Factors related to the rejection and/or abandonment of AAC devices

More than 3.5 million Americans have such significant communication disability that they cannot rely on their natural speech to meet their communication needs. As a result, these individuals are severely restricted in their participation in all aspects of life, including their education, employment, family, and community. Augmentative and alternative communication strategies offer great potential to enhance the communication of individuals with complex communication needs, and therefore improve their quality of life. Fifty-two ISAAC members that responded to the online survey utilized a 5 point Likert-type scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree) to rate the importance of factors as they relate to the rejection and/or abandonment. The mean values of ratings were calculated to determine which factors were cited as relevant in predicting AAC device rejection and abandonment. Additionally, an independent T-test was utilized to determine if the factors cited varied depending on the role of the person completing the survey. The results of this investigation indicate that it is imperative to consider a complex interaction of factors pertaining to the individuals who use AAC, their conversational partners, settings in which interactions occur, and devices used to interact, when designing an AAC intervention. The statistical analysis revealed no significance difference in how the respondents rated the factors based on their occupation. Based on the results of the study, a checklist of factors that an AAC practitioner might consider addressing in order to foster acceptance of AAC systems initially and later on was constructed

The opportunity cost of being constrained by the type of assets: Bonds only or stocks only

I explore investors’ welfare losses when they restrict themselves to invest in either stocks only or bonds only, but not in both. The restriction gives investors sub-optimal asset allocations that result in welfare losses. To measure these welfare losses I compare “only stock indices and Treasury bills” optimal portfolios and “only bond indices and Treasury bills” optimal portfolios with “stock and bond indices and Treasury bills” optimal portfolios using the concept of proportionate opportunity cost along with various CRRA utility functions. The original historical asset returns data set is used with a VAR in generating joint returns distributions for the portfolio formation period. I show that for investors with low levels of risk aversion welfare losses do not exceed 1.5% of initial wealth when they invest sub-optimally. For investors with medium and high levels of relative risk aversion, suboptimal portfolios of only one type of assets, stocks only or bonds only, along with Treasury bills, give expected utility about as high as optimal portfolios that include both types of assets, stocks and bonds.probability distribution function of stock returns, proportionate opportunity cost, optimal portfolio strategy, investors´welfare losses

Methodological Approaches to Modeling Information Architecture of the Organization in the Conditions of Digital Economy

It is significant for businesses, especially in the digital economy, the solution of theoretical and methodological justifications and the development of practical recommendations for building an organization\u27s information architecture as a holistic description of its key strategies, related to business, information, application systems and technologies, and also their impact on the functions and business processes of an organization. The article discusses issues, related to methodological approaches to modeling an organization\u27s information architectureб using information management tools to help manage innovation in information systems (IS) and information technologies (IT). The relevance of organizational provisions to determine the way, in which a business entity\u27s business model is functionally integrated with the IS architecture is substantiated. The consideration and analysis of the use of industrial standards for describing the architecture of an organization, adopted by such institutions as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), The Open Group, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), etc. reveal that none of these standards is dominant and does not provide teams, responsible for the architecture development with all the tools, necessary from the methodological point of view and from the point of view of the templates, used to describe the architecture. Recommendations are given on the theoretical and methodological substantiation and construction of the information architecture of an organization as a complete description of its key strategies related to business, information, application systems and technologies, as well as their impact on the functions and business processes of an organization

The Education Quality Measuring: American Experience

The US Higher Education Reform is due to certain processes of competitiveness, market orientation, the tendency to form a single space for education. The American system of Higher Education has integrated the best in the education of other countries and thus helped the country overcome crises, to some extent solve the problems of racial discrimination, unemployment, poverty, improved the situation of women, people with disabilities, national minorities. The historical events, socio-economic transformations, aspiration to be a leader in the world market respectively have influenced the development of Higher Education. Due to reforms in American society, education has become more open, various, versatile. The Americans highly value the Higher Education and believe that education is necessary for a conscious political life, the functioning of a democratic government, the development of economic and political International relations. The American education serving the dynamic and global economy is effective and capable of developing in the conditions of limited public resources. This article focuses on the measurement of education quality and accreditation of Higher Learning Institutions in the USA; the analysis of educational activities of American universities; the coverage of accreditation and education performance of Higher Learning Institutions in the United States; these indicators usage in the process of education quality assessing in American universities; the essence disclosure of measurement the education quality with helping "added value" on the basis by American scientists research; the borrowing American experience into the Higher Learning Institutions in Ukraine

Investigation of the Formation Process of Hazardous and Harmful Production Factors When Cutting a Stone for Construction Works

Stone cutting for construction work is carried out by disk diamond wheels the rotation speed of which, and, consequently, the cutting speed is 35-50 m/s. In view of the high intensity of the cutting process and intensive microchip formation, the process of stone cutting is accompanied by considerable dust formation, which can be both harmful and dangerous in the work.The greatest danger is represented by dust particles, which dimensions are 5 μm or less. These particles have the greatest pathogenic effect on the respiratory system of the human body. In addition, the settling time of these particles is measured in hours. Thus, even after the termination of work, the risk of dust exposure to the human body remains. Insignificant time of inhalation of these particles can lead a person to disability and death. Insurance payments in case of disability and compensation in case of death of an employee for these reasons all over the world amount to multibillion sums, which, even for this reason, makes the issue of combating this phenomenon very urgent.In this paper, the process of generation of hazardous and harmful production factors arising as a result of dust formation during the stone cutting, the regularity of dust distribution by fractions, quantitative indicators of the process for improving equipment, as well as individual and collective means of personnel protection are determined. The shape and dimensions of the cutting grains of the cutting discs are studied in the paper, depending on the grain material and the grain size of the cutting disc. Thecurvature radii of the cutting grains depend on the grain material and the grain size of the cutting disc. The actual number of grains participating in cutting and, consequently, in dust formation is shown.The dimensions of the dust particles depend on the graininess of the cutting discs and the processing regimes. Using the law of normal particle size distribution, the percentage of dust particles is determined depending on processing conditions. The rate of particle settling depends on their size and mass. The formation of a dust-air mixture and its probable concentration and chemical composition of dust depend on the chemical composition of the cutting materials.Regularities are obtained, which can give an opportunity to improve the individual and collective protection of workers from this harmful production factor

Development Of Technological Sour-milk Desserts Enriched With Bifidobacteria

The work is devoted to the development of the technology of fermented sour-milk desserts, enriched with bifidobacteria and biologically active and physiologically valuable substances of fruit-berry raw materials. Bifidobacteria regulate the quality and quantity composition of the normal intestinal microfllora that is an important factor of organism protection from different intestinal infections. The healthy effect is mainly conditioned by biologically valuable properties of specially selected consortiums of lacto- and bifidobacteria, more stable for the effect of inhibitors and unfavorable environmental conditions.At the joint use of selected consortiums of strains of bifido- and lactobacteria, the number of viable cells of bifidobacteria increases in 3-4 times, the antagonistic activity increases comparing with using separate strains of microorganisms.The use of fructose and lactulose as a biostimulating component of sour-milk desserts raises the activity, growth and development of bifidobacteria. For stabilizing the structure of sour-milk clots, there were used hydrocalloids, such as pectin and starch that favors the increase of the number of viable cells of bifidobacteria, provides the necessary viscosity and certain humidity, prevents stratification at using fruit-berry prebiotics. The optimal storage term of sour-milk desserts at temperature (3±1) оС is no more than 15 days

Determinants of household choice of breakfast cereals: healthy or unhealthy?

We studied consumer demand for more and less healthy breakfast cereals. Using ACNielsen Homescan database and USDA food nutrition data, we developed three cereal nutrition indexes for each household in the data. In addition to the standard demographic characteristics of households and prices, we included variables representing differences between private labels and national brands. We found that the structure of the industry, through its effect on the product mix produced, affects consumer choice of nutritious foods. Some households buy fewer healthy cereals simply through reluctance to trust private labels. Among all factors expected to influence consumer purchases, the prices appear to have the strongest effect on the healthiness of the choice of breakfast cereals, which is a relatively inexpensive product. Households with children and teens buy less healthy cereals, while older and more educated households make healthier choices.consumer demand, healthy and unhealthy food, breakfast cereals, Consumer/Household Economics,

Analitic Investigation of the Regularities of Changing Dust Concentration During the Abrasive Decrease of Stone Structures

In the process of repair or restoration of building structures, it is often necessary to strengthen building structures from limestone-shell rock, concrete, reinforced concrete, hard materials-granite, basalt, etc. by cutting or making cuts of the required size with detachable circles of synthetic diamond and cubic boron nitride (CA and CBN)The cutting process is accompanied by considerable dust formation, which can be both harmful and dangerous factor in the work.The aim of the work is studying the process of dust sedimentation and the regularity of the change in dust concentration during the abrasive cutting of concrete and stone materials.Mathematical models have been developed – dust emission from under the wheel, speed of sedimentation of dust particles depending on their material, size and shape, and also depending on temperature, pressure and humidity, the concentration of dust in the working space and the concentration change during the cutting cycle are calculated.It is shown that the velocity of the sedimentation of particles depends significantly on the shape. The higher the sphericity, the higher the sedimentation rate. The ambient temperature has little effect on the sedimentation rate, in the temperature range (-20 → + 40 °C) at which the operation takes place.The sedimentation rate of dust particles generated by cutting the most common building stone materials also differs slightly. Almost the same sedimentation rate has dust particles obtained by cutting basalt and concrete. A bit higher is the sedimentation rate of particles from granite.The sedimentation rate of particles of generated dust is about 600-700 cm/h or 10-11 cm/min for particles measuring 6 μm. This means that at a production height of about 2 m (200 cm) during the operating cycle (about 3 min), the dust will remain at an altitude of about 1.5 m, i.е. practically remains in the working area. This gives grounds to assert about a high concentration of dust during the cutting cycle (about 4.8 108/m3)