was in Continuous Learning. After that Deming cycle was employed to create a set of proactive leading indicators and analyzed using the SMART method to make sure of its effectiveness and suitability to the company. The objective of this research is to provide a set of proactive indicators to contribute in making an efficient occupational safety and health management system that has less accidents which results in less expenses. Therefore, we provided the company with a prototype of an APP, designed and empowered with our final results to contribute in supporting decisions making processes.

Keywords: proactive leading indicators, OSH MS, safety leadership, accidents reduction

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Authors: Suzy Pereira, Alberto Rocha, Ana Almeida, Catarina Figueiredo, Helena Fonseca, Leonor Moreira, Carla Blum Vestena, Cristina Costa-Lobo

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The socio-educational support to parents, through parental education intervention programs, is part of European social policies, aiming to respond to the needs of education, promotion of well-being and development of children and young people. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the impact of the Positive Parenting Program on the subjective well-being of the parents of gifted children. The Positive Parenting Program is authored and is conducted by the National Association of Study and Intervention in Giftedness, Portuguese Association. The central question to be explored in this research is: Does the promotion of positive parenting in parents of gifted children have a positive impact on the subjective well-being? The sample consisted of 30 parents, non-probabilistic sampling of convenience, of which 15 parents belong to the intervention group and the rest to the control group. One dimension will be evaluated - subjective well-being, through the PANAS questionnaire - before and after the sessions of this program. The aim is to contribute to the understanding of the process and results of the positive parenting program in parents of gifted children.

Keywords: positive parenting, subjective well-being, giftedness, parental education intervention programs

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Authors: Katja Siefken, Astrid Junge

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Background: Research indicates that physical activity (PA) protects us from developing mental disorders. The knowledge regarding optimal domain, intensity, type, context, and amount of PA promotion for the prevention of mental disorders is sparse and incoherent. The objective of this study is to determine the relationship between PA domains and mental well-being, and whether associations vary by domain, amount, context, intensity, and type of PA. Methods: 310 individuals (age: 25 yrs., SD 7; 73% female) completed a questionnaire on personal patterns of their PA behaviour (IPQA) and their mental health (Centre of Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale, the subjective physical well-being (FEW-16)). Linear and multiple regression were used for analysis. Findings: Individuals who met the PA recommendation (N=269) reported higher scores on subjective physical well-being than those who did not meet the PA recommendations (N=41). Whilst vigorous intensity PA predicts subjective well-being (β = .122, p = .028), it also correlates with depression. The more vigorously physically active a person is, the higher the depression score (β = .127, p = .026). The strongest impact of PA on mental well-being can be seen in the transport domain. A positive linear correlation on subjective physical well-being (β =.175, p = .002), and a negative linear correlation for anxiety (β =-.142, p = .011) and depression (β = -.164, p = .004) was found. Multiple regression analysis indicates similar results: Time spent in active transport on the bicycle significantly lowers anxiety and depression scores and enhances subjective physical well-being. The more time a participant spends using the bicycle for transport, the lower the depression (β = -.143, p = .013) and anxiety scores (β = -.111,p = .050). Conclusions: Meeting the PA recommendations enhances subjective physical well-being. Active transport has a substantial impact on mental well-being. Findings have implications for policymakers, employers, public health experts and civil society. A stronger focus on the promotion and protection of health through active transport is recommended. Inter-sectoral exchange, outside the health sector, is required. Health systems must engage other sectors in adopting policies that maximize possible health gains.

Keywords: active transport, mental well-being, health promotion, psychological disorders

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Authors: Pendar Fazel

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Well-being is a good or satisfactory condition of existence; a state characterized by health, happiness, and prosperity. Well-being of people is correlated with, the cognitive, social, emotional, and physical aspect of their personality. Subjective well-being, people’s emotional and cognitive evaluations of their lives, includes what lay people call happiness, peace, fulfillment, and life satisfaction. Unfortunately in this period of time people are under the pressure of financial, social problems, and other stress factors which made them vulnerable, and their well-being is threatened. Personal Coaching as a holistic orientation and novel approach is ideal for the present century which help people, to find balance, enjoyment and meaning in their lives as well as improving performance, skills and effectiveness. The aim of the present article besides introducing the personal coaching is determining how personal coaching can positively effects on subjective well-being, under this aim we tend to describe how coaching impact on the cognitive and emotional reconstruction. Present qualitative research is descriptive analytic study, which data gathered by manual library research and search within authentic article through internet; analyzed personal coaching which integrated different views into an operational one helps people promote self-awareness as well as evaluate, emotional and cognitive aspect of their personality and provide appropriate subjective well-being.

Keywords: subjective well-being, coaching, well-being, positive psychology, personal growth

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Authors: Chang Li-Yu

Abstract:

Purposes: The present research focuses on exploring the latent growth model of psychological capital in disadvantaged adolescents and assessing its relationship with subjective well-being. Methods: Longitudinal study design was utilized and the data was from Taiwan Database of Children and Youth in Poverty (TDCYP), using the student questionnaires from 2009, 2011, and 2013. Data analysis was conducted using both univariate and multivariate latent growth curve models. Results: This study finds that: (1) The initial state and growth rate of individual factors such as parent-child relationships, psychological capital, and subjective wellbeing in economically disadvantaged adolescents have a predictive impact; (2) There are positive interactive effects in the development among factors like parentchild relationships, psychological capital, and subjective well-being in economically disadvantaged adolescents; and (3) The initial state and growth rate of parent-child relationships and psychological capital in economically disadvantaged adolescents positively affect the initial state and growth rate of their subjective well-being. Recommendations: Based on these findings, this study concretely discusses the significance of psychological capital and family cohesion for the mental health of economically disadvantaged youth and offers suggestions for counseling, psychological therapy, and future research.

Keywords: economically disadvantaged adolescents, psychological capital, parent-child relationships, subjective well-beings

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Authors: Ahmet Karakuş, Akif Can Kilic, Emre Alptekin

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A growing number of studies have been conducted to determine how well-being may be predicted using well-designed models. It is necessary to investigate the backgrounds of features in order to construct a viable Subjective Well-Being (SWB) model. We have picked the suitable variables from the literature on SWB that are acceptable for real-world data instructions. The goal of this work is to evaluate the model by feeding it with SWB characteristics and then categorizing the stress levels using machine learning methods to see how well it performs on a real dataset. Despite the fact that it is a multiclass classification issue, we have achieved significant metric scores, which may be taken into account for a specific task.

Keywords: machine learning, multiclassification problem, subjective well-being, perceived stress scale

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Authors: Steven Wright

Abstract:

This paper argues that there is an opportunity for PCH to further expand its relevance within the Canadian policy context by taking advantage of the growing international trend of using social indicators for public policy evaluation. Within the mandate and vision of PCH, there is an incomplete understanding of the value that the arts and culture provide for Canadians, specifically with regard to four social indicators: community development, civic engagement, life satisfaction, and work-life balance. As will be shown, culture and the arts have a unique role to play in such quality of life indicators, and there is an opportunity for PCH to aid in the development of a comprehensive national framework that includes these indicators. This paper lays out approach to understanding how social indicators may be included in the Canadian context by first illustrating recent trends in policy evaluation on a national and international scale. From there, a theoretical analysis of the connection between cultural policy and social indicators is provided. The second half of the paper is dedicated to explaining the shortcomings of Canadian cultural policy evaluation in terms of its tendency to justify expenditures related to arts and cultural activities in purely economic terms, and surveying how other governments worldwide are leading the charge in this regard.

Keywords: social indicators, evaluation, cultural policy, arts

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Authors: M. Kashiripoor

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Existing indicators for sustainable urban development do not identify the features of cities’ planning structures and their architecture. Iranian city has special relevance problem of assessing the conformity of their planning and development of the concept of sustainable development. Based on theoretical sources, the author concludes that, despite the existence of common indicators for sustainable development of settlements, specialized evaluation criteria city structure planning has not been developed. He is trying to fill this gap and put forward a system of indicators characterizing the level of development of the architectural-planning structure of the city. The proposed system of indicators is designed based on technical and economic urban standard indicators from different countries. Alternative designing systems and requirements of modern rating systems like LEED-ND comprise a criterion for evaluation of urban structures in accordance with principles of "Green" building and New Urbanism. Urban development trends are close in spirit of sustainable development and developed under its influence. The study allowed concluding that a system of indicators to identify the relevant architectural-planning structure of the city, requirements of sustainable development, should be adapted to the conditions of each country, particularly in Iran. The article attempts typology proposed indicators, which are presented in tabular form and are divided into two types: planning and spatial. This article discusses the known indicators of sustainable development and proposed specific system of indicators characterizing the level of development of architectural-planning structure of the city. This article examines indicators for evaluating level of city' planning structure development. The proposed system of indicators is derived from the urban planning standards and rating systems such as LEED-ND, BREEAM Community and CASBEE-UD.

Keywords: architectural-planning structure of cities, urban planning indicators, urban space indicators, urban development

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Authors: Nikhil Byanna, Abdolghani Ebrahimi, Diego Klabjan

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How does one objectively measure the performance of an individual offensive lineman in the NFL? The existing literature proposes various measures that rely on subjective assessments of game film, but has yet to develop an objective methodology to evaluate performance. Using a variety of statistics related to an offensive lineman’s performance, we develop a framework to objectively analyze the overall performance of an individual offensive lineman and determine specific linemen who are overvalued or undervalued relative to their salary. We identify eight players across the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 NFL seasons that are considered to be overvalued or undervalued and corroborate the results with existing metrics that are based on subjective evaluation. To the best of our knowledge, the techniques set forth in this work have not been utilized in previous works to evaluate the performance of NFL players at any position, including offensive linemen.

Keywords: offensive lineman, player performance, NFL, machine learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 119