3,616 research outputs found

    The effect of information seeking behavior on online database usage among the undergraduate students

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    Every year the library of IIUM subscribes a quite number of online databases with huge expenses but the utilization of these databases is countable. 10 out of 53 subscriptions have been terminated by 2015 to save the cost go in vain. The purpose of this paper is to develop a model based on the ISB elements to identify the reason behind this less usage and to increase the usage of online databases in future. It has undertaken a quantitative approach to identify the elements of ISB among undergraduate (UG) students. The primary data has been collected through questionnaires based on the variables identified in the objective. There are 118 samples participated in this research and the proposed model has been adapted from Savolainen and Thomas D. Wilson. Psychological perception, searching strategies and the information resources have been considered as the independent variable and measured the usage of the online database among UG students as the dependent variable. The results have shown that there are seven elements which have an influence on the usage of the online database among IIUM UG students. Despite the limited number of samples and a specific group of students, the proposed model can enhance the usage of online database system subscribed by IIUM library as well a search engine can be developed to get the usage increased. In that sense, it is recommended to involve more participants from the different level of students and users to get diverse elements of ISB. However, the paper contributes to bridge the gap between the online database usage and the users which is to believe an effective outcome for online database subscription. It is hoped that the proposed model would significantly fill this gap and help the library to increase more users for their expensive databases

    Toward a Unified Theory of Business Information

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    This article analyses and discusses concepts of business information, with a view to developing a unified theory of business information to help underpin professional information work

    The Politics of Happiness in the Workplace

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    Although the realm of political theory has often focused on what makes an individual happy, there is a lack of analysis on what factors within a career environment best serve to increase an individual’s satisfaction. By comparing indicators such as the region a workplace is located in, the ability of an individual to pursue career goals and the amount of autonomy an employee is allowed, a better understanding can be made on what conditions are optimal for satisfaction in the workplace. After these factors are compared, the findings are then analyzed under the lens of respected political thinkers in order to gain a greater context within political theory

    Essential nursing care for the sole

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    This paper illuminates the transformational journey experienced while exploring nursing practice involvement in essential holistic foot care as a Doctor of Nursing-Transcultural Nursing (DNP-TCN) practice project. The underlying theoretical framework is based on the relational caring complexity theory by Marilyn A. Ray and Marian C. Turkel, depicting model complexity concepts essential to holistic health and wellness nursing foot cares. As an advanced practice nurse, this practice shift is an assertion of health and wellness essentials in the model of holistic nursing, as foot health is tied to the health of the physical body and spiritual soul of the living. Individual foot care propels complex choices arising from intricately interconnected patterns forming the foundation of our lives as our feet transport us from one moment and one experience to the next. This final practice project aspires to convey the significance of essential holistic nursing foot care, within the culture of nursing, in facilitating a healthy, multidimensional life of an individual. Our feet form the foundation of what transport us from one experience, one paradigm, to the next. When we lose any fragment of meaning our feet provide, this influences and confounds every facet of our lives. As aspects of the relational caring complexity theory of Ray Turkel, outcomes of this journey go beyond basic holistic nursing foot care shaping the character of this nurse’s transition from DNP student into participatory practitioner and novice author

    Smell's puzzling discrepancy: Gifted discrimination, yet pitiful identification

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    Mind &Language, Volume 35, Issue 1, Page 90-114, February 2020

    #Happy : Constructing and Sharing Everyday Understandings of Happiness on Instagram

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    The United Nations' World Happiness Report has ranked Finland as the happiest country for three consecutive years. In this research, we employed thematic analysis to analyze Instagram posts (N = 650) tagged with the hashtag "#happy" produced by Finnish-speaking users (#onnellinen in Finnish) during 2018, the first year that Finland gained the title of happiest country. We found that the representations of happiness constructed on Instagram included seven shared and distinguishable themes: Social relationships, Physical appearance, Free Time, Nature, Success, Pets and Material Things. Drawing from the social representations theory approach, the results revealed a multi-layered structure of the representations of happiness organized around three dichotomies: social-individual, relaxing-pursuing and immaterial-material, which were anchored to ideas of "gratitude" (toward something or someone) and "pride" (toward the self). The dichotomy "self-oriented/other-oriented" was interpreted to constitute the themata (underlying structure) of the emerging social representation of happiness. The paper contributes to the research of everyday knowledge by demonstrating how understandings related to happiness are shaped on Instagram, as well as by proposing a possible strategy for exploring the construction of everyday understandings of different societal issues employing new communication technology platforms containing both visual and textual elements.Peer reviewe

    Urban Aesthetics as a Trading Zone: The Conditions for Deliberative Planning and Cooperation in the Context of Urban Infill Development

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    Due to a multitude of reasons, the prevailing conceptions regarding the aesthetic values and the principles of aesthetic evaluation of different urban environments are significantly varying, and there may not be a wide-spread consensus even about the general meaning of aesthetic issues in urban environments. That is to say, when discussing the aesthetics and aesthetic values of urban environments, the aesthetic concepts may refer to a variety of phenomena, and, further, the relationship between the aesthetic dimension and other key aspects constituting the urban experience is rather ambiguous. Moreover, aesthetic issues comprise a considerable part of urban planning, and yet it is not evident, how and on what grounds the diverse questions involving aesthetics are or should be solved in practice. If aesthetic questions are to be resolved collectively and by the means of rational argumentation, it is reasonable to ask for the necessary preconditions of such “aesthetic cooperation” and its coordination. The question regarding the preconditions may be addressed using the concept of trading zone. Such an approach highlights the importance of defining the relevant actors taking part in the cooperation (i.e. the “trade”) and their motivation to work cooperatively. The basis for motivation lies in recognizing achievable benefits and pursuing them by the means of trade. There may, however, be a lack of motivation if there are more straightforward and effortless alternatives available, or if the possibilities for achieving the benefits appear negligible or nonexistent. For example, if the outcomes of the official participatory planning process are continuously considered inappropriate and unjust from the viewpoint of certain stakeholders, the process may eventually lose its status as a genuine trading zone. This, in turn, may result in purposeless objections and appeals aiming at merely paralyzing the entire process. Present-day planning processes ignore experiential and thus qualitative arguments rather easily, which is a major source of experienced injustice. Hence, there is a demand for certain “thin interpretations” summarizing the most essential values and meanings of different stakeholders without requiring a thorough explication of related lifeworlds. Experiential and qualitative arguments are essential also with regard to aesthetics, and the notion of “urban aesthetics as a trading zone” refers to thin interpretations of aesthetic issues, implying that though there could be some kind of consensus about the general and large-scale meaning of urban aesthetics despite significant and wide-spread disagreements about particular aesthetic values. Aesthetic issues are of particular weight in the context of urban infill development – mainly due to the fact that infill development plans usually aim at changing an environment in which many locally bound networks of experiential meanings and values already exist – and empirical studies suggest that the questions of aesthetics may even be decisive when it comes to approving and disapproving potential infill plans. “Urban aesthetics as a trading zone” clarifies 1) why the infill plans are so often contested, 2) which are the fundamental values that the stakeholders eventually defend or oppose, and 3) why the encountered resistance may convert into a complete denial of cooperation so easily

    From The South To The South Pacific, And Back Again: Global Pedagogies In A Southern Classroom

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    This essay explores the use of a globally-informed pedagogy as a creative methodological tool in the University classroom. My area of research, the arts of the South Pacific, can be quite unfamiliar to students in the continental United States; therefore, in my teaching I strive to forge a strong comparative relationship between the global history of the South Pacific and that of the American South. This can produce a thematic framework that draws on concepts with which the students are familiar, including histories of contact, imperialism, and exchange, and then encourages students to apply these understandings of global art production to the study of specific works of art. This essay discusses the application of this methodology in an Arts of Oceania course offered in the fall of 2004, addressing the kinds of objects presented for student inquiry, the assignments used to assess student understanding of these objects, and the students? own responses to the course. Based on the students? performance and evaluations, I have found that a globally-informed pedagogy can enable their historical and aesthetic understanding of South Pacific arts. The course materials and assignments also allowed them a space to explore their own research and creative interests, as art producers, art historians, and art educators
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