Increasing Female Enrollment in High School Computer Science Education

“Women have played a vital role in the field of computer science and information technology (IT), developing some of the most essential components of modern IT” (Purdue University Global, 2018). Despite their prominence and achievements in these career fields, computer science has experienced a noticeable decline in the representation of females in industry and in programs of study. This is not a phenomenon reserved for the college classroom and/or the world of work, but is a situation present across schools in the P-12 arena, to include ZBF High School. As such, the purpose of this work was to examine the problem of practice on how to increase the number of females enrolling in computer science education at ZBF High School. Two research questions emerged and were instrumental in guiding the direction of this study: (1) Why are female students underrepresented in computer science education at ZBF High School? and (2) What are the influencing factors on females’ decisions regarding computer science? A mixed-methods research protocol was selected to conduct the investigation, which sought to discover why females were underrepresented, as well as to determine the influencing factors. Based on a survey of 24 ninth grade female students, combined with focus group input from six of the survey participants, the data revealed that females at ZBF High School are generally not interested in computer science. Self-efficacy in math and related courses/activities were deemed to be the driving force behind the lack of interest. To rectify this situation, it was determined that a concerted effort on the part of all stakeholders, to include students, would need to be undertaken to fashion a solution that could engender change. The need to increase the number of females in the area of computer science education was an issue that had characteristic implications of an instructional and/or a systemic nature and, therefore, warranted an investigation that began with the impacted group, female students. Based on literature and results of this study, the computer science curriculum could better serve its intended purpose if it were to be revamped and vertically articulated so that “recruitment” actually begins at the elementary level. This revised and realigned curriculum should incorporate activities and/or courses that would engage female students in creative design and resourceful problem solving projects that would allow them to see how human computer interaction is utilized to help people and society. As documented in research, activities of this nature would capture the attention of female students in a manner that would lead them to select computer science as a course of study at the high school level. Successful execution of this recommended restructuring would have the propensity to reverse the problem of underrepresentation of females in computer science education at ZBF High School, thus increasing the available pool of females who are prepared to enter positions in current and emerging technical career fields

Examining current practice for the analysis and reporting of harm outcomes in phase II and III pharmacology trials: exploring methods to facilitate improved detection of adverse drug reactions

Introduction Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) provide data to help establish the harm-profile of drugs but evidence suggests that this data is underutilised and analysis practices are suboptimal. Aims To develop and assess methods for the analysis and presentation of harm outcomes in phase II/III drug trials that can facilitate the detection of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and enable communication of informative harm-profiles.Methods A systematic review looked at current practice for collection, analysis and reporting of harm outcomes and a scoping review to identify statistical methods proposed for their analysis was undertaken. A survey of clinical trial statisticians measured awareness of methods for the analysis of harm outcomes, barriers to their use and opinions on solutions to improve practice. Alternative strategies for analysis and presentation of harm outcomes were explored. Results The review of current practice confirmed that data on harm outcomes is not being fully utilised, providing evidence of inappropriate and inconsistent practices. The scoping review revealed a broad range of methods for the analysis of both prespecified and emerging harms. The survey confirmed sub-optimal practices and while there was a moderate level of awareness of alternative approaches, use was limited. Guidance and training on more appropriate methods was unanimously supported. Recommendation were devised via consensus to encourage trialists to use visualisations for analysing and reporting harm outcomes. Of the evaluated methods for the analysis of emerging harms none were appropriate in trials ≤5000 participants with some utility in specific scenarios, recommendations for use are provided. Conclusion Clinical trial statisticians agree that there is a need to improve how we analyse and report harm outcomes in RCTs. Efforts to date have focused on prespecified harm outcomes, with little thought given to emerging harms. Several solutions for immediate adoption are proposed but there remains the need for an easy to implement, objective, signal detection approach. Guidelines for best analysis practice that are endorsed by key stakeholders would also enable a more coherent and consistent path for change.Open Acces

The role of the enrolled nurse in the Australian nursing workforce: A mixed methods study

Background The enrolled nurse (EN) is the second-level regulated nursing role in Australia. It was designed to support and assist the registered nurse (RN) role by providing more hands-on, practical bedside nursing care. Despite many reports and research papers indicating that this role is integral to the nursing workforce, persistent challenges have been identified. Exploring the role of the EN will provide a greater understanding through the perspective of the EN as an individual, as a member of the nursing team and within the hospital or facility and the nursing profession. This will inform the development of strategies to address the continuing challenges and ensure the role is effective and valued. Aim This study aims to gain a better understanding of the role of the EN in the Australian nursing workforce. Methods A sequential multiphase exploratory mixed methods research design was used. It commenced with 10 focus groups in 2019, followed by the development and administration of a self-administered questionnaire in 2020. This resulted in 400 completed questionnaires. The results were analysed through the lens of the philosophical assumptions of pragmatism and the transformative approach, and the conceptual framework of organisational behaviour. Findings The qualitative data captured three themes: the EN as an individual, the EN in the workplace and the EN in the profession. These themes aligned with the three analysis levels of the conceptual framework of organisational behaviour: the individual, the team and the organisation. The results from the questionnaire reinforced these themes. The findings identified significantly different perspectives and expectations between the nursing roles. At an individual level, ENs were driven by intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, with the primary motivator being a nurse. Extrinsic motivators were influenced by the behaviours, attitudes and feedback provided by others in the nursing and wider healthcare workforce. These influenced levels of job satisfaction, occupational stress in the team and organisational culture in the working environment. At a professional level, the title does not reflect the role, and there are no career pathways. Discussion The success and value of ENs are influenced by their intrinsic and extrinsic motivators and three key determinants: that the EN understands their role, that the RN understands their role when working with an EN and that the organisation provides opportunities for the EN and understands how the nursing team needs to work to ensure all nursing roles can work within their respective scope and standards of practice. When these three determinants align, there is job satisfaction, minimal occupational stress and the EN feels valued. Collectively, these create an environment with pull factors. Conversely, in environments where any one of the three determinants is absent, there is a lack of job satisfaction, increased occupational stress, the potential for the nursing roles to work outside their scope and standards of practice, and poor organisational culture, where the EN does not feel valued in their role. Collectively, these create an environment with push factors. At the professional level, there is a need for the nursing profession to better recognise the EN within the structure of the nursing team, as the perception is that it is a transitional role to becoming an RN. This requires greater clarity on how the nursing roles collaborate in the practice of nursing. Once that is established, for the nursing profession to construct a career pathway with accompanying qualifications, financial remuneration and titles that reflect the qualification and experience required for the EN role. Conclusion This research identifies why there are recurrent challenges surrounding the EN role. It demonstrates that there is a need to examine the nursing roles and how they work together in the practice of nursing to create effective and sustained change. Changes at the professional level that create a structure recognising the role and enabling ENs to create a career as ENs are also needed

Integration of Action and Language Knowledge: A Roadmap for Developmental Robotics

“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.”This position paper proposes that the study of embodied cognitive agents, such as humanoid robots, can advance our understanding of the cognitive development of complex sensorimotor, linguistic, and social learning skills. This in turn will benefit the design of cognitive robots capable of learning to handle and manipulate objects and tools autonomously, to cooperate and communicate with other robots and humans, and to adapt their abilities to changing internal, environmental, and social conditions. Four key areas of research challenges are discussed, specifically for the issues related to the understanding of: 1) how agents learn and represent compositional actions; 2) how agents learn and represent compositional lexica; 3) the dynamics of social interaction and learning; and 4) how compositional action and language representations are integrated to bootstrap the cognitive system. The review of specific issues and progress in these areas is then translated into a practical roadmap based on a series of milestones. These milestones provide a possible set of cognitive robotics goals and test scenarios, thus acting as a research roadmap for future work on cognitive developmental robotics.Peer reviewe

Advanced analytical methods for fraud detection: a systematic literature review

The developments of the digital era demand new ways of producing goods and rendering services. This fast-paced evolution in the companies implies a new approach from the auditors, who must keep up with the constant transformation. With the dynamic dimensions of data, it is important to seize the opportunity to add value to the companies. The need to apply more robust methods to detect fraud is evident. In this thesis the use of advanced analytical methods for fraud detection will be investigated, through the analysis of the existent literature on this topic. Both a systematic review of the literature and a bibliometric approach will be applied to the most appropriate database to measure the scientific production and current trends. This study intends to contribute to the academic research that have been conducted, in order to centralize the existing information on this topic

Examination of decision-making during organizational crises: a case study of the 2017 Northern California Firestorm, An

2019 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Organizations experiencing crises are subject to harm that can involve injuries, fatalities, financial losses, reputational damage, losses of assets, and others. This study examined a phenomenon central to minimizing crisis-related harm: decision-making. More specifically, this study examined the ways in which decision elements interact to influence decision processes and behaviors during crises. The significance of this study stems from a steady increase in the frequency and intensity of organizational crises, and the claim that novel research and insights into the phenomenon can promote harm reduction. Research in this domain has been predominantly grounded in post-positivist perspectives, suggesting that new insights and understandings can be found through alternate perspectives. This inquiry adopted a constructivist and holistic view of crisis decision-making, recognizing that the construction of meaning, or "sensemaking", is an important aspect of decision-making. As such, this study sought to investigate how people make decisions during organizational crises, how and why some factors influence sensemaking and decision-making in the ways they do, how and why some decision factors are ascribed more significance than others, and the ways in which decision consequences influence ongoing decision-making. The conceptual framework guiding this study involved organizational crises, contextual decision factors, sensemaking frameworks, decision-making strategies, and decision consequences. The results of this study are intended to enlighten an area that some researchers and practitioners believe is growing in importance, and to provide insights that will foster improved practitioner capabilities. The study's findings suggest that in some contexts, organizational crisis decision-making can be appropriately described as a complex adaptive system. The findings also yielded insights related to several decision factors: past experiences, time influences, situational control, group member trust, and decision-maker self-perceptions. Among the various decision factors studied, decision-maker self-perceptions were found to be the most influential. Finally, implications for research, theory, and practice are presented

Excessive Acquisition: What Is It? What Makes It Happen?

This qualitative study draws on the philosophical concept of hermeneutics and theories of the self and self-regulation to investigate the underlying meanings expressed and experienced by the self and the other in the behavior of excessive acquisition. In accordance with the methods outlined by the phenomenological and grounded theory traditions, data were collected from 15 persons afflicted with excessive acquisition, defined as the self and 12 persons afflicted by excessive acquisition, defined as the other. The data content collected from in-depth interviews, field notes, observations, and electronic messages formulated the emergent Parent Themes of Emotion, Space, Economics, and Time. These four themes were supported by 10 Intermediate Categories and detailed by 72 Subcategories. The Parent Themes and their internal content described the behavioral process and defined excessive acquisition: the frequently repeated dynamic process of an autonomous act initiated by cues producing a self-unregulated desire to acquire tangible objects of epistemic value for the self through haptic experiences resulting in short-term satisfaction engendering persistent behavior despite adverse consequences. In addition to defining the behavior and constructing a behavioral process model, the question of “Why tangibles?” was answered. Five pivotal junctures in the data collection process resulted in an all-encompassing Grand Theme. These “eureka” moments extrapolated from within the hundreds of pages of notes and transcripts identified distinguishing behavioral characteristics contributing to the excessive acquisition of tangibles. First, SPs over-obtained objects intrinsically for the self. Second, the excessively acquired objects promoted their self-image through physical adornment and professionally-related possessions. Third, the motivational goal of the excessive acquirer was self-satisfaction through control. Fourth, the behavioral act was consistently and repeatedly conducted autonomously. Fifth, before acquisition satisfaction could be achieved, the haptic experience needed to be fulfilled. Merged with the content of Parent Themes, these findings answered the question of “Why Tangibles?” and re-labeled Excessive Acquisition as Narcissistic Commoditism. The excessive acquirers in this study focused on their own interests to the exclusion of others in the self-directed, frequently repeated selfish pursuit of objects promoting their own self-image