Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in Pharmacy Students’ Metacognition Through Self-Evaluation During Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences

Objective. To explore whether metacognition can be improved in Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students through routine self-assessment over a year-long advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) sequence. Methods. Differences between self-assessment scores and preceptors’ scores for three cohorts of pharmacy students between 2015 and 2018 were compared between the first, second, and third trimester to determine whether students more accurately evaluated their performance over time. The primary endpoint was change in the absolute difference between student and preceptor evaluation (rubric and composite scores) between trimesters. Results. Of 2577 student and preceptor evaluations eligible for inclusion, 1713 were completed, matched, and analyzed. Using the same rubric as preceptors, students overestimated their performance by an average of 16 points during the first trimester, followed by 14 and 12 points during the second and third trimester, respectively. This reflected a significant improvement over time. No significance difference was found between student and preceptor composite scores. Faculty preceptorship, students’ pre-APPE grade point average, and type of APPE were not associated with any difference in rubric or composite scores. Conclusion. This analysis revealed that the difference between student self-evaluation grades and preceptor evaluation grades was greatest during the first trimester and significantly decreased in the second and third trimesters. This could reflect students’ development of metacognitive processes over time. Metacognition is a vital skill for pharmacy students to learn, and opportunities to develop this skill should be incorporated throughout the pharmacy curricula.
The “that’s-not-all” compliance-gaining technique: when does it work?

ABSTRACT The that’s-not-all (TNA) compliance-gaining technique offers a product at an initial price and then improves the deal by either lowering the price or adding an extra product before the target responds to the final and adjusted offer. A meta-analysis with 18 comparisons examining the effectiveness of the TNA strategy found that the technique is a reliable method for increasing compliance (r = .16). Moderator analyses showed that the technique is effective when the purchase of a product is requested, when the price of a product offered in the final request is lower, and when the concession size is not too large. It is argued that the principles of hedonic editing and mindlessness account for the TNA effect.
Matrix algorithms

This book is the second volume in a projected five-volume survey of numerical linear algebra and matrix algorithms. This volume treats the numerical solution of dense and large-scale eigenvalue problems with an emphasis on algorithms and the theoretical background required to understand them. Stressing depth over breadth, Professor Stewart treats the derivation and implementation of the more important algorithms in detail. The notes and references sections contain pointers to other methods along with historical comments. The book is divided into two parts: dense eigenproblems and large eigenproblems. The first part gives a full treatment of the widely used QR algorithm, which is then applied to the solution of generalized eigenproblems and the computation of the singular value decomposition. The second part treats Krylov sequence methods such as the Lanczos and Arnoldi algorithms and presents a new treatment of the Jacobi-Davidson method. The volumes in this survey are not intended to be encyclopedic. By treating carefully selected topics in depth, each volume gives the reader the theoretical and practical background to read the research literature and implement or modify new algorithms. The algorithms treated are illustrated by pseudocode that has been tested in MATLAB implementations.
The Psychosocial Aspects of Induced Abortion: Men in the Focus

Although a man is as well concerned in each case of induced abortion as a woman is, the amount of existing studies that attempt to describe and gain insight into the psychological effects of induced abortion on men is extremely small, either when considering this number in itself or when comparing it to the number of related studies focusing on women. The present article gives an overview of the existing psychological knowledge of men’s perspective on induced abortion including their typical reactions; roles; participation in, and responsibility for, decision-making; and their impact on the female partner. Furthermore, a number of related but understudied issues are addressed.
Collaborative research as community learning in a higher education context, or ‘what would Rod Stewart do?’

ABSTRACT This paper is a reflective study of a collaborative research experience involving four colleagues. We discuss our experiences to consider how to develop a supportive collegial relationship at a time when working in higher education is often framed as competitive and focused upon defined ‘outputs’. To make the analysis we explore the role of language in positioning us as Foucauldian subjects, we consider how self-identity is visually and orally produced within the sharing of life history narratives and personal inventories, and we reflect upon how we navigated the research process together, in particular noting the importance of our humorous invocation of the 1970s pop idol Rod Stewart to counter tensions. This article contributes to an emerging area of research that identifies a need for ethical approaches to co-working within academic circles. We conclude by reflecting on what we can offer to other academics.
Schooling Experiences and Educational Outcomes of Latinx Secondary School Students Living at the Intersections of Multiple Social Constructs

Based on the critical quantitative intersectionality framework, this study examined the relationships between Latinx students’ multiple intersecting social categorizations (i.e., gender, ethnicity, home language, socioeconomic status [SES], immigration status), their diverse schooling experiences, and educational outcomes. This study found that specific ethnic backgrounds for Latinxs were significantly associated with both their schooling experiences and educational outcomes. Latinxs’ SES was a critical factor in creating the intersectional effects associated with other social constructs for schooling experiences and educational outcomes. Living in poverty created greater challenges in experiencing school suspension for Latinos compared with their Latina counterparts.
What Are Basic Human Needs? A Challenge to the Self-Determination Theory in the SST Context

Self-determination theory suggests that autonomy, competence and relatedness are the sole basic human needs that foster volitional forms of motivation. Given that perceived control, ease of use and usefulness have been found to enhance intrinsic motivation in the context of self-service technology (SST), it is argued that these later factors are also basic human needs that nurture volitional forms of motivation. Hence, it is hypothesized that the relationships between perceived control, ease of use and usefulness and the use of SSTs are mediated by self-determined motivation. Results suggest that self-determined motivation mediated the relationships between ease of use, usefulness and the use of SSTs but not the relationship between perceived control and the use of SSTs. Thus, basic human needs are not limited to autonomy, competence and relatedness; perceived ease of use and usefulness may also need to be included. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.
Student assessment of narrative: telling stories in the classroom

ABSTRACT We conducted this study to create a measure of instructional narratives and to validate the new instrument by assessing its construct validity. In particular, we created an item pool reflecting three aspects of instructor-told narratives including their course orientation, concreteness, and memorability. Students (N = 598) responded to a series of items measuring the three dimensions of instructional narratives and also their perceptions of instructor clarity, cognitive load, relevance, attention, and both emotional and cognitive interest. Results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a bifactor model with a general measure of effective storytelling and three subfactors fit the data well. Moreover, the new measure of instructional narratives was related to the educational outcomes noted above in a logical manner and each dimension predicted unique associations with these. In general, our results indicated that in order to teach clearly, explaining course concepts through stories in a manner that students can easily imagine is beneficial. To capture students’ attention and emotional interest, stories must be concrete and memorable. Finally, to help students learn, stories must be concrete and course-oriented.
TPACK: Time to be Considered in Teaching Reading

Since technology use is commendable, TPACK (Content, Pedagogy and Technology) model exemplifies its best practices in the classroom. This study, therefore, investigates to what extent can TPACK Model improve Jordanians EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students’ performance in reading skill. The research followed a quasi-experimental design. The participants of the study were 66 intermediate male students from Akef Alfayez Secondary School in Amman who were distributed randomly into two intact groups: An experimental and a control group. Students in the experimental group received reading comprehension instruction by a TPACK Model trained teacher, while the students in the control group were taught by using the conventional method. The instruments used in this study were pre-test and post-test along with the developed TPACK instructional program. The results revealed positive effect of using technology in enhancing EFL learners’ reading skills. Therefore, incorporating technology in EFL education needs to be considered as an effective learning tool that can boost students’ level in all language skills, particularly reading comprehension, the focus of this study. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18. 6.5
Violence in international relations: The first and the last word

This article examines change and continuity in the function, role and moral judgement of violence in international relations. In terms of change, the conclusions are mostly pessimistic if the aim is the complete eradication of political violence. The control of violence, on the other hand, and the ability to hold those who employ it to increasing moral and legal standards is perhaps one of the most significant changes in international relations from 1919 to 2019. However, this does not mean that violence has been replaced or even transformed. Violence is constitutive of the political. It is the first and the last word in politics. This is the continuity of violence. Violence, of which war is only the most visceral expression, has not been transformed or replaced, but rather it has been displaced into legal systems, institutional orders and new forms of conflict. Inter-state war may be in decline, but intra-state conflict is rising. To develop this argument, the article argues that change can only be understood as change against a horizon of continuity.
A big part of education also: A mixed-methods evaluation of a social and emotional learning (SEL) course for pre-service teachers

ABSTRACT A teacher training course entitled Classroom and Individual Emotional and Behavioral Supports (CIEBS) includes four modules: School-wide Positive Behaviour Supports (SWPBS), Trust-based Relational Intervention (TBRI), Non- violent Crisis Intervention (NCI), and practicum experience. The present article describes the rationale for selecting each of these modules, the activities included in each module, and a mixed-methods evaluation of the course’s influence on its participants. Group-wide quantitative measures showed growth in the efficacy for classroom management and preparedness for dealing with students’ stress among the treatment group, with little observable change among control participants. Through pre-/post-course vignette responses, individual interviews, and focus group interviews, participants reported that the course helped them to become better prepared and more confident in their SEL abilities. The participants pointed to the neuroscience of complex trauma, as taught through the TBRI module, and active learning provided through NCI module as critical reasons for the course’s effectiveness.
Word reading, vocabulary, and mental health problems in adolescent girls and boys with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Reading difficulties are linked to several disadvantages in the general population. Less is known about correlates of reading difficulties in individuals with intellectual and severe developmental disabilities (IDD). Vocabulary and word reading were assessed in 112 adolescents with IDD, recruited from Special needs comprehensive schools in Sweden (grundsärskolor in Swedish). Proxy-ratings of mental health were collected from teachers and parents for a subset of the participants. Relationships between all measures were investigated. Reading and vocabulary were poorly developed in both groups and significantly associated. While mental health problems were common, there were no significant associations with word reading or with vocabulary knowledge. Thus, the study did not confirm an association between reading difficulties and mental health problems in adolescents with IDD. Still, the frequency of mental health problems and the low reading abilities point to the need for further intervention for adolescents with IDD.
Preliminary development of the Higher Education Hindrance Demands Scale amongst academics in the South African context

Orientation: Over the past two decades, since the advent of democracy in South Africa, the country has undergone transformation in virtually all sectors of society. Education is no exception, with higher education institutions (HEIs) also experiencing change. The transformation of HEIs has brought about many new challenges, demands and stresses that may hinder the work performance of academics.Research purpose: This study seeks to determine the ‘hindrance demands’ unique to the South African context by developing and validating the Higher Education Hindrance Demands Scale (HEHDS). This scale includes a set of demands placed on academics’ experiences in this context.Research approach, design and method: Data were collected from 184 academic staff members from HEIs based on a quantitative research design using a cross-sectional survey. Data were analysed through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), while the reliability of the scale was obtained through Cronbach’s coefficient alpha.Main findings: The results produced, as anticipated, a six-factor model consisting of: (1) workload, (2) higher education unrest, (3) change management, (4) decolonisation, (5) online teaching and learning and (6) psychological safety. The findings indicated excellent reliability, ranging between 0.74 and 0.90. Practical and managerial implications: Taking into consideration the context in which HEIs operate in South Africa, it is noteworthy that the recommendations in this article will assist in identifying the hindrance demands placed on academic staff. Researchers in the field are therefore called to validate the instrument developed through the use of confirmatory factor analysis.Contributions or value-add: This study adds to the limited research on hindrance demands placed on staff in HEIs.
Capturing and Animating Hand and Finger Motion for 3D Communicative Characters

Author(s): Wheatland, Nkenge Safiya | Advisor(s): Zordan, Victor B | Abstract: The process of animating detailed motion for virtual characters is a difficult task and researchers and animators work tirelessly to bring life to these characters. Though many methods have been developed over the years to facilitate aspects of 3D character animation, creating realistic virtual humans is still a challenge. This is partly because of the way virtual characters move. People are highly sensitive to human motion and that sensitivity can influence how a person feels about a character they are viewing in a video or a movie. Though the motion of hands is on smaller scale than that of the full body, hand motions also contribute to how people feel about the "realness" of a character. This is especially true for communicative characters. Many people gesticulate when speaking and virtual characters should as well to appear natural. Also, there are many people who communicate using sign languages, gesture-based languages that use specific hand shapes and full-body body motions to convey complex thoughts and ideas. American Sign Language (ASL) is used in the United States. Characters that can naturally perform ASL would be beneficial to the many deaf Americans whose first language is ASL. Deaf adults who communicate primarily using ASL tend to read English at a middle school level. Therefore, a virtual signing character can be useful for many applications, such as computing, where much of the information is presented to the user as text or sound. Optical marker motion capture is the industry standard for recording human motion to be applied to virtual characters. But this form of motion capture has many drawbacks, notably in its ability to capture detailed full body and hand motion simultaneously. A benefit of motion capture is its ability to record the rhythm and timing of a person’s motions. Timing contributes to how natural a virtual character appears and is also an important aspect of conversational hand motions. We propose methods to capture and animate hand motion for the purposes of gestural communication and sign language. We have developed techniques to construct high dimensional hand animations from low-dimensional captures using tools such as nearest neighbor selection from a clustered set, principle component analysis, and locally weighted regression. These methods allow for simultaneous capture of the hands and full body of a communicative person. We also present a model to automatically produce natural timing and rhythm for the synthesis of ASL fingerspelling. The data driven model employs a naive Bayes classifier to predict the length of each letter hold and a simple linear regression to predict the length of each inter-letter transition. We analyze the results of this approach quantitatively and also qualitatively by performing a perceptual study. Our goal is to contribute to the ongoing research of creating compelling 3D characters for computer applications aimed at the sign language community.
Recovery Behaviours in Education: The Role of Innovativeness and Emotional Intelligence

This paper offers an integrated approach to explore the roles of individual innovativeness and emotional intelligence in affecting service recovery in educational setting. Data were collected from 205 academicians working in different universities in Turkey by a self-administered questionnaire. Using a structural model of higher order influences the analyses supported a model in which the perceptions of emotional intelligence and individual innovativeness of academicians positively influenced their service recovery behaviours. The results were interpreted and suggestions were discussed for further studies. The study is the first research in the Turkey educational context that considers the service recovery behaviours of academicians and associates multifaceted concepts of emotional intelligence, individual innovativeness with service recovery behaviours.
Executive Compensation: A Survey of Theory and Evidence

This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on executive compensation. We start by presenting data on the level of CEO and other top executive pay over time and across firms, the changing composition of pay; and the strength of executive incentives. We compare pay in U.S. public firms to private and non-U.S. firms. We then critically analyze three non-exclusive explanations for what drives executive pay - shareholder value maximization by boards, rent extraction by executives, and institutional factors such as regulation, taxation, and accounting policy. We confront each hypothesis with the evidence. While shareholder value maximization is consistent with many practices that initially seem inefficient, no single explanation can account for all facts and historical trends; we highlight major gaps for future research. We discuss evidence on the effects of executive pay, highlighting recent identification strategies, and suggest policy implications grounded in theoretical and empirical research. Our survey has two main goals. First, we aim to tightly link the theoretical literature to the empirical evidence, and combine the insights contributed by all three views on the drivers of pay. Second, we aim to provide a user-friendly guide to executive compensation, presenting shareholder value theories using a simple unifying model, and discussing the challenges and methodological issues with empirical research.
Assessing the uses and impacts of Facebook for teaching and learning in classroom education contexts in Malaysian universities

This study examined the uses of Facebook by lecturers and students in classrooms and their outcomes and impacts for teaching and learning practices in Malaysian higher education. The research objectives were to identify how and why lecturers and students use Facebook as a teaching and learning platform in a formal classroom environment, and to evaluate how lecturers and students perceive the outcomes and impacts of Facebook for teaching and learning practices. A multiple-methodology design using a number of qualitative methods was adopted. Empirical data were collected through: (1) semi-structured interviews with eight lecturers and 12 students from seven Malaysian universities; (2) participant virtual observation of two Facebook closed-group pages; and (3) content analysis of 38 students’ reflection journals. Findings revealed that the use of Facebook by Malaysian lecturers and students of this study arises due to its affordances for teaching and learning in classroom education, including ease of use and usefulness for reaching out to students, supporting online discussions, and interactivity. However, participants felt that disadvantages and challenges of using Facebook in formal learning environments do exist. This study provides in-depth insights about the adoption of Facebook by students and lecturers in formal classroom education for enhancing learning experiences as well as supporting and improving teaching practices. The study contributes to current understanding about how and why lecturers and students leverage social media technologies as teaching and learning tools as well as how Facebook enhances engagement and communication among students and with their lecturers. Original contributions from this study are: the identification of similarities of and differences between lecturers’ and students’ uses and perspectives on Facebook in formal learning environments; the presentation of theoretical frameworks related to factors that affect uses and impacts of Facebook for teaching and learning in classroom education in Malaysian universities; as well as an analysis and identification of elements of Facebook features which support learning per se and the management of learning. Ultimately, it contributes to a growing body of empirical research about uses and impacts of social media technologies for classroom education in Malaysian higher education.