The Cross-Cultural Dementia Screening (CCD):A new neuropsychological screening instrument for dementia in elderly immigrants

Objective: Currently, approximately 3.9% of the European population are non-EU citizens, and a large part of these people are from "non-Western" societies, such as Turkey and Morocco. For various reasons, the incidence of dementia in this group is expected to increase. However, cognitive testing is challenging due to language barriers and low education and/or illiteracy. The newly developed Cross-Cultural Dementia Screening (CCD) can be administered without an interpreter. It contains three subtests that assess memory, mental speed, and executive function. We hypothesized the CCD to be a culture-fair test that could discriminate between demented patients and cognitively healthy controls. Method: To test this hypothesis, 54 patients who had probable dementia were recruited via memory clinics. Controls (N = 1625) were recruited via their general practitioners. All patients and controls were aged 55 years and older and of six different self-defined ethnicities (Dutch, Turkish, Moroccan-Arabic, Moroccan-Berber, Surinamese-Creole, and Surinamese-Hindustani). Exclusion criteria included current or previous conditions that affect cognitive functioning. Results: There were performance differences between the ethnic groups, but these disappeared after correcting for age and education differences between the groups, which supports our central hypothesis that the CCD is a culture-fair test. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) and logistic regression analyses showed that the CCD has high predictive validity for dementia (sensitivity: 85%; specificity: 89%). Discussion: The CCD is a sensitive and culture-fair neuropsychological instrument for dementia screening in low-educated immigrant populations.</p

Mapping out socio-cultural transformations through food packaging design in Turkey : a case study

Cataloged from PDF version of article.Exploration of the impact of socio-cultural transformations in the development of food packaging design and brand identity in Turkey, in the post-1980 period, is the focus of this research. Accordingly, this thesis explores the related and broad issues of modernization and convergence; globalization, consumption contexts and culture; internationalization of retailing; postmodernism and aestheticized (conspicuous) consumption in parallel with developments in food packaging design and brand identity. All these are tied and analyzed in a case study where in the collected samples, developments in domestic and foreign food packaging design and the corresponding brand identities are socio-semiotically related to the transformations in socio-cultural context in Turkey. Socio-semiotic method of analysis, along with visual style analysis, has provided a study of images in their social and material context which is in accordance with this field of research.Karamullaoğlu, NazifeM.S

A 4D printing communication framework for designers and engineers

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University London“Communication is an essential part of any design process.” (Clarkson and Eckert) [1]. The rapid emergence and growth of 4D printing technology are expected to impact the technology's development significantly. Due to the high level of interest shown by the research and manufacturing sectors, the technology is expected to jump in its development rapidly. Since 4D Printing technology is still in the early stage, it is also required to focus on advancements in the progress of emerging needs for development in various areas such as application, design, materials, etc. This thesis investigates the communication barriers between designers and engineers in communicating the 4D Printing design process, which has revealed there are only ambiguous ways of communicating without standardization, which led to misinterpretation in the communication of the 4D Printing design process. This thesis aims to develop a concept of design representations that can be used to communicate the 4D Printing design process. The study proposed a communication framework for a communication tool to aid the communication barriers between designers and engineers in the 4D Printing design process to optimize the effectiveness of the 4D Printing technology through the design process. The 4D Printing communication framework has been developed from idea generation through a series of iterative stages to bridge the communication gaps. The communication framework aimed to guide how to constructively design representation symbols for effectively communicating in the 4D Printing design process. With the standardization of communication tools, the designer and engineer could fluently refine and connect their approach design ideas and maximize the potential of 4D Printing technology

The Development of Oromo Writing System

The development and use of languages for official, education, religion, etc. purposes have been a major political issue in many developing multilingual countries. A number of these countries, including China and India, have recognised the issues and developed language policies that have provided some ethnic groups with the right to develop their languages and cultures by using writing systems based on scripts suitable for these purposes. On the other hand, other countries, such as Ethiopia (a multilingual African state) had, for a long time, preferred a policy of one language and one script in the belief that this would help the assimilation of various ethnic groups create a homogenous population with one language and culture. Rather than realizing that aim, the policy became a significant source of conflict and demands for political independence among disfavoured groups. This thesis addresses the development of a writing system for Oromo, a language spoken by approximately 40 percent of the total population of Ethiopia, which remained officially unwritten until the early 1990s. It begins by reviewing the early history of Oromo writing and discusses the Ethiopian language policies, analysing materials written in various scripts and certain writers starting from the 19th century. The adoption of Roman script for Oromo writing and the debates that followed are explored, with an examination of some phonological aspects of the Oromo language and the implications of representing them using the Roman alphabet. This thesis argues that the Oromo language has thrived during the past few years having implemented a Roman-based alphabetical script. There have been and continue to be, however, internal and external challenges confronting the development of the Oromo writing system which need to be carefully considered and addressed by stakeholders, primarily by the Oromo people and the Ethiopian government, in order for the Oromo language to establish itself as a fully codified language in the modern nation-state

Language and thought in Egypt\u27s schools today: what does Arabic mean to Arabic native speakers? A literature review

Sociocultural education initiated by Leo Vygotsky strongly believes that language of instruction affects thinking. With regards to the present situation in Egypt, the present research explores the current literature on the value that Arabic has in the Arabic speaking world. Over against a wide-spread opinion that English should be used as the only medium of instruction in early years of literacy, literature shows that some forms of immersion have negative impact on the mastery of mother tongue, and on the very development of cognitive skills. The linguistic and educational scenario is further complicated by the fact that Arabic is a diglossic language, in which high and low variants are far apart. After carrying out a historical overview of the value associated to the learning of different languages in the region and discussing the psycho-social implications of diglossia, the research presents some recommendations for school-level language education

Elimination of doubt : methods for a predictive design to direct and optimize the flow of visitors

Ympäristömme globaalistuu ja monimutkaistuu kaiken aikaa. Prosessi näkyy muun muassa kansainvälisen liikenteen solmukohdissa. Esimerkiksi lentokentät ovat kyseisiä eri kulttuurien keskinäisen vuorovaikutuksen kohtia. Eri kulttuureista tulevien ihmisten pitää osata orientoitua vieraassa ja usein sekavassa ympäristössä. Jotta toiminta olisi sujuvaa näissä solmukohdissa, on suunnistamiseen tarvittavan tiedon oltava nopeasti omaksuttavaa ja ymmärrettävää. Monet muotoilijat ja suunnittelijat ajattelevat, että opastejärjestelmät ovat reduktionistisia ja mekanistisia syy-seuraus systeemejä. On kuitenkin ilmeistä, että kansainvälisesti harmonisoimattomien piktogrammien kyky välittää informaatiota on epäonnistunutta. Nykyiset kognitiotieteen havainnot osoittavat, että visuaalisen havaitsemisen ja tilallisen orientaation aikaisemmat mallit ovat vain osittain toimivia. Siispä oli syytä kysyä ”onko mahdollista tuottaa ennakoiva malli jonka avulla voi kehittää, toteuttaa ja varmistaa suunnitteluratkaisuja, jotka ohjaavat ja optimoivat vierailijoiden virtaa laajoissa julkisissa tiloissa.“ Tutkimuksen keskiössä on tästä syystä tilallisessa orientoitumisessa tapahtuva kulttuurinen merkityksellistäminen ja paikkatietoisuuden lisääminen (situation awareness). Juuri tuo yksilöllinen merkityksen tuottaminen voi tarkoittaa laajaa kirjoa erilaisia tulkintoja. Paikkatietoisuuden syntymisen erilaiset mahdollisuudet yhdessä erilaisten menetelmien kanssa voivat tuottaa ratkaisuja suunnitteluprosessiin. Suunnitteluprosessissa voidaan ottaa huomioon myös havaintopsykologisia näkökulmia. Kaiken kaikkiaan tämä johtaa systeemis-holistiseen ja käyttäjäkeskeiseen ajatteluun julkisten tilojen opastejärjestelmien suunnittelun kehityksessä. Esitän myös käytännöllisen ratkaisun opastejärjestelmien suunnitteluun ja arviointiin tarkastelemalla olemassa olevien järjestelmien rakennetta ja parametreja sekä niiden kehitystyötä. Työ sisältää yhteensä yhdeksän tapaustarkastelua. Tutkimusmenetelminä käytin laadullista havainnointia ja kvantitatiivista analyysiä. Havainnoin ja tulkitsin etnisiä tottumuksia ja henkilökohtaisia näkemyksiä. Tekemäni kyselyjen perusteella näyttää siltä, että konstruoimaani mallia voitaisiin käyttää kehittämisen ja todentamisen välineenä.The rapid development of international traffic characterizes our increasingly globalized and ever more complex world. Nodal points (for example, airports) have formed where people from various cultural backgrounds and with differing levels of educational attainment need to reorient themselves in a unfamiliar and often confusing environment. A key condition to ensure everything works smoothly in such an international junction is the extremely fast reception and processing of information by everyone involved. The dominant school of thought among many designers and planners of guidance and routing systems is still a reductionist and mechanistic one (cause - effect). It has become apparent that the use of non-internationally harmonized pictograms as information carriers has failed completely. Recent findings in the field of cognitive science demonstrate convincingly that previous models of visual perception and spatial orientation can only highlight partial aspects. For these aspects, the question has arisen: “Is there a possibility to evolve a predictive system to develop, implement and verify design solutions to direct and optimize the flow of visitors in large public spaces?” Therefore, the moment of semiosis of the orientation seekers moved into the focus of the investigation. This moment of meaning-making, which is perceived by every individual differently, spans the entire spectrum of the perception of the designated item (the optical characteristic of the character substrate) between manifold interpretation or absolute certainty. The various viewing options of “situational awareness” with the help of various methodologies provide solutions for the design process. Taking the aspects of perceptual psychology into account leads to the development of a systemic/holistic and user-centred design of orientation systems in public spaces. Identifying and consulting the predictive parameters in a systematic process could show a practicable solution for the planning and evaluation of guidance and routing systems. In various national and international case studies, the process reliability and processing quality of this solution were demonstrated. Involving mixed research methodologies of qualitative observation and quantitative analysis, it was possible to develop a workable model. Through observation and interpretation, ethnic habits and personal views were taken into account to develop the methods. The use of questionnaires or surveys created statistics to prove or disprove the hypothetical model. The capacity of the presented model and the operationalization of the research demonstrated an effective method for overcoming barriers of age, language and culture. The publication satisfies, therefore, the criteria of the academic quality of a practice-based Ph.D