Optimal line length for reading schoolbook on screen

Although experimental studies have shown a strong impact of text layout on the legibility of e- text, many digital texts appearing in eBook or the internet use different designs, so that there is no straightforward answer in the literature over which one to follow when designing e- material. Therefore, in this paper we shall focus on the text layout, particularly the influence of line lengthen reading performance of e-school book.48 native Arabic students (24 male and 24 female) volunteered for this experiment. The participants’ age ranged from 9 to 13. Performance of students was assessed through two dependent variables: (1) time to complete each tasks; and (2) accuracy of the answers. Accuracy data was based on the number of correct answers the students provided and the total score was 12 points. Several findings were reported by this experiment such as; the time needed to complete all the question models becomes significantly low when students are older, errors for all the question models are expected to be significantly lower for older students. Reading text on a single column with double columns shows that the reading process is affected by the students’ age, as older students were faster when reading through double columns, while students aged 9 prefer the single column in both reading processes. The study has recommended double line for fast reading for students their reading performance is satisfactory. While, long line has suggested for students with difficulty in reading

Distinct cytokine patterns in Occult Hepatitis C and Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Background & Aim: 
The immunopathogenesis of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a matter of great controversy. The imbalance of T-helper lymphocyte cell cytokine production was believed to play an important pathogenic role in chronic viral hepatitis. Occult hepatitis C infection is regarded as a new entity that should be considered when diagnosing patients with a liver disease of unknown origin. The aim of this study was to determine serum T-helper 1 and T-helper 2 cytokine production in patients with occult HCV infection and its role in pathogenesis versus chronic viral hepatitis C infection.

Methods: 
Serum levels of cytokines of T-helper 1 (IL-2, IFN-[gamma]) and T-helper 2 (IL-4) were measured in 27 patients with occult HCV infection and 50 patients with chronic hepatitis C infection.

Results: 
The levels of the T-helper 1 cytokines, IL-2 and IFN-[gamma], were highly and significantly increased in patients with chronic HCV infection as compared with occult HCV infection (p<0.001). The T-helper 2 cytokine IL-4 was highly and significantly increased in occult HCV infection as compared with chronic HCV infection (p<0.001). Necroinflammation (P<0.001) fibrosis (P<0.001) and cirrhosis (P =0.03) were significantly increased in chronic HCV than occult HCV. 

Conclusion: 
Patients with occult HCV infection exhibited distinct immunoregulatory cytokine patterns, favoring viral persistence in the liver in spite of its absence from peripheral blood and explaining the less aggressive course of this disease entity than chronic hepatitis C virus infection

Brand Loyalty- Impact of Cognitive and Affective Variables

Studies on brand loyalty typically focus on the behavioural side of brand loyalty or on the attitudinal side. Rare are the studies that examine simultaneously both components of brand loyalty. The present study was performed to describe the conjoint contribution of cognitive and affective variables in the formation of brand loyalty. A questionnaire was administered to 400 shampoo users. A confirmatory analysis was performed to test the conceptual model presented. The results provide a better knowledge about the role played by each factor in brand loyalty formation and emphasises the major role played by affective factors.brand loyalty, repetitive buying behaviour, true loyalty, commitment, brand attachment endogenous rural development, european model of agriculture, traditional agriculture, modern agriculture, multifunctionality

Improving package recommendations through query relaxation

Recommendation systems aim to identify items that are likely to be of interest to users. In many cases, users are interested in package recommendations as collections of items. For example, a dietitian may wish to derive a dietary plan as a collection of recipes that is nutritionally balanced, and a travel agent may want to produce a vacation package as a coordinated collection of travel and hotel reservations. Recent work has explored extending recommendation systems to support packages of items. These systems need to solve complex combinatorial problems, enforcing various properties and constraints defined on sets of items. Introducing constraints on packages makes recommendation queries harder to evaluate, but also harder to express: Queries that are under-specified produce too many answers, whereas queries that are over-specified frequently miss interesting solutions. In this paper, we study query relaxation techniques that target package recommendation systems. Our work offers three key insights: First, even when the original query result is not empty, relaxing constraints can produce preferable solutions. Second, a solution due to relaxation can only be preferred if it improves some property specified by the query. Third, relaxation should not treat all constraints as equals: some constraints are more important to the users than others. Our contributions are threefold: (a) we define the problem of deriving package recommendations through query relaxation, (b) we design and experimentally evaluate heuristics that relax query constraints to derive interesting packages, and (c) we present a crowd study that evaluates the sensitivity of real users to different kinds of constraints and demonstrates that query relaxation is a powerful tool in diversifying package recommendations

LAPORAN INDIVIDU PRAKTIK PENGALAMAN LAPANGAN (PPL) Lokasi MAN YOGYAKARTA III TAHUN 2015

Salah satu program yang dilakukan Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta dalam rangka mempersiapkan serta menghasilkan guru dan tenaga kependidikan yang memiliki nilai, sikap, pengetahuan, dan keterampilan sehingga mampu menjadi tenaga kependidikan profesional adalah program kegiatan kurikuler PPL. Praktik Pengalaman Lapangan (PPL) adalah mata kuliah yang wajib di tempuh oleh setiap mahasiswa kependidikan di Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta. Secara umum, kegiatan praktik pengalaman lapangan (PPL) merupakan wahana bagi seorang calon pendidik dan tenaga kependidikan untuk memperoleh pengalaman dan memiliki bekal yang cukup dalam melaksanakan tugas dan tanggung jawabnya kelak sebagai seorang pendidik dan tenaga kependidikan yang professional dan berdedikasi tinggi apabila telah menyelesaikan program studinya. Dalam kesempatan ini, mahasiswa melakukan praktik pengalaman lapangan di MAN Yogyakarta III yang beralamat di Jl. Magelang Km 4, Sinduadi, Mlati, Sleman yang dilaksanakan sekitar 1 bulan. Program PPL dilaksanakan untuk mengasah 4 kompetensi guru yang harus ada, meliputi kompetensi pedagogis, kompetensi kepribadian, kompetensi sosial, dan kompetensi professional. Kegiatan pelaksanaan praktik pengalaman lapangan, berupa praktik pengembangan pembelajaran dan sumber belajar. Pengetahuan mengenai inovasi cara pengajar juga diterapkan dalam kegiatan PPL, meliputi pembuatan dan penggunaan media yang tepat dan menarik, dan penggunaan metode yang kontekstual sesuai keadaan siswa dan telah menerapkan Kurikulum 2013. Dari pelaksanaan praktik pengalaman lapangan, mahasiswa akhirnya mampu melihat dan mengalami secara nyata bagaimana berperilaku layaknya seorang pendidik yang profesional. Dari kegiatan PPL juga, mahasiswa akhirnya bisa merencanakan sebuah rencana untuk meningkatkan kualitas pengajaran dengan pengalaman aktual yang diperoleh dari kegiatan terpadu ini. Selain mampu meningkatkan kualitas pengajaran, mahasiswa juga dapat mengenal berbagai karakter siswa yang diajar sehingga mahasiswa nantinya mampu memberikan variasi pengajaran yang berbeda untuk setiap kelas dengan karakter siswa yang berbeda tentunya. Serangkaian kegiatan PPL UNY 2015 di MAN Yogyakarta III memberikan kontribusi positif terhadap kemajuan pribadi mahasiswa maupun lembaga sekolah

Book Review: Our Stories, Our Lives: Inspiring Muslim Women’s Voices

Review of Our Stories, Our Lives: Inspiring Muslim Women’s Voices, edited by Wahida Sahff

FACTORS INFLUENCING EMIRATIS’ CHOICES FOR HEALTHCARE CAREERS

The core aim of this study was to determine the factors that influence Emiratis’ choices for healthcare careers as well as propose viable initiatives through which the number of Emiratis pursuing healthcare careers can be increased. In this regard, the research sought to meet three research objectives: (i) to identify the factors that influence Emiratis’ choices for healthcare careers; (ii) to investigate the key challenges encountered by healthcare workers in the UAE; and (iii) to propose viable initiatives through which the number of Emiratis pursuing healthcare careers can be increased. The above-stated research aim was guided by the worrying low number of health workers, particularly doctors and nurses, of UAE origin (UAE nationals account for less than 10% and 20% of the country’s physicians and nurses workforce (Ibrahim et al., 2016; Informa, 2016). Besides the above identified research problem, there was a major literature gap concerning what generally impacts people’s choices for healthcare careers and more so in the Arab/ Muslims setting. In particular, my interest to investigate what influences Emiratis career decision-making, specifically for healthcare professions, was in this thesis cultivated out of the conviction that the current theories of career choice are too broad and they are based on findings made in studies carried out in non-Islamic/ Arabic religious and cultural settings such as the UAE. As a result, I considered their applicability in the UAE context questionable. For the set research objectives to be met, a qualitative research approach was used based on grounded theory principles. In this case, a sample of 36 respondents was purposefully selected, and it comprised of high school students, college medical and nursing students, nurses and doctors, healthcare administrators, as well as officials from the UAE Ministry of health and that of education. The intended data was primarily collected through in-depth interviews and it was analysed using the constant comparative data analysis method. In this case, the data collection and analysis exercises took place simultaneously. With respect to the aspect of factors that influence Emiratis’ choices for healthcare careers, an emergent theory of healthcare career choice was developed, which identifies and explains the several factors that influence Emiratis’ choices for healthcare careers. From the emergent theory, Emiratis’ choices for healthcare careers are influenced by numerous factors that fall under six substantive categories: parental and family influences, personal interest and passion, role models, gender, cultural, and religious factors. Nevertheless, personal interest and passion, as well as parental and family influences have the greatest impact on the Emiratis’ choices for healthcare careers. Low remuneration, lack of benefits (allowances and bonuses), high workload and long working hours, inadequate specialisation and training opportunities in the country, insufficient access to training, as well as poor organisational climate were also found to be the main challenges encountered by UAE healthcare workers. As a result, based on the findings and conclusions derived in this study concerning the challenges encountered by healthcare workers in the UAE, the emergent theory of factors influencing Emiratis’ choices for healthcare careers, as well as the recommendations made by the respondents, the current crisis of low number of healthcare workers of UAE origin may be solved through two main techniques. The techniques include: one, sensitising Emiratis about healthcare careers through outreach programs and any other initiative that can be effective in reaching out to the locals. The second technique may involve addressing the challenges facing the UAE healthcare sector, mainly the issues of poor remuneration, overworking, lack of training facilities, and poor working conditions. This thesis has three core contributions to the previously existing empirical and theoretical literature. The first and the main contribution of this study is that it has enriched the available literature concerning the factors influencing people's choices for careers, specifically in the healthcare context. The second core contribution of this study can be attributed to the research method or approach used in this study. As discussed later in this thesis, employing a grounded theory approach gave room for the introduction of new insights about the research topic since the researcher was open to new ideas based on the primary data collected from the field. The third contribution of this study is the development of a model or framework that clearly explains what influences Emiratis’ choices for healthcare careers and how. The model can be applied in other Arab-dominated countries such as in the Middle East, though there is a need for testing the theory developed in this study using a quantitative or a hybrid of quantitative and qualitative research approach as explained later in this study.UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Researc