This paper presents an extended Kalman filter derivation for loosely coupled GPS (Global Positioning System)/INS (Inertial Navigation System) integration based on quaternion attitude representation using the Earth-Centered Earth (ECEF) Frame. In this loosely coupling integration, both the position and velocity estimates from GPS receiver are used as the measurements to extended Kalman filter, and then they are integrated with inertial measurements from inertial measurement units (IMU) to estimate the attitude, position and velocity of an air vehicle. The velocity estimates which have centimeter level estimation error from the GPS receiver are used to improve the filter performance. For attitude estimation, the global attitude parameterization is given by a quaternion and a multiplicative quaternion-error approach is used to guarantee a normalization constraint of quaternion in the filter. Simulation results are shown to obtain the estimation of the attitude, position, velocity, biases and scale factors and to evaluate the performance of the EKF with the measurement combination composed of the two different t

: A strong financialtransaction is an important factor in organizational triumph and sustainability, and it is elucidated in the revised student handbook of the University that can be found on page 96 rules 1 to 5. This study assessed the registered students organizations' profile in terms of its type, registration, years of establishment, functions, and designations of student leaders and advisers. The financial practices or internal control system manages their organizational finances and the problems encountered by the student organizations and eventually proposed a manual of operation for students and youth organization's internal control system. This research used the descriptive design with the aid of questionnaire; data gathering through quota sampling from 57 student leaders and advisers of different student organizations of NEUST. Findings showed that most organizations had their constitution and by-laws but kept only as files and renewal requirements. Some provisions were not known to the officers, mostly were registered more than five years in operation; however, in terms of functions of officers and advisers, the results showed that some functions were not done by the officers who supposed to do it like the auditors who serve as treasurers also, the PRO as the record keeper and the presidents who handled finances and collections and as well as disbursements of funds. Generally, the organizations' financial activities were deemed to be "good", especially budgeting and cash receipt, due to the implementation of "no collection and no tuition fee policy". The researchers concluded that the absence of the proper internal control systems and manual of operation and lack of proper transfer of financial records from the previous sets of officers were the serious problems that should be addressed. Moreover, the student organizations' internal control system could still be improved if there is proper training and supervision in accounting operation.

Since the emergence of the quantified self movement, users aim at health behavior change, but only those who are sufficiently motivated and competent with the tools will succeed. Our literature review shows that theoretical models for quantified self exist but they are too abstract to guide the design of effective user support systems. Here, we propose principles linking theory and implementation to arrive at a hierarchical model for an adaptable and personalized self-quantification system for physical activity support. We show that such a modeling approach should include a multi-factors user model (activity, context, personality, motivation), a hierarchy of multiple time scales (week, day, hour), and a multi-criteria decision analysis (user activity preference, user measured activity, external parameters). This theoretical groundwork, which should facilitate the design of more effective solutions, has now to be validated by further empirical research.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the transition to emergency online learning without prior preparation or guidelines. This transition has been particularly challenging in developing countries and low-resource contexts and hindered student engagement. We aim to identify the engagement strategies which students, engaging in emergency online learning in low-resource contexts, perceive to be effective. We conducted a sequential mixed-methods study based on Moore’s interaction framework for distance education. First, we conducted a literature review and interviewed ten teachers and ten students to identify a list of engagement strategies. Then, we designed a questionnaire that examines student perceptions of these strategies. We administered the questionnaire to 313 students engaging in emergency online learning in low-resource contexts. Our analysis results showed that student-content engagement strategies, e.g. screen sharing, summaries, and class recordings, are perceived as the most effective, closely followed by student-teacher strategies, e.g. Q&A sessions and reminders. Student-student strategies, e.g. group chat and collaborative work, are perceived as the least effective. The perceived effectiveness of engagement strategies depends on the context and the students’ characteristics, e.g. gender, major, and technology access. To support instructors, instructional designers, and researchers we propose a ten-level guide for engaging students during emergency online classes in low-resource contexts.

Currently, in the scientific literature there is a great interest on the study of strategies to implement patient-centered care. One of the main tools for this is the therapeutic relationship. Some studies suggest that the perception of the environment in which the physical therapy treatment takes place can influence the perception of its quality. A qualitative study using focus groups was performed. Two researchers conducted the focus groups, using a topic guide with predetermined questions. The focus group discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed thematically using a modified grounded theory approach. The setting was three hospitals and six public health centers located in Spain. The inclusion criteria were patients who had received a minimum of 15 physical therapy sessions and with no communication impairments. Thirty-one participants in four focus groups. Participants described a series of specific experiences relating to the environment, which they felt were influential in the establishment of therapeutic patient-centered relationships, including eight physical factors and five organizational factors. The results of this study highlight environmental factors that affect the quality of the therapeutic patient-centered relationship in physical therapy and emphasize the need for physical therapists and administrators to rethink the situation and propose strategies for improvement.

: The performance of the students in academics depends on many different factors. One of these factors is the economic status of their families. Education in public schools, though it is free, some parents cannot afford to send their children to school due to financial constraints. Education as a free is every individual's right in society, but it becomes a privilege because of a lack of financial support. This research work is a comparative study of students' or learners' performance in mathematics among students from working and non-working. This research article's ultimate objective is to investigate and compare a significant difference in their performance in the subject mathematics. The research methodology utilizes a t-test to analyze and synthesize primary data sources collected via interview and academic records, and diverse literature on the study area. However, the research findings revealed no significant difference in the two groups (the working and non-working group of learners). Therefore, it is recommended that secondary schools should be provided with adequate books and facilities and faculty school interventions and programs and promote the usage of SIM or Strategic Intervention Materials for learning and memory enhancement among learners.

Cheating is a kind of fraud or attempts to get dishonest advantages in an academic institution, it has been increasing dramatically for the last 50 years with the growth of technology. In some countries, this phenomenon has changed to a problematic factor in schools. Plagiarism is also considered as a type of cheating if it occurs intentionally. More efforts are made to mitigate the severity of cheating in an academic institution using technological-based devices. Besides, technology has an effective role in the detection of plagiarism by several detection platforms, however, still, there are some types of plagiarism which cannot be detected by these platforms efficiently, that authors should treat honestly during his/her scientific writing. This work aims to conceptualize and characterize cheating and plagiarism in an academic institution, also it is tried to indicate the relationship of cheating and plagiarism that in which cases, plagiarism becomes cheating. To achieve the purposes, relevant literature including scientific papers, monographs, reports, and authorized website were reviewed, and the literature output are integrated with the observation and experience of author during the teaching and learning in academic institutions.The findings and direct observation from close contact of classrooms show that cheating is felt mostly in classes with large numbers of students, that institution policy, instructor control, and using of technology have the most effect on the controlling cheating. Plagiarism as academic dishonesty is a widespread phenomenon among the students and even the authors. In some cases, the poor understanding of students and authors in scientific writing rules causes plagiarism and is measurable by some available detection platforms.

Student retention is one indicator of accountability in the implementation of educational programs. Achievement of student retention rates indicates the performance of the quality objectives of an institution or college. To get an accurate picture of the factors related to retention, we need to do modeling. The retention variable is the time response variable measured in semester units. One of the statistical analyzes that can be used to analyze response data in time is survival analysis. The selection of an accurate analytical method in modeling will produce valid conclusions and impact making policies that are right and on target. This paper presents alternative modeling of student retention in distance education using survival analysis. The method used is a literature review. This paper also briefly describes distance education, open and distance education, distance education students' characteristics, distance education student retention, and survival models for modeling student retention in distance education.

Technological advances in game-mediated robotics provide an opportunity to engage children with cerebral palsy (CP) and other neuromotor disabilities in more frequent and intensive therapy by making personalized, programmed interventions available 24/7 in children’s homes. Though shown to be clinically effective and feasible to produce, little is known of the subjective factors impacting acceptance of what we term assistive/rehabilitative (A/R) gamebots by their target populations. This research describes the conceptualization phase of an effort to develop a valid and reliable instrument to guide the design of A/R gamebots. We conducted in-depth interviews with 8 children with CP and their families who had trialed an exemplar A/R gamebot, PedBotHome, for 28 days in their homes. The goal was to understand how existing theories and instruments were either appropriate or inappropriate for measuring the subjective experience of A/R gamebots. Key findings were the importance of differentiating the use case of therapy from that of assistance in rehabilitative technology assessment, the need to incorporate the differing perspectives of children with CP and those of their parents into A/R gamebot evaluation, and the potential conflict between the goals of preserving the quality of the experience of game play for the child while also optimizing the intensity and duration of therapy provided during play.

The paper presents the most comprehensive and large-scale study to date on how students perceive the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on various aspects of their lives on a global level. With a sample of 30,383 students from 62 countries, the study reveals that amid the worldwide lockdown and transition to online learning students were most satisfied with the support provided by teaching staff and their universities’ public relations. Still, deficient computer skills and the perception of a higher workload prevented them from perceiving their own improved performance in the new teaching environment. Students were mainly concerned about issues to do with their future professional career and studies, and experienced boredom, anxiety and frustration. The pandemic has led to the adoption of particular hygienic behaviours (e.g. wearing masks, washing hands) and discouraged certain daily practices (e.g. leaving home, shaking hands). Students were also more satisfied with the role played by hospitals and universities during the epidemic compared to the government and banks. The findings also show that students with selected socio-demographic characteristics (male, part-time, first level, applied sciences, lower living standard, from Africa or Asia) were generally more strongly affected by the pandemic since they were significantly less satisfied with their academic work/life. Key factors influencing students' satisfaction with the role of their university are also identified. Policymakers and higher education institutions around the world may benefit from these findings while formulating policy recommendations and strategies to support students during this and any future pandemics.

Introduction Older people with complex, chronic conditions often receive insufficient or inefficient care provision. And few instruments are able to measure their perception on care provision. The "User Reported Measure of Care Coordination" instrument has been satisfactorily used to evaluate chronic care provision and integration. The aim of this study is to validate this instrument into Spanish. Methods The questionnaire was adapted and validate in two phases: translation and cultural adaptation of the questionnaire, and psychometric property measurement. Study population were chronic care conditions patients. Results A total of 332 participants completed test re-test as part of the questionnaire validation process. The final version of the questionnaire had 6 domains: Health and Well-being (D1), Health day to day (D2), Social Services (D3), Planned Care (D4), Urgent Care (D5) and Hospital Care (D6). Cronbach's alpha for the overall questionnaire was 0.86, indicating good internal consistency. When analysing each domain, only Planned Care (D4) and Urgent Care (D5) had Cronbach’s Alphas slightly lower than 0.7, although this could be related to the low number of items in each domain. A good temporal stability was observed for the distinct subscales and items, with intraclass correlation coefficients varying from 0.412 to 0.929 (p < 0.05). Conclusion The adapted version of the “User Reported Measure of Care Coordination” into Spanish proved to be a practical tool for use in our daily practice and an efficient instrument for assessment of care coordination in chronic, complex conditions in older people across services and levels of care.

The advancement of the pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) knowledge base requires biospecimens and data from large samples. This study seeks to describe a novel clinical research modality to establish best practices for enrolling a diverse pediatric TBI population and quantifying key information on enrollment into biobanks. Screening form responses were standardized and cleaned through Google Sheets. Data was used to analyze total individuals at each enrollment stage. R was utilized for final analysis, including chi-square goodness of fit and proportion statistical tests, to determine further significance and relationships. Issues throughout data cleaning shed light on limitations of the consent modality. Results suggest that through a diverse research team, the recruited sample exceeds traditional measures of representation (e.g. sex, race, ethnicity). Sex demographics of the study are representative of the local population. Screening for candidates is critical to the success of the consent modality. The consent modality may be modified to increase diversity of study population and accept bilingual candidates. Researchers must implement best practices, including increasing inclusivity of bilingual populations, utilizing technology, and improving participant follow-up, to improve health disparities for understudied clinical populations.

Students’ anxiety due to the COVID-19 pandemic was expressed by some medical students in the form of anger and mistrust. This study aims to explore the reasons for mistrust between students and faculty among medical schools in Egypt that have flared during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a three-phase exploratory qualitative study depending on thematic emergence from appreciative interviews (AI) sessions. Students are revealed to be very well-educated regarding contemporary medical education concepts. The most important factors from the student perspective were the presence of a well-designed assessment system aligned with the learning outcomes and teaching methodologies and the presence of extracurricular activities and soft skills, respectively. A balanced student life respecting their mental health was found important to increase trust. A roadmap to breaking the mistrust must be planned on several pivots: curriculum structure, extracurricular life, communication strategies, and identifying student roles in their learning and in decision making.

The advance of the medical field in the 21st century has influenced the development of many innovations, including in medical education. PBL (problem-based learning) is one of the pedagogical approaches that has been studying and implementing worldwide to attract medical students’ attention with their learning style and learning environment. China is the most significant “receiver” country of foreign students in Asia, and clinical medicine is one of the most chosen majors for undergraduate. In China, PBL has been implementing in some schools, but mostly with the local students and only a few implementations to the international students. International medical students in China faced a variety of challenges during their studies. In this review paper, we give the solution to adapt to the challenges by focusing on the implementation the integrated organ/system curriculum/syllabus with the PBL method to the school system with the support of the school stakeholders and students’ role.

This paper shares our work in developing and implementing an immersive gamification training platform for students who undergo manufacturing shopfloor training at the School of Engineering, Nanyang Polytechnic, Singapore. In this gamification training platform, we developed a virtual manufacturing shopfloor that is identical to the actual shopfloor located in the school. Students have the freedom to learn the manufacturing shopfloor operations and safety acts through the various game scenarios and training tasks which include workshop safety, CNC machine introduction, CNC machining dynamics, MES, etc. In addition, the assessment feature with immediate feedback were embedded within the gamification platform, which aim to help students to assess their level of understanding and help teachers to monitor the learning progress of their students. To investigate the impact of this gamification training platform on students’ learning outcome and motivation in manufacturing shopfloor technologies and safety acts, a pilot study was conducted in AY2018 semester 2 for a total 134 students from 4 classes of digital & precision engineering diploma. It is found that gamification can be integrated effectively into manufacturing education to motivate students and enhance their learning effectiveness. Based on the collected data from the technical quizzes and satisfactory survey, the results showed that the integration of gamification into the classroom learning not only added a stimulating and captivating game-like layer to the learning experience of the students, but also provided a safe environment for students to learn without fear of making errors. Challenges faced in implementing this gamification training platform will also be discussed in this paper.

The global increase of recreational escape rooms has inspired teachers around the world to implement escape rooms in educational settings. As escape rooms are increasingly popular in education, there is a need to evaluate their use, and a need for guidelines in order to develop and implement escape rooms in the classroom. This systematic review synthesizes current practices and experiences, focussing on important educational and game design aspects. Subsequently, relations between the game design aspects and the educational aspects are studied. Finally, student outcomes are related to the intended goals. In different disciplines, educators appear to have different motives to use aspects such as time constraints or teamwork. These educators make different choices for related game aspects such as the structuring of the puzzles. Other educators base their choices on common practices in recreational escape rooms. However, in educational escape rooms players need to reach the game goal by achieving the educational goals. More alignment in game mechanics and pedagogical approaches are recommended. These and more results lead to recommendations for developing and implementing escape rooms in education, and will help educators creating these new learning environments, and eventually help students’ foster knowledge and skills more effectively.

The IRRESISTIBLE Project (FP7, Grant 612367) had the aim of involving teachers, students and the public in the discussion on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), promoting both the construction of knowledge on cutting-edge (and controversial) research topics and the discussion about the criteria that these research/innovation processes should respect in order to be considered as responsible. These criteria also represent a strong contribution to a more sustainable future for all. This quantitative research evaluates the impact of IRRESISTIBLE’s student-curated exhibitions – about the RRI dimensions of cutting-edge research topics (socio-scientific issues) – on students’ perceptions regarding their scientific competences and the science classes. A pre and post-questionnaire was developed, validated and applied to students from 10 countries. The overall results of the statistical analysis indicate that students improved their perceptions regarding their competences for developing exhibitions in science classes as a way of creating awareness on topics relating science-technology-society. This activity reinforced students’ perceptions that in science classes they: a) discuss current issues and how they impact their lives; b) develop socially and relevant projects; and c) learn how to influence other citizens’ decisions about social issues related to science, technology and environment with the aim of assuring a more sustainable future.

Visual Patient technology is a situation awareness–oriented visualization technology that translates numerical and waveform patient monitoring data into a new user-centered visual language. Vital sign values are converted into colors, shapes, and rhythmic movements—a language humans can easily perceive and interpret—on a patient avatar model in real time. In this review, we summarize the current state of the research on the Visual Patient, including the technology, its history, and its scientific context. We also provide a summary of our primary research and a brief overview of research work on similar user-centered visualizations in medicine. In several computer-based studies under various experimental conditions, Visual Patient transferred more information per unit time, increased perceived diagnostic certainty, and lowered perceived workload. Eye tracking showed the technology worked because of the way it synthesizes and transforms vital sign information into new and logical forms corresponding to the real phenomena. The technology could be particularly useful for improving situation awareness in settings with high cognitive demand or when users must make quick decisions. This comprehensive review of Visual Patient research is the foundation for an evaluation of the technology in clinical applications, starting with a high-fidelity simulation study in early 2020.

This work investigates centered polygonal lacunary functions restricted from the unit disk onto symmetry angle space which is defined by the symmetry angles of a given centered polygonal lacunary function. This restriction allows for one to consider only the p-sequences of the centered polygonal lacunary functions which are bounded, but not convergent, at the natural boundary. The periodicity of the $p$-sequences naturally gives rise to a convergent subsequence, which can be used as a grounds for decomposition of the restricted centered polygonal lacunary functions. A mapping of the unit disk to the sphere allows for the study of the line integrals of restricted centered polygonal that includes analytic progress towards closed form representations. Obvious closures of the domain obtained from the spherical map lead to four distinct topological spaces of the "broom topology'' type.

Individuals with low health literacy (HL) are known to have poorer health outcomes and to have higher mortality rates compared to individuals with higher HL: hence, the improvement of HL is a key outcome in modern healthcare systems. Healthcare providers are therefore asked to support patients’ literacy skills by encouraging the implementation of autonomy-supportive patient centered communication (PCC), which in turn requires the enhancement of patient engagement. Our main hypothesis is that the well-known relationship between autonomy-supportive PCC and HL is mediated by patient engagement which is known to play a role in HL promotion and that is related to PCC as well. The purpose of this study was to formulate a hypothetical structural equation model (SEM) linking PCC to patient engagement and HL. A cross-sectional survey design was employed involving 1007 Italian chronic patients. The hypothetical model was tested using SEM to verify the hypothesized mediation of patient engagement between PCC and HL. Results show that the theoretical model has a good fit indexes and that patient engagement fully mediates the relationship between PCC and HL. This finding suggests healthcare systems to implement a new paradigm where patients are supported to play an autonomous role in their own healthcare.

This research investigated the significance of learning dispositif (LD) and emotional attachment (EA) on perceived learning success (LS) across a diaspora of Western, Russian, Asian, Middle Eastern and Chinese student cohorts. Foucault’s LD captures the disparate socio-cultural contexts, institutional milieus and more or less didactic teaching styles that moderate learning. EA is a multi-dimensional notion involving affective bonds that emerged in child psychology and spread to marketing and other fields. The sequential explanatory research reviewed the learning and EA literatures and generated an LD–EA framework to structure the quantitative phase of its mixed investigations. In 2017 and 2018, the research collected 150 responses and used a range of statistical techniques for quantitative analysis. It found that LS varied significantly across cohorts, intimating that dispositifs influence learning. Nonparametric analysis suggested that EA also influenced learning, but regressions were inconclusive. Exploratory techniques hint at a dynamic mix of emotional or cognitive motivations during the student learning journey, involving structural breaks in student/instructor relationships. Cluster analysis identified distinct student groupings, linked to years of learning. Separately, qualitative analysis of open-ended survey questions and expert interviews intimates that frequent teacher interactions can increase EA. The synthesis of quantitative with qualitative results and pedagogical reflection suggests that LD and EA both influence learning in a complex, dynamic system. The key constituents for EA are Affection, Connection, Social Presence (SP), Teaching Presence (TP) and Flow but student emotional engagement is conditioned by the socio-cultural milieu (LD) and associated factors like relationships and trust. Unlike in the Community of Learning framework, in the EA framework Cognitive Presence (CP) is an outcome of the interaction between these EA constituents, associated factors and the socio-cultural milieu. Finally, whilst awareness of culture and emotions is a useful pedagogical consideration, learning mainstays remain inclusive educational systems that identify student needs and support well-designed programmes. Within these, scaffolded modules should include a variety of engaging learning activities with non-threatening formative and trustworthy summative feedback. We acknowledge some statistical study limitations, but its tentative findings make a useful preliminary contribution

The frequency of earthquakes in South Korea is increasing. This study aimed to examine and identify the factors influencing the degree of disaster-incident-related shock among Korean nursing students with the disaster experience. The study sample consisted of 153 nursing students who have been living around Phohang-si in Gyeongsang-do, South Korea, and who having the experience of disaster-incident-related shock. Measures were Impact of Event Scale, Perceived health status scale, Psychological Well-Being Scale, and Coping Strategy Indicator in Korean version. The data collection period was from October to December, 2018. The factor that was found to have the most influence on disaster-incident-related shock among Korean nursing students was the perceived health status (β = 0.48), followed by gender (β = -0.28), coping skill (β = 0.18), psychological well-being (β = 0.14), need for disaster education (β = 0.12), and major satisfaction (β = -0.12). This study provides preliminary evidence that perceived health status is a major and primary predictor of disaster-incident-related shock among Korean nursing students, next followed by coping skill, and psychological well-being. The findings can be reflected in the pertinent curriculum by actively considering these influence factors in designing nursing education interventions for disaster-incident-related shock in the Korean nursing students.

We present a high-throughput nanoindentation study of in-situ bending effects on incipient plastic deformation behavior of polycrystalline and single-crystalline pure aluminum and pure copper at ultra-nano depths (<200nm). We find that hardness displays a statistically inverse dependence on in-plane stress for indentation depths smaller than 10nm, and the dependence disappears for larger indentation depths. In addition, plastic noise in the nanoindentation force and displacement displays statistically robust noise features, independently of applied stresses. Our experimental results suggest the existence of a regime in FCC crystals where ultra-nano hardness is sensitive to residual applied stresses, but plasticity pop-in noise is insensitive to it.

The goal of this study is both to determine the opinion that professors and students at the University of (details removed for peer review) have of active methodologies and to describe the perception and opinion of the modes of organization, methodological focuses, and evaluation systems that define the teaching-learning process. On surveying the professors and the students in their classes, we found significant differences in 32 of the 92 variables in common. The content of these results shows that professors and students are believe they are making progress toward a learning-centered model, that implementation of active methodologies implies new functions in their teaching practice.

The feedback collection and analysis has remained an important subject matter since long. The traditional techniques for student feedback analysis are based on questionnaire-based data collection and analysis. However, the student expresses their feedback opinions on online social media sites, which need to be analyzed. This study aims at the development of fuzzy-based sentiment analysis system for analyzing student feedback and satisfaction by assigning proper sentiment score to opinion words and polarity shifters present in the input reviews. Our technique computes the sentiment score of student feedback reviews and then applies fuzzy-logic module to analyze and quantify student’s satisfaction at the fine-grained level. The experimental results reveal that the proposed work has outperformed the baseline studies as well as state-of-the-art machine learning classifiers.

Intercultural education can be seen as a cornerstone in the sustainability of the current culturally diverse society. In addition, through the establishment of policies and strategies to reverse situations of discrimination and exclusion, there is a consensus on the importance of the social inclusion of groups at risk of exclusion. In this context, actions are suggested to reverse high dropout rates and school failure within the Roma population. The aim of this systematic review in the educational context is to analyze investigations of programs and interventions that have been made to promote the educational inclusion of Roma students. Three databases are used, Scopus, Web of Science, and Eric, to examine 419 articles, which after a selection, based on an inclusion criterion which follows the guidelines given by the Declaration PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes), 17 articles were chosen for the analysis. The main findings shed light on data for programs and interventions developed mostly within the school setting and for students of elementary and secondary education. These programs provide answers for the molding of intercultural education and the policies for educational inclusion of Roma people.

If students do not fully apply themselves, then they may be considered responsible for the result of being inadequately prepared. +- Nevertheless, student outcomes are more likely to reflect a combination of both effort and systematic problems with overall course architecture. Deficiencies in course design result in inadequate preparation that adversely and directly impacts students’ productivity upon entering the workforce. Such an impact negatively influences students' ability to maintain gainful employment and provide for their families, which inevitably contributes to the development of issues concerning their psychological well-being. It is well-documented that incorporating active learning strategies in course design and delivery can enhance student learning outcomes. Despite the benefit of implementing active learning techniques, rarely in the real world will it be possible for techniques to be used in isolation of one another. Therefore, the purpose of this proposed study is to determine the interactive effects of two active learning strategies because, at a minimum, technique-pairs more accurately represent the application of active learning in the natural educational setting. There is a paucity of evidence in the literature directed toward investigating the interactive effects of multiple active learning techniques that this study is aimed at filling. The significance of this research is that, by determining the interactive effects of paired active learning strategies, other research studies on the beneficial effects of using particular active learning technique-pairs will be documented contributing to the literature so that ultimately classroom instruction may be customized according to the determination of optimal sequencing of strategy-pairs for particular courses, subjects, and desired outcomes that maximize student learning.

Objective: To map the literature pertaining to adult Person-Centered Rehabilitation (PCR).Data Sources: Following our previously published scoping review protocol, data were identified through: three major databases, snowball searches and expert consultation.Study Selection: Two independent reviewers identified English-language papers which addressed adult physical rehabilitation and met one or more of the six pre-defined inclusion categories for PCR content. Data Extraction: Two independent reviewers extracted key characteristics of included papers (e.g. aims, methods, participants). Quantitative methods (descriptive statistics, regression analysis) and qualitative content analyses were used to synthesize the results. Data synthesis: Of 5084 unique records initially screened, 145 papers were included: 111 empirical, including 11 systematic reviews. Empirical papers had data from 13498 clients and 3849 providers, in total. Yearly publications grew exponentially from 2000 to 2017 (r²= 0.65; p<0.01). Publications were unevenly distributed by countries (e.g. United States’ publications per population size was 45 times lower than New Zealand’s). Most papers focused in more than one profession, setting-type or health conditions, respectively 57.2%, 66.2%, and 60.7%. Finally, more than half of the empirical papers (53.2%) studied implementation of PCR approaches, including its effect. Conclusion: This scoping review synthesizes key characteristics and publication trends in the PCR literature, which is mainly empirical and growing exponentially over time. Stakeholders can use the identified trends, gaps, and literature map to guide further PCR research, and both clinical and organizational practices. The high prevalence of papers focused on multiple professions, settings-type, or health conditions reinforces the need for developing a transdisciplinary, trans-service model of PCR, which will be derived from a thematic analysis of this body of literature.

Polymers in highly confined geometries can display complex morphologies including ordered phases. A basic component of a theoretical analysis of their phase behavior in confined geometries is the knowledge of the number of possible single-chain conformations compatible with the geometrical restrictions and the established crystalline morphology. While the statistical properties of unrestricted self-avoiding random walks (SAWs) both on and off-lattice are very well known, the same is not true for SAWs in confined geometries. The purpose of this contribution is a) to enumerate the number of SAWs on the simple cubic (SC) and face-centered cubic (FCC) lattices under confinement for moderate SAW lengths, and b) to obtain an approximate expression for their behavior as a function of chain length, type of lattice, and degree of confinement. This information is an essential requirement for the understanding and prediction of entropy-driven phase transitions of model polymer chains under confinement. In addition, a simple geometric argument is presented that explains, to first order, the dependence of the number of restricted SAWs on the type of SAW origin.

Background: Parents of preterm infants face major mental health challenges in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Family-centered music therapy actively integrates and empowers parents in their infant’s care. With the aim to better understand and address parental needs separately from their babies’, a music therapy (MT) self-care group was implemented as part of clinical practice at the hospital Clínica de la Mujer in Bogotá, Colombia. Methods: The group is provided for both parents twice a week in the NICU. Music guided relaxations, breathing techniques, and self-expression are at the center of the MT group sessions. Parents complete a pre/post self-administered Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) including anxiety levels, stress levels, mood and motivation. Results: Parents highly value the MT self-care group at the NICU. On average there is a 37% improvement in anxiety levels, 28% in stress levels, and 12% in mood, restfulness and motivation. Being able to relax, to distract themselves from their worries and having time for themselves are amongst the most frequently mentioned benefits. Conclusions: Addressing parents’ needs separately form their babies’ treatment with culturally sensitive interventions aimed to improve parental mental health, is essential for continuing the development of family-centered music therapy interventions in the NICU.

The current paper is based on a survey conducted on 321 engineering students studying at University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest and University POLITEHNICA of Timişoara. The research aims at outlining the profile of the teacher in technical higher education as depicted by engineering students. The results of the study highlight the importance of the student-teacher relationship and of the teacher’s roles as evaluator and examiner. Moreover, the test data show significant statistical differences between the real and ideal teacher in technical higher education from a student perspective. Regarding the dimensions of the teacher in technical higher education, based on the statistics, on a 1 to 5 scale, the results show similarities of the two models. For instance, students rank first intelligence and last elitism and competitiveness as teacher attributes.

Due to the upward trend in the globalization of sustainability issues and the intense competitive environment, it is evident that higher education institutions need new strategic approaches to succeed. To this end, the inquiry for this paper has been made into the debate about student relationship management. Going through the literature indicates that institutions have mainly perceived the concept as a technological initiative for solving the problems in individual domains, accompanied by uncoordinated efforts. Thus, the aims of this study are to theoretically present critical success factors of this strategic approach and to empirically examine the recognized factors. To do so, confirmatory factor analysis that is a quantitative analytic method was performed. The results and analyses revealed that there has been a significant correlation between the four critical success factors including knowledge management, student relationship management technology, student orientation, and employees’ involvement. It was also found that these factors are significantly correlated with the construct of student relationship management success. The findings have consequently highlighted that in addition to the technological tool, the role of knowledge management, employees’ involvement, and student orientation appeared to be particularly important for the implementation of the application.

Despite the rapid adoption of bilingual programs (English-Chinese) in China's higher education institutions (HEIs), concerns have been raised on perceived language hindrance to students’ academic comprehension and then performance. In response to this, this paper investigates the effects of bilingual instruction on content-based learning and provides empirical evidence after testing related influential factors in bilingual environment. Analyzing a sample of 498 undergraduate students enrolling in a fundamental business course in a sample university in China, we find insignificant statistical difference in students' academic performance between bilingual and L1 classes. We attribute this to the English language support provided by the university and show that learning competence can help students to minimize language barrier and furthermore solve the common learning problems confronted by both bilingual and L1 students. Overall, our paper aims to identify key determinants of students' academic performance in bilingual instruction and provide policy implication for developing desirable bilingual programs in HEIs.

This study investigated the breakdown trend in an automated production with an aim to recommend the application of Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) for an improved productivity via a new preventive maintenance (PM) program. Individual Section-forming machine (ISM): a glass blowing machine for making glass bottles was used as the case study of an automated production system. The machine parts and the working mechanisms were analysed with a special focus on methods of processes and procedures that will enable the ISM maintenance department run more effective and achieve its essential goal of ensuring effective machine operation and reducing machine downtime. In this work, information is provided on the steps and procedures to identify critical components of the ISM using Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA) as a tool to develop an optimal maintenance program based on the reliability data of the equipment’s functional components. A relationship was established between the failure rate of the machine components and the maintenance costs such that using the recommended PM program, an evidence of improvement in the machine’s availability, safety and cost-effectiveness will result into an increase in the company’s profit margin.

Background: Alcohol is a psychoactive substance that leads to dependence and harmful drinking in worldwide. Alcohol use is the most prevalent among age from 13 to 29 year particularly in high school, college, and university students. It affected students mentally, physically, economically and their social issues. In low and middle-income countries particularly in Ethiopia, there is lack of data in systematic review and meta-analysis regarding the prevalence of alcohol use and associated factors among students. Methods: We will search studies using computerized search engine, main electronic databases and other applicable sources. PubMed/Medline, Global Health, Africa-wides, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, EMBASE, and direct Google search will be searched to retrieve studies written in English language from 2010 to 2017. Observational studies (case control, cross-sectional, cohort or longitudinal survey, and surveillance reports) on the prevalence of alcohol use and associated factors among students in Ethiopia will be eligible. Data will be extracted by two authors independently. Data synthesis and statistical analysis will be carried out. Pooled estimate will be done to determine the prevalence of alcohol use by using comprehensive meta-analysis software. Protocol registration PROSPERO: 2017: CRD42018083222.

The aim of this research is to determine the factors that may prevent high school students from participating in recreational activities and to investigate whether these factors differ within the scope of various variables. This study consisted of total 1459 (681 women and 778 men) student volunteers who educated in high school level. Sampling method was preferred for easy sampling. The face-to-face survey method was used to collect the data. The "Leisure Constraints Scale" developed by Alexandris and Carroll (1997) and adapted to Turkish by Gürbüz, Öncü, and Emir (2012) was used to determine the factors that might prevent individuals from participating in leisure activities. The data obtained for the research were first transferred to the computer and then analyzed by SPSS packet program. The error margin level in the study was taken as p<0.05. The cronbach alpha of the study was found to be 0.91. As a result, it was found that women participated in the leisure time more than men. It was also observed that the participants met with more leisure constrain in Turkey's eastern regions.

While referral-level medicine is important in the veterinary curriculum, students also need a solid base knowledge of clinically relevant routine surgery and diagnostic skills. Veterinary hospitals must maintain a steady caseload that provides wellness cases and commonly encountered conditions. Shelter Medicine programs can create the opportunities to meet these challenges. Students can gain quantifiable surgical experience in spay/neuter with measured growth in surgical efficiency and competency while providing needed community service for animal shelters. Students can directly interact with shelter animals by performing examinations, diagnostic testing, and development of treatment protocols and recommendations for commonly encountered problems. Furthermore, students can obtain a working knowledge of biosecurity on a population level to minimize risk of infectious diseases spreading to healthy populations.

For doctoral students, publishing in peer reviewed journals is a task many face with anxiety and trepidation. The world of publishing, from choosing a journal, negotiating editors and navigating reviewers’ responses is a bewildering place. Looking in from the outside, it seems that successful and productive academic writers have knowledge that is inaccessible to novice scholars. While there is a growing literature on writing for scholarly publication, many of these publications promote writing and publishing as a straight-forward activity that anyone can achieve if they follow the rules. We argue that the specific and situated contexts in which academic writers negotiate publishing practices is more complicated and messy. In this paper, we attempt to make explicit our publishing processes to highlight the complex nature of publishing. We use autoethnographic narratives to provide discussion points and insights into the challenges of publishing peer reviewed articles. One narrative is by a doctoral student at the beginning of her publishing career, who expresses her desires, concerns and anxieties about writing for publication. The other narrative focuses on the publishing practices of a more experienced academic writer. Both are international scholars working in the Canadian context. The purpose of this paper is to explore academic publishing through the juxtaposition of these two narratives to make explicit some of the more implicit processes. Four key themes emerge from these narratives. To publish successfully, academic writers need: 1) to be discourse analysts; 2) to have a critical competence; and 3) to have writing fluency and 4) to be emotionally intelligent.

This review of current research into at-risk programs serves to categorise and characterise existing programs and to evaluate the contribution of these programs to assisting students at-risk from marginalised backgrounds. This characterisation questions the (sometimes) implicit assumptions and the consequences of those assumptions inherent in and behind these various accounts. This involves a synthesis and reformulation, based on epistemological standpoints, both explicit and implied, of the various researchers. Using as a lens the (various and varied) understandings of social justice and the goals of education (Gale & Densmore, 2000; 2003) I identify three sometimes overlapping and sometimes contesting standpoints in relation to at-risk students, characterised as instrumentalist or rational technical, social constructivist or individualist and critical transformative or empowering. I argue that programs ‘which simply seek to achieve change in the individual young people are doomed to failure’ (Stewart, 1998, 4) and that a critical transformative understanding of at-risk may deliver improved outcomes for young people by challenging ‘the school context in which the young people are located’ (Stewart, 1998, 4).