bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Gamification's Role as a Learning and Assessment Tool in Education
Authors: Sanmugam Mageswaran , Mohamed Hasnah , Zaid Norasykin Mohd , Abdullah Zaleha , Aris Baharuddin , Suhadi Salihuddin Md
Published: September 2019

Gamification is a new and upcoming trend that is predicted by many to further enhance the field of educational technology in the new millennium. The use of gamification has fared well in the corporate world and is gradually transcending into the educational arena. The usage of game elements such as points, badges and leader board can assist in keeping the students not only motivated but also engaged to the teaching and learning process in the school. As learning and assessment come hand in hand as a knowledge acquiring process in a classroom, therefore it should be identified whether or not gamification can be truly utilized in the form of a learning and assessment tool in the teaching and learning process. This paper will discuss about the repercussions of using gamification as a learning and assessment tool based on the review of several studies carried out in the field of gamification.
The Impact of Accreditation on Student Learning Outcomes
Authors: Brahimi Tayeb , Sarirete Akila , Ibrahim Rania Mohammed
Published: September 2019

In recent years, student outcomes in higher education has captured the interest and concern of accreditation communities, governments, employers as well as international organizations. Student outcomes is becoming the principal gauge of higher education's effectiveness and accreditation bodies expect learning outcomes to be well defined, articulated, assessed, verified, and used as a guide for future improvement. The paper investigates the impact of accreditation on student outcomes in higher education and examines the impact of two accreditation bodies on student outcomes, namely: The National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA) established by the Higher Council of Education in Saudi Arabia and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology Inc. (ABET). Results from a course in Mathematics at Effat University, Jeddah, KSA, showed how important the learning outcome is in the process of re-evaluating strategies and methodologies used in the learning process.
Portfolios2
Authors: Lachance Joan
Published: September 2019

Graduate level teacher candidates preparing to work with English learners participate in coursework related to theory and practice for many aspects of second language acquisition. In this presentation the author describes and discusses an innovative capstone project, completed in the context of the second language acquisition course, which conceptualizes and embodies performance-based assessments. What makes this exceptional is that teacher candidates demonstrate deep insight regarding the authenticity of using performance-based assessments with K-12 English learners while simultaneously connecting the concepts to their own pre-service teaching performance-based assessments; Portfolios2.
Assessment for Learning
Authors: Djoub Zineb
Published: September 2019

To support students, make effective use of feedback to improve their learning, this chapter provides practical tips and strategies for teachers to stimulate their students' interest in feedback, assimilate its significant role and get involved in interpreting, reflecting and acting upon feedback comments. The author focuses on both summative and formative feedback. For summative feedback, one's concern is to encourage students to interpret grades/marks, reflect upon them and transform them into plans and actions. This is through using reflective worksheets and other post-exam tasks in class which are designed by the author. Feedback within self, peer and group assessment approaches is also concerned in this chapter. Other kinds of reflective worksheets are suggested to be used to reflect on the student learning process as part of the student portfolio, journal or set separately, in addition to the use of technology, i.e., class blogs to enhance such reflection.
Challenges and Opportunities in the Currency of Higher Education
Authors: Everhart Deborah , Seymour Deborah M.
Published: September 2019

In 2013, the American Council on Education and Blackboard began joint research on competency-based education (CBE) to identify challenges and potential solutions for higher education CBE stakeholders. A key premise is that while credit-hour processes are likely to remain deeply embedded in post-secondary systems for some time, there is ample opportunity for innovation with competencies as a parallel and complementary currency. Credit hours provide a basis for current models of exchange in higher education, including credits for degree attainment, financial aid, and other critical functions. Competencies provide representations of learning outcomes that are more flexible and transparent and can be applied in multiple contexts within and outside educational institutions. This chapter provides scenarios that illustrate how competencies provide broad value in educational processes, not only as a means of documenting student achievement, but also to create meaningful connections between jobseekers and employment, for faculty and staff development, and for economic development.
Experiential Learning in Postsecondary Education
Authors: Morreale Cathleen , Fronczak Nicholas
Published: September 2019

This chapter focuses on the theories of experiential learning as applied to undergraduate education in the context of personal and career development of students through a learner-centered online internship program model. The chapter explores the need for experience and problem-based applied learning strategies that are transferrable to the world of work with value to students in arenas of their lives extending into their educational, professional and personal spheres. The chapter explores essential building blocks and best practices for faculty as teachers and mentors to implement in the online internship program experience to capitalize on traditional experiential learning practices. Furthermore, valuable assessment techniques, useful to experiential learning strategies to measure growth in student learning from application of experiential learning are included. The chapter concludes with challenges associated with deviating from traditional instructional teaching modes.
Assessment of Fluid Intelligence Utilizing a Computer Simulated Game
Authors: Buford Charles Colby , O'Leary Brian J.
Published: September 2019

Measurement of General Mental Ability (GMA) using computer mediated simulations (CMS) may provide a new method of assessment. CMS used for assessments of GMA may be strongly affected by a participant's prior experience, and the predictive utility of CMS for assessment of GMA is largely unexplored. In this experiment, an existing computer video game was modified to function as an assessment of Fluid Intelligence (Gf) while controlling for participants' prior experience with CMS. Results indicated a positive relationship between tests of Fluid Intelligence (Gf) and game performance (r = .44 - 46), a weaker relationship between game performance and Crystallized Intelligence (Gc) (r = .27), no significant relationship to g, and no significant moderating effect for participants' prior experience upon any of these relationships. Based on these findings, CMS appear to hold promise as a new assessment tool for factors of GMA.
Trends and Challenges of E-Assessment to Enhance Student Learning in Higher Education
Authors: Guàrdia Lourdes , Crisp Geoffrey , Alsina Ivan
Published: September 2019

This chapter provides an overview of current e-assessment activity in Higher Education (HE) for those interested in improving their assessment practices. Despite substantial changes in HE teaching and learning strategies with the introduction of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), little effort has been made in the area of assessment, where traditional methods are still commonly used. ICT and computers are seen as a medium for supporting and guiding the whole learning process, but these options have not yet been fully explored. In view of this, we would like to review the trends and challenges of e-assessment to enhance student learning in future scenarios, taking into consideration several publications, cases and contributions from both the practice and research perspective.
Contemporary Perspectives on Higher Education Quality Management
Authors: Sena Steven
Published: September 2019

Quality management is considered a very important factor for the long-term success of each and every organization. The links between quality management and organizational performance can never be overemphasized. Quality management in both goods and services industries gives a company a distinct competitive advantage over its competitors in the market place. Market share can also be gained or lost over the level of quality management in an organization; that is if an organization's quality management process is poor, the market share is lost, and conversely, if it is quality management is good, a market share is gained. Quality is, therefore, a competitive priority for any serious organization. Quality management is the only factor that ensures an organization's survival and growth especially in institutions of higher learning and other service organizations. Quality management focuses on meeting consumers' needs, meeting the competition, improving continuously, and extending these concerns to all phases of business.
Overcoming Complacency Through Quality Intelligence in Greek Higher Education
Authors: Anninos Loukas
Published: September 2019

During the last decade, an intensification of evaluation at the Greek universities has been noted, encouraged by the state and institutional initiatives aiming to reform, modernize, and cultivate a culture of excellence. The progress that has been reported was facilitated by global developments that gradually strengthened the cultural and scientific foundations of university performance evaluation and set the foundations for continuous institutional improvement and transformation. However, the role of academic leadership is crucial if universities wish to fully embrace the concept of excellence in their operations and services not from an obligatory, but from an evolutionary perspective that would allow them to learn and improve. As Greek universities are currently in the process of quality accreditation, the chapter briefly presents the framework for quality accreditation in Greek universities and underlines the critical role of academic leadership for achieving accreditation and establishing a culture for sustainable excellence.
Ethics Courses Teaching Linkage to Quality Management Education
Authors: Saini Damini , Sengupta Sunita Singh
Published: September 2019

Almost every management institution in India has an ethics course in their curriculum that is focused upon inculcating the value set in an individual. To understand the role of ethical education in accelerating the quality of management education, this chapter provides a discussion of implications of the questions of quality, dilemma, and pedagogy of ethical training. In the introduction, the authors emphasize on the reasons of focusing upon the ethical education, then give a brief history of ethics education in Indian management institutions. In order to show the significance, authors also show the place of ethics course in top 10 business institutions in India. Further, the authors describe the main focus of the chapter that is the contribution of ethics in management education.
Search for Information in Text Files
Authors: El Hassani Mouhcine , Falih Noureddine , Bouikhalene Belaid
Published: September 2019

As information becomes increasingly abundant and accessible on the web, researchers do not have a need to go to excavate books in the libraries. These require a knowledge extraction system from the text (KEST). The goal of authors in this chapter is to identify the needs of a person to do a search in a text, which can be unstructured, and retrieve the terms of information related to the subject of research then structure them into classes of useful information. These may subsequently identify the general architecture of an information retrieval system from text documents in order to develop it and finally identify the parameters to evaluate its performance and the results retrieved.
Automatic Ontology Construction
Authors: Arora Amita
Published: September 2019

World wide web has information resources even on unthinkable subjects. This information may be available instantly to anyone having Internet connection. This web is growing exponentially, and it is becoming difficult to locate useful information in such a sheer volume of information. Semantic web extends the current web by emphasizing on interoperable ontologies which are capable of processing high quality information so that the agents placed on top of semantic web can automate the work or curate the content for the user. In this chapter, an extensive research in the area of ontology construction is presented, and after having a critical look over the work done in this field and considering the limitation of each, it has been observed that constructing ontology automatically is a challenging task as this task faces difficulties due to unstructured text and ambiguities in English text. In this work an ontology generation technique is devised covering all important aspects missing in the existing works giving better performance as compared to another system.
Some Aspects of Reliability Estimation of Loosely Coupled Web Services in Clustered Load Balancing Web Server
Authors: Bora Abhijit , Bezboruah Tulshi
Published: September 2019

Reliability of loosely coupled services through the paradigm of service-oriented computing and observing their fault tolerance against massive load in clustered load balancing web server plays an important role while evaluating the quality aspects of software-as-a-service (SaaS), grid, and distributed systems. This chapter shows some aspects of service execution while observing their failure records against massive execution of server-side instruction. A novel reliability estimation framework is proposed that can be deployed for evaluating the reliability of service execution over clustered load balancing web server. A load generating tool is used to generate massive load over the service execution. In this study we will discuss an experimental system and its architecture by using clustered load balancing web server, the reliability estimation framework along with the goodness of fit study through statistical analysis. The overall assessment of the work will validate the applicability of the proposed framework for the loosely coupled service in clustered load balancing web server.
Online Application System for Admission in Private Universities
Authors: Stanley Mbowa Henry , Matovu Kaaya Siraje
Published: September 2019

The policy of education for all has increased students' numbers in both public and private universities. Applicants seeking admission in universities have increased, and many universities have come up to tap the large numbers. Efforts have been made to give access to applicants for university education. However, applicants still find problems for applying due to absence of online application systems. This implies that universities have to adopt online application systems to enhance their admissions to graduate programs. The purpose of the chapter is to present a developed online application system for supporting admission at Kampala University (KU). This chapter also presents the weaknesses of the existing application system at KU to applicants and developed an online application system designed using HTML, PHP, CSS, Zend Engine, MySQL, SQL, and JS. Thus, KU should implement the online application system and provide clear guidelines to applicants on how to use the system.
Who's Who
Authors: Collins Nathalie , Volkheimer Jeff , Murphy Jamie
Published: September 2019

Industry and academic circles continue to attempt to label brand community behaviours, borrowing analogies from subcultures such as religion (“evangelists”), slang (“geeks, mavens, haters”), science fiction (“fanboys”), and science (“alpha”). Although sometimes used as generic terms, upon examination, these and other such labels, can define the spectrum of brand attachment in a specific way—through narrative, metaphor, and cross-cultural labelling. Such labelling is happening already. This chapter parses the current meaning of one term from another into a folksonomy, or classification system developed by those steeped in the culture. This segmentation enables further research into specific fan types, along with industry recommendations for approaching each segment based on the behavioural characteristic inherent in both the historic and common usage of the word. It also moves toward the standardisation of these terms in industry and academic circles in order to further enable a lingua franca relating to this phenomenon.
Brands, Fans, and Exchanges
Authors: Todd Breanna M. , Armstrong Soule Catherine Anne
Published: September 2019

Although fandom has a rich history within pop culture, it is difficult to know what constitutes a fandom, what differentiates fandoms from similar phenomena as well as what different types of fandoms exist and how fandoms are formed and maintained. In this chapter, the authors define fandom and the related member actions that create and maintain fandoms, as well as delineate the concept from the similar fan-brand communities of transactional brand communities, social brand communities and brand publics. A typology for fan-brand communities is presented with two dimensions: 1) motivation for engagement; and 2) social status and relationship type. This typology can help guide researchers, brands, and marketers in effectively managing different subcultures of fans. This chapter may be used as a starting point for further understanding of fan-brand community-based relationships.
Sport Fan Consumption
Authors: Johnson Lauren Michele , Chou Wen-Hao Winston , Mastromartino Brandon , Zhang James Jianhui
Published: September 2019

Sports fans are individuals who are interested in and follow one or more sports, teams, and/or athletes. These fans reinforce their identity as a fan by engaging in supportive and repetitive consumption behaviors that relate to the sport or team they are so passionate about. This chapter will provide an overview of the history and cultural heritage of sports fandom, discuss the significance and functions of fandom, underline what motivates individuals to consume sports, examine the consequences and results of fandom, and highlight contemporary research and developmental trends. This chapter would allow for a good understanding of where research on sports fandom is headed and the important issues affecting sports fans.
Return of Fandom in the Digital Age With the Rise of Social Media
Authors: Guo Shuojia
Published: September 2019

In the digital age, the rise of social media has enabled the fan culture transitioning from “static” consumption to “dynamic” interaction. This is not only a result of the advancement of ICTs, but also a shift in digital communication driven by participatory culture. This chapter explores why social media in digital age have such a profound impact upon fandom. In particular, what is new with these fan communities that social media has done so much to enable. There is a blurring in the lines between fandom producers and consumers in the participatory fandom. Given the new forms of cultural production, fan culture has been enabled by social media and is more powerful than it was ever before. Finally, how the changing relationships between fans and producers have redefined the fandom economy.
Avatars Expand the Opportunities of Modern Economy
Authors: Rasskazova Natalia , Pitaikina Inna , Ratushnaia Liudmila
Published: September 2019

There is no doubt that modern economy will change under the influence of digital technologies. This fact stipulates for the analysis of the possibilities of using new technologies in economic practice, as well as the consequences of this process. In this chapter, the authors show how digital technologies contribute to the harmonization of economic interests at the micro and macro levels and maximize the benefits. The purpose of this chapter is to try to assess the advantages and challenges of introducing digital technologies based on avatars using blockchain technology in various areas of the economy. This approach is the theoretical basis for the development of economic solutions for the implementation of public policy on the development of digital economy.
Development of Avatar-Based Models and Tools for People With Intellectual Disabilities
Authors: Ghougassian Dalar
Published: September 2019

The chapter is about development of consciousness, emotion, motivation, and level of aspiration, with the ways that people react to the psychological, traumatic experience caused by the gradual realization of incapacity. Some people with an intellectual disability are capable of learning together with normally-developing peers if provided with special support; however, there are others who will need an individual education program adapted to their capabilities. The most important focus in working with such students is the individual approach with regard to the specific mentality and health of each person. Such an approach can be achieved through instructional methods like avatar-based learning as the improved development of project-based learning.
Online Political Party Engagement
Authors: Omeraki Çekirdekci Şahver , Tereci Aytaç
Published: September 2019

Consumer brand engagement enhances consumer loyalty and consumer satisfaction, empowerment, connection and emotional bonds, trust, and commitment. Given the consequences of consumer brand engagement, this chapter explores consumers' online engagement with a political party, its online content creators, and other community members. The findings reveal that the developed strategies engage consumers differently with regard to the affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions of consumer brand engagement, creating different forms of consumer communities.
A Mock-up for the Development of a Digital Edition for Ancient Greek Fragmentary Poetry
Authors: Stefanini Alberto Eugenio , Nicolosi Anika , Monachini Monica
Published: September 2019

Ancient Greek poetry is an essential part of the western cultural heritage; thus, it is important that people have access to its texts and whatever relates to their understanding in a reliable and easy way. Whenever user evaluation is concerned, mock-ups are used by designers to acquire feedback from users. A mock-up is defined as a model of the final product, and may be used for demonstration, evaluation and other purposes. The authors prototyped a mock-up for focusing on the requirements of a scholarly digital edition of Archilochus. This was put under evaluation to assess its usability: it was submitted to extensive use and testing by a sample of prospective users, to better focus on the requirements from a product's perspective. Experimentation involved a group of university students, attending a Greek Philology course at Parma University. More than half of the respondents considered the mock-up a useful study support. The evaluation also pointed out that the mock-up had to be revised, so as to guarantee better cognitive simplicity of the user interface.
Digital Model for Diagnosis of Postoperative Complications in Medicine Using Bioinformatics
Authors: Gorbachenko Vladimir
Published: September 2019

Digital models are needed in medicine using bioinformatics for diagnosis and prediction. Such models are especially needed in personalized medicine using bioinformatics. In this area, it is necessary to evaluate and predict the patient's condition from a priori knowledge obtained from other patients. Therefore, a new direction appeared - predictive medicine using bioinformatics. Predictive medicine, or “in silico medicine” is the use of computer modelling and intelligent technologies in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases. Using predictive medicine, the doctor can determine the likelihood of the development of certain diseases and choose the optimal treatment using bioinformatics. Predictive medicine begins to be applied in surgery. The prognosis in surgery consists in the preoperative evaluation of various surgical interventions and in the evaluation of possible outcomes of surgical interventions.
About Neural Networking of Avatar-Based Modeling as an Intellectual Tool and Technology for Biomedical Study in Bioinformatics
Authors: Chernyshenko Vsevolod
Published: September 2019

The article is devoted to the problem of an analytical analysis of neural networks with avatar-based modelling as an intellectual tool and technology for biomedical study in bioinformatics. This is with th use of convolutional and generative neural networks, as well as reinforcement training. An algorithm for predicting future moments of trend change under concrete market conditions based on a generative adversarial networks was developed. Special software was designed that realizes algorithms for predicting the future of study conditions changes, based on the mentioned above algorithms.
Hybrid Partitioning-Density Algorithm for K-Means Clustering of Distributed Data Utilizing OPTICS
Authors: Markiewicz Mikołaj , Koperwas Jakub
Published: September 2019

The authors present the first clustering algorithm for use with distributed data that is fast, reliable, and does not make any presumptions in terms of data distribution. The authors' algorithm constructs a global clustering model using small local models received from local clustering statistics. This approach outperforms the classical non-distributed approaches since it does not require downloading all of the data to the central processing unit. The authors' solution is a hybrid algorithm that uses the best partitioning and density-based approach. The proposed algorithm handles uneven data dispersion without a transfer overload of additional data. Experiments were carried out with large datasets and these showed that the proposed solution introduces no loss of quality compared to non-distributed approaches and can achieve even better results, approaching reference clustering. This is an excellent outcome, considering that the algorithm can only build a model from fragmented data where the communication cost between nodes is negligible.
The Application of Sentiment Analysis and Text Analytics to Customer Experience Reviews to Understand What Customers Are Really Saying
Authors: Gallagher Conor , Furey Eoghan , Curran Kevin
Published: September 2019

In a world of ever-growing customer data, businesses are required to have a clear line of sight into what their customers think about the business, its products, people and how it treats them. Insight into these critical areas for a business will aid in the development of a robust customer experience strategy and in turn drive loyalty and recommendations to others by their customers. It is key for business to access and mine their customer data to drive a modern customer experience. This article investigates the use of a text mining approach to aid sentiment analysis in the pursuit of understanding what customers are saying about products, services and interactions with a business. This is commonly known as Voice of the Customer (VOC) data and it is key to unlocking customer sentiment. The authors analyse the relationship between unstructured customer sentiment in the form of verbatim feedback and structured data in the form of user review ratings or satisfaction ratings to explore the question of whether customers say what they really think when given the opportunity to provide free text feedback as opposed to how they rate a product on a scale of one to five. Using various Sentiment Analysis approaches, the authors assign a sentiment score to a piece of verbatim feedback and then categorise it as positive, negative, or neutral. Using this normalised sentiment score, they compare it to the corresponding rating score and investigate the potential business insights. The results obtained indicate that a business cannot rely solely on a standalone single metric as a source of truth regarding customer experience. There is a significant difference between the customer ratings score and the sentiment of their corresponding review of the product. The authors propose that it is imperative that a business supplements their customer feedback scores with a robust sentiment analysis strategy.
A Comparative Study of Data Cleaning Tools
Authors: Oni Samson , Chen Zhiyuan , Hoban Susan , Jademi Onimi
Published: September 2019

In the information era, data is crucial in decision making. Most data sets contain impurities that need to be weeded out before any meaningful decision can be made from the data. Hence, data cleaning is essential and often takes more than 80 percent of time and resources of the data analyst. Adequate tools and techniques must be used for data cleaning. There exist a lot of data cleaning tools but it is unclear how to choose them in various situations. This research aims at helping researchers and organizations choose the right tools for data cleaning. This article conducts a comparative study of four commonly used data cleaning tools on two real data sets and answers the research question of which tool will be useful based on different scenario.
An Empirical Investigation of V LIVE's Service Quality and Users' Acceptance
Authors: Askeridis Johanna M. , Ilhan Aylin
Published: September 2019

V LIVE, a Korean real-time mobile broadcasting app, is the focus of this investigation. As research on this service is scarce, the paper concentrates on the evaluation of the service quality and users' acceptance to serve as a first step and basis for following investigations. Data is collected by developing and distributing (non-probabilistic) a survey. The survey aspects derive from the Information Service Evaluation model. Additionally, a qualitative analysis of the objective service quality is done as well. All in all, V LIVE is not only well accepted but highly satisfactory as well. Especially, usefulness and fun are proved as satisfying.
Two-Party Key Agreement Protocol Without Central Authority for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks
Authors: Ch Asha Jyothi , Narsimha G.
Published: September 2019

Key agreement (KA) without the use of a central authority is an elementary cryptographic problem to ensure security in MANETs because such networks consist of movable nodes with no fixed infrastructure or no central administration. The nodes communicate via wireless channels that are more prone to security attacks. A majority of the existing KA protocols assume the existence of central authority and hence, not perfectly suitable for a MANET environment. Proposed 2P-NCKA (Two-Party Non-Central authority KA) protocol creates a secret key between two users for a MANET which does not assume the use of a central authority and a prior password. It uses pairings, a verifiable secret sharing scheme and routing protocol. The AOPMDV protocol allows transmission of multiple packets across multiple node-disjoint paths in parallel so that one packet is in each path. This article also cryptanalyzes Li's KA protocol and has proven its vulnerability towards a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack. The 2P-NCKA protocol is secure against MITM attacks and all known attacks and addresses problems of Li's protocol with a small increase in execution time.
An Empirical Study of Service Quality, Value and Customer Satisfaction for On-Demand Home Services
Authors: Sivathanu Brijesh
Published: September 2019

This study investigates the factors influencing customer satisfaction with references to on-demand home services, an emerging phenomenon in India. The hypothesized conceptual framework is grounded in the E-SQ and SERVQUAL model. To test the research hypotheses, 382 sample respondents were surveyed using a pre-tested questionnaire. The empirical validation of the proposed framework was performed with the help of PLS-SEM. The results suggest that e-service quality (E-SQ) and service quality (SERVQUAL) contribute to the overall service quality (OSQ) which has a positive influence on customer satisfaction (CS). It is further noted that, with reference to on-demand home services, overall service quality (OSQ) and customer satisfaction (CS) is moderated by value (VL). Further research could investigate the influence of OSQ on other relational constructs such as trust and customer loyalty. This study offers interesting insights to the managers and marketers in the service industry while crafting marketing strategies.
Expressive Wearables
Authors: Epp Felix Anand
Published: September 2019

Self-expression is a vital practice for a functioning social life. Wearables have become expressive everyday products, while studies showed how physical collocation can be an opportunity for social technology. This article identifies a perspective for future design of wearables as an extension of the body in its social context: designing for diversity in expression with respect to social boundaries. The collected literature demonstrates the development of new forms of expressive wearables that challenges norms of dress and three groups of participatory methods enable re-search into everyday life practices. The two initial studies—inquiring into everyday life and exploring the wearable design for new practices—exemplify these methods and point a way forward with a focus for design on distinct practices of self-expression.
Towards a Utility Theory of Privacy and Information Sharing
Authors: Puaschunder Julia
Published: September 2019

Sustainability management has originally and—to this day—primarily been focused on environmental aspects. Today, enormous data storage capacities and computational power in the e-big data era have created unforeseen opportunities for big data hoarding corporations to reap hidden benefits from an individual's information sharing, which occurs bit by bit over time. This article presents a novel angle of sustainability, which is concerned with sensitive data protection given by the recently detected trade-off predicament between privacy and information sharing in the digital big data age. When individual decision makers face the privacy versus information sharing predicament in their corporate leadership, dignity and utility considerations could influence risk management and sustainability operations. Yet, to this day, there has not been a clear connection between dignity and utility of privacy and information sharing as risk management and sustainability drivers. The chapter unravels the legal foundations of dignity in privacy but also the behavioral economics of utility in communication and information sharing in order to draw a case of dignity and utility to be integrated into contemporary corporate governance, risk management and sustainability considerations of e-innovation.
Guest Editorial
Authors: Werner Shula
Published: September 2019

No abstract available
Progressive resistive loading on accessory expiratory muscles in tetraplegia
Authors: Gounden P.
Published: September 2019

To investigate the effects of progressive resistive loading on accessory expiratory muscles in tetraplegia, 40 such patients undergoing standard pulmonary rehabilitation were randomly assigned to control (n = 20) and experimental (n = 20) groups. In total there were 8 women and 32 men with an average age of 31 years. Their lesions were between the fifth and eighth cervical segments. The majority of the patients sustained their injury during motor vehicle accidents.Prior to training, measurements of maximum expiratory mouth pressure and vital capacity were obtained from each group. The experimental group underwent eight weeks of training. The training involved the use of the PFLEX muscle trainer which allowed the patient to expire against a predetermined resistance. The initial resistive load was set at a level equivalent to 60 percent of the patient’s maximum expiratory mouth pressure. Each subject was required to train for half an hour each day for six days a week. The resistive load was increased at two weekly intervals to ensure optimal loading throughout the training period the control group was excluded from any form of strenuous training but continued with the standard pulmonary care which involved conventional breathing exercises and assistance in coughing.The eight weeklong course of progressive resistive loading on accessory expiratory muscle showed a significant improvement in mean vital capacity from 1.48 L to 1.98 L (p = 0.0001) and a dramatic improvement in mean expiratory muscle strength from 43.76 cmH20 to 68 cmH2o) (p = 0.0001). Comparison of the values in the control group which were obtained eight weeks apart, showed no significant changes.The present finding that expiratory muscle strength in tetraplegics can be improved with specific training has important therapeutic implications. The increased PEmax should enable these subjects to generate higher intrathoracic pressure swings during coughing.Long term controlled studies should now be performed to determine the effects of this procedure on the clearance of bronchial secretions in such subjects.
The neurodevelopmental assessment of the high risk infant
Authors: Magasiner V. , Molteno C.
Published: September 2019

This article describes how postural tone, postural reactions and basic reflexes can be used to evaluate the neurodevelopmental status of the infant. It includes a simple assessment which can be used in a practical setting.
Review: The Impact of HIV Infection on Cancer Treatment with Immunotherapy
Authors: Granwehr Bruno Palma
Published: September 2019

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and cancer have been intimately linked since the first cases of HIV were identified after investigation of unusually high rates of Kaposi's sarcoma in patients without other risk factors. HIV not only impairs the immune system but also drives a chronic inflammatory response. The significance of the chronic inflammatory response has become more evident, as patients with HIV survive longer on antiretroviral therapy, developing cancers more typical of the aging population. Cancer treatment offered to patients with HIV includes traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation. Some oncologists abbreviate courses or reduce doses of treatment in patients with HIV. The promising field of immunotherapy, exemplified by immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), has revolutionized cancer care. Some of the first studies of ICIs conceived of these agents as an approach to overcome “immune exhaustion” in patients with HIV and other chronic viral infections. In fact, clinical trials are underway to assess the impact of ICIs on patients with HIV with low CD4 counts, despite virologic suppression. Experience with ICI in patients with HIV and cancer is limited, but available studies suggest that HIV remains well-controlled, with CD4 count stable to increasing and viral load stable to decreasing. Immune-related adverse effects have varied, with one case series reporting higher than expected rates, but immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome has not been reported. In addition to these other therapies, stem cell transplant (SCT) has been demonstrated to be safe and effective. In selected patients with HIV, SCT has even led to the cure of HIV, as noted in two confirmed cases. The treatment of patients with HIV and cancer will benefit from clinical trials designed for this population, as well as new guidelines to aid oncologists in providing care for these patients. Collaboration between oncologists and HIV providers is essential in managing the treatment of HIV during cancer therapy, as well as addressing infectious and other complications that arise. This collaboration will lead to continued improvement in the management of this growing patient population.
Effectiveness of Prenatal Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplementation to Improve Birth Outcomes: A Meta-analysis
Authors: Goto Eita
Published: September 2019

This study was performed to examine whether prenatal lipid-based nutrient supplementation is an effective means of improving birth outcomes compared with other types of supplementation including iron folic acid (IFA), United Nations multiple micronutrient preparation (UNIMAP), other multiple micronutrients (MMN), and fortified corn–soy blend (CSB). A meta-analysis was performed to determine the relative risks and mean differences in birth outcomes between prenatal lipid-based nutrients versus prenatal IFA, UNIMAP, other MMN, and CSB in randomized controlled trials. Eleven databases, including PubMed (MEDLINE), were searched. Study quality was assessed using the Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing the risk of bias. Fifty-eight overall good-quality studies extracted from 11 eligible articles with 101,553 mother–baby pairs were included. Lipid-based nutrient supplementation significantly reduced the risks of low birthweight, small for gestational age, and stunting (n = 5, 5, and 4, respectively) and significantly increased the means of birthweight, birth length, arm circumference, and weight-for-age z-score (n = 5, 5, 4, and 3, respectively). Lipid-based nutrient supplementation did not significantly reduce the risk of preterm birth, stillbirth, abortion, perinatal death, or underweight (n = 5, 5, 5, 3, or 3, respectively) or significantly increase the mean of head circumference or height-for-age z-score (n = 4 or 2, respectively). In conclusion, the results supported the efficacy of prenatal lipid-based nutrient supplementation compared with IFA, UNIMAP, other MMN, and CSB for reducing the risk of small birth size.
Epidemiological Isolation as an Infection Mortality Risk Factor in U.S. Soldiers from Late Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Centuries
Authors: Shanks George Dennis
Published: September 2019

It remains uncertain why most infectious disease mortalities disappeared before modern medical interventions. Historical epidemiology using prospectively collected U.S. Army data from the Civil War (1860–1861), Spanish–American War (1898–1899), and First World War (1917–1918) suggests that epidemiological isolation was a major mortality risk factor for soldiers. Morbidity and mortality due to common infections decreased progressively from 1860 to 1918, except for influenza during the 1918 pandemic. Adult measles or mumps infections are indicative of isolated rural populations and correlated with disease mortality by U.S. state. Experiencing infections before adulthood may equip the immune system to better resist infections and decrease mortality rates.
Application of 3D Music Inventory Control Technique for the Controlled Drugs in Intensive Care Unit of a Tertiary Care Hospital
Authors: Kant Sunil , Patnaik SK , Kapoor Pawan , Singh Madhav Madhusudan , Mehrotra Sameer , Basukala Sunil , Ranyal RK , Yadav Punit
Published: September 2019

Approximately 35% of annual hospitals budget is spent on buying materials and supplies, including medicines. The medical store is one of the most extensively used facilities of the hospital and hence it is essential that health managers use scientific methods to achieve efficient management and patient satisfaction. Aims and objectives: To apply selective inventory control techniques for the drugs used in intensive care unit of tertiary care teaching hospital.

Aims and objectives

To apply selective inventory control techniques for the drugs used in intensive care unit of tertiary care teaching hospital.

Materials and methods

The annual consumption and expenditure incurred on each item of controlled drugs in medical intensive care unit (ICU) for the years 2013 to 2014 was analyzed, and inventory control techniques, i.e. ABC, VED and ABC-VED matrix analysis, were applied.

Results

It was observed that 13 medicines (43.33%) out of 30 were classified in the category1 (AV + BV + CV + AE + AD) for stringent control. Conclusion: Scientific inventory control management to be applied for efficient management of medical stores.

Conclusion

Scientific inventory control management to be applied for efficient management of medical stores.

How to cite this article

Mehrotra S, Basukala S, Kapoor P, Kant S, Ranyal RK, Yadav P, Varshney S, Patnaik SK, Singh MM. Application of 3D Music Inventory Control Technique for the Controlled Drugs in Intensive Care Unit of a Tertiary Care Hospital. Int J Res Foundation Hosp Healthc Adm 2015; 3(1):5-9.
Optimal Utilization of Government Assisted Financing for Poor Patients: Facilitation by a Hospital
Authors: Harsvardhan Rajesh , Chandra Hem , Bhardwaj Nitin Dutt , Mansoor Faiyaz , Mandal Rimma , Srivastava Dinesh Chandra
Published: September 2019

Introduction

Sole objective of healthcare financing is that rich and poor should be treated equally as poverty is not a disability and wealth is not an advantage. Approximately, 78% of Indian population spends for healthcare from out of pocket expenditure, remaining by salary, agriculture, business, etc. Only 3% population is covered by health insurance. Prime minister (PM) fund is one of the methods to offset the treatment cost from poor.

Objective

Present paper is aimed to highlight the contribution of PM fund for patients getting treatment at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) hospital and efforts made by hospital for its optimal utilization.

Materials and methods

Retrospective studies were carried out in 2010 and July 2013 for contribution received form PM fund for indoor poor patients treatment during last 5 years, number of patient availed/not availed financial assistance, reasons for not availing, on the line of problem solving process. Efforts made by SGPGIMS for its optimal utilization were also highlighted.

Result

During financial year 2007-2008 to 2009-2010, total 1246 patients received the fund of worth USD 1.30 million (₹ 78792750.00) and only USD 1.09 million (₹ 65569869.00) was utilized by 1110 (89%) patients. One hundred and thirtysix (10.91%) patients did not utilize. Hospital administration made efforts for optimal utilization by minimizing the barriers, consequently it improved the utilization by 8.20%. During financial year 2010-11 to 2011-12, USD 1.85 million (₹ 111081789.00) was received for 1450 patients, out of which 730 patients have already utilized and 682 are still using the fund (total 1412/97.40%) and 38 patients (2.60%) did not use it.

Conclusion

Simple efforts made by hospital improved the utilization of PM fund by 8.20% and poor were really benefited. Hospitals should also fulfill the social responsibility by facilitating the patients.

How to cite this article

Chandra H, Bhardwaj ND, Mansoor F, Mandal R, Srivastava DC, Harsvardhan R. Optimal Utilization of Government Assisted Financing for Poor Patients: Facilitation by a Hospital. Int J Res Foundation Hosp Healthc Adm 2015;3(1):25-28.