Impact of Automation on Users’ Perception of Library Services

The critical destinations of this study were to inspect the impact of Automation on users\u27 perception of library services at Government College University Faisalabad. The present study has three research objectives including (a)To assess the user\u27s perception regarding library automation at GCU Faisalabad, (b)To check the level of satisfaction of the users regarding library services at GCU Faisalabad, and (e)To measure the problem faced by the users after automation of library services at GCU Faisalabad. To meet the objectives, the investigator used a quantitative research approach and developed a questionnaire for the data collection instrument. The convenience sampling technique was used for collecting data from the target population. There were 16570 students enrolled in BS, Master, M.Phil, and Ph.D. degree programs. The sample size was 391(2.35 % of the total population) students. There were 375 out of 391 students who filled the questionnaire. Hence, the response rate was 95.9 %. The results revealed that more than 75% percent of the participants like to support and use automated library services and hybrid services. Further respondents gave their points of view that they had a trend to use automated services to save time. Moreover, the result of this study revealed that the participants were well aware of the library automated services, offered by GCU libraries. This research points out that most of the total participants were satisfied by the automated services, offered by the GCU library

Did We find Alternate to GDP to measure National Progress? Analysis of Harvard University’s Social Progress Index

For major part of the preceding century, Economic Measures such as GDP, GNI etc were considered to measure economic as well as social and human progress of a country. However, scholars have raised concerns over the sufficiency of these economic measures. This propelled scholars to develop alternate measures for social improvement and human capability development. Consequently, indices such as Social Progress Imperative (SPI) and Human Development Index (HDI) were developed by renowned authors. However, little work is done to check effect of social progress on susceptibility against human trafficking and modern slavery, and business opportunities in the nation. Further, there is almost no empirical evidence which suggest that SPI is better scale than GDP or HDI in predicating different social measure. Therefore, data of 124 countries regarding SPI, HDI, GDP, Vulnerability to Enslavement, and Distance to Frontier score was collected for Year 2014. Secondary data analysis was performed and Simple Regression analysis was carried out on data for hypothesis testing. As proposed, a positive relationship of SPI and Ease of Doing Business was observed whereas negative relation was found between SPI and Vulnerability of Enslavement. In addition, SPI explain variation in both Vulnerability of Enslavement and Ease of Doing Business better than GDP and HDI, thereby providing evidence of its superior representation of social measures

Did We find Alternate to GDP to measure National Progress? Analysis of Harvard University’s Social Progress Index

For major part of the preceding century, Economic Measures such as GDP, GNI etc were considered to measure economic as well as social and human progress of a country. However, scholars have raised concerns over the sufficiency of these economic measures. This propelled scholars to develop alternate measures for social improvement and human capability development. Consequently, indices such as Social Progress Imperative (SPI) and Human Development Index (HDI) were developed by renowned authors. However, little work is done to check effect of social progress on susceptibility against human trafficking and modern slavery, and business opportunities in the nation. Further, there is almost no empirical evidence which suggest that SPI is better scale than GDP or HDI in predicating different social measure. Therefore, data of 124 countries regarding SPI, HDI, GDP, Vulnerability to Enslavement, and Distance to Frontier score was collected for Year 2014. Secondary data analysis was performed and Simple Regression analysis was carried out on data for hypothesis testing. As proposed, a positive relationship of SPI and Ease of Doing Business was observed whereas negative relation was found between SPI and Vulnerability of Enslavement. In addition, SPI explain variation in both Vulnerability of Enslavement and Ease of Doing Business better than GDP and HDI, thereby providing evidence of its superior representation of social measures

Knowledge and involvement of husbands in maternal and newborn health in rural Bangladesh

Abstract Background Access to skilled health services during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal period for obstetric care is one of the strongest determinants of maternal and newborn health (MNH) outcomes. In many countries, husbands are key decision-makers in households, effectively determining women’s access to health services. We examined husbands’ knowledge and involvement regarding MNH issues in rural Bangladesh, and how their involvement is related to women receiving MNH services from trained providers. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional survey in two rural sub-districts of Bangladesh in 2014 adopting a stratified cluster sampling technique. Women with a recent birth history and their husbands were interviewed separately with a structured questionnaire. A total of 317 wife-husband dyads were interviewed. The associations between husbands accompanying their wives as explanatory variables and utilization of skilled services as outcome variables were assessed using multiple logistic regression analyses. Results In terms of MNH knowledge, two-thirds of husbands were aware that women have special rights related to pregnancy and childbirth and one-quarter could mention three or more pregnancy-, birth- and postpartum-related danger signs. With regard to MNH practice, approximately three-quarters of husbands discussed birth preparedness and complication readiness with their wives. Only 12% and 21% were involved in identifying a potential blood donor and arranging transportation, respectively. Among women who attended antenatal care (ANC), 47% were accompanied by their husbands. Around half of the husbands were present at the birthplace during birth. Of the 22% women who received postpartum care (PNC), 67% were accompanied by their husbands. Husbands accompanying their wives was positively associated with women receiving ANC from a medically trained provider (AOR 4.5, p < .01), birth at a health facility (AOR 1.5, p < .05), receiving PNC from a medically trained provider (AOR 48.8, p < .01) and seeking care from medically trained providers for obstetric complications (AOR 3.0, p < 0.5). Conclusion Husbands accompanying women when receiving health services is positively correlated with women’s use of skilled MNH services. Special initiatives should be taken for encouraging husbands to accompany their wives while availing MNH services. These initiatives should aim to increase men’s awareness regarding MNH issues, but should not be limited to this

Systematic review and meta-Analysis of global birth prevalence of clubfoot: A study protocol

IntroductionClubfoot is a common congenital birth defect, with an average prevalence of approximately 1 per 1000 live births, although this rate is reported to vary among different countries around the world. If it remains untreated, clubfoot causes permanent disability, limits educational and employment opportunities, and personal growth. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to estimate the global birth prevalence of congenital clubfoot.Methods and analysisElectronic databases including MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Embase, Global Health, Latin American &amp; Caribben Health Science Literature (LILACS), Maternity and Infant Care, Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar will be searched for observational studies based on predefined criteria and only in English language from inception of database in 1946 to 10 November 2017. A standard data extraction form will be used to extract relevant information from included studies. The Joanna Briggs Institute appraisal checklist will be used to assess the overall quality of studies reporting prevalence. All included studies will be assessed for risk of bias using a tool developed specifically for prevalence studies. Forest plots will be created to understand the overall random effects of pooled estimates with 95% CIs. An I2test will be done for heterogeneity of the results (P&gt;0.05), and to identify the source of heterogeneity across studies, subgroup or meta-regression will be used to assess the contribution of each variable to the overall heterogeneity. A funnel plot will be used to identify reporting bias, and sensitivity analysis will be used to assess the impact of methodological quality, study design, sample size and the impact of missing data.Ethics and disseminationThis review will be conducted completely based on published data, so approval from an ethics committee or written consent will not be required. The results will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed publication and relevant conference presentations.PROSPERO registration numberCRD42016041922.</jats:sec

Evaluating Success Factors of Software Project Management in Global Software Development

At present, global software development (GSD) is gaining considerable attention in the realm of software engineering. The project management of global software projects presents substantial complexity owing to several inherent challenges of GSD. The software project management practices employed for in-house development appear inadequate to address the unique challenges posed by global software projects, making their management a formidable task. Software organizations rely on traditional software project management practices to manage global projects, often resulting in impairments or failures. This paper explores the critical success factors (CSFs) in software project management for global projects by developing a framework for effective project management within the context of GSD. The study focuses on identifying and prioritizing CSFs in software project management within a GSD setting utilizing multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) analysis methods. Therefore, the present research provides an extensive literature review of CSFs in software project management within GSD. Additionally, the research applies the combinatorial approach to assess the various dimensions and CSFs of software project management in GSD. The proposed approach aids in measuring and comparing the effects of several dimensions and CSFs of software project management in GSD. Five dimensions and twenty factors have been determined through a literature review and further evaluated for prioritization using the combinatorial approach. The identified dimensions and factors will be valuable in devising strategies to effectively manage global software projects

Analyzing Software Industry Trends to Improve Curriculum

In the present digital era, being skilled and updated on modern software development practices has become of crucial importance for software engineering graduates. Moreover, the freelancing industry has grown immensely in recent years, and individuals, more than ever before, are fascinated by the opportunities it offers and have greater assurance that it can be a successful and satisfying alternative to regular employment. Unlike others, in the case of software, industry is leading the education. This makes Software Engineering Education (SEE) additionally responsible for minimizing the gap between the skills of the graduating students and the skills needed by the employers out there. There is not any previous work available in this that focuses on the skills required to cope with the freelancing industry by graduate students and recommendations for improvements to Pakistan higher education curriculum that help produce graduates who are capable enough to get themselves employed in freelancing platforms. This study aims to dissect the software industry needs and trends related to the freelancing industry and to uncover suggestions for training in this dynamic field. The data was extracted through different freelancing platforms using the Scrapy framework of Python, and then LDA analysis was performed on the scraped data using Python to find the most trending topics in the SE field and better analyze the situation. Using LDA analysis, the dataset extracted at two distinct time periods is investigated to describe how the software industry changes from time to time. For validity, the updated data was scraped on runtime from freelancing websites. The results of the analysis are shown in different formats, and empirical findings are discussed with reference to two different time periods and in relation to previous studies

Predicting Academic Performance Using an Efficient Model Based on Fusion of Classifiers

In the past few years, educational data mining (EDM) has attracted the attention of researchers to enhance the quality of education. Predicting student academic performance is crucial to improving the value of education. Some research studies have been conducted which mainly focused on prediction of students’ performance at higher education. However, research related to performance prediction at the secondary level is scarce, whereas the secondary level tends to be a benchmark to describe students’ learning progress at further educational levels. Students’ failure or poor grades at lower secondary negatively impact them at the higher secondary level. Therefore, early prediction of performance is vital to keep students on a progressive track. This research intended to determine the critical factors that affect the performance of students at the secondary level and to build an efficient classification model through the fusion of single and ensemble-based classifiers for the prediction of academic performance. Firstly, three single classifiers including a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), J48, and PART were observed along with three well-established ensemble algorithms encompassing Bagging (BAG), MultiBoost (MB), and Voting (VT) independently. To further enhance the performance of the abovementioned classifiers, nine other models were developed by the fusion of single and ensemble-based classifiers. The evaluation results showed that MultiBoost with MLP outperformed the others by achieving 98.7% accuracy, 98.6% precision, recall, and F-score. The study implies that the proposed model could be useful in identifying the academic performance of secondary level students at an early stage to improve the learning outcomes

Evaluating Usability of Academic Websites through a Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process

In the higher education sector, there is a growing trend to offer academic information to users through websites. Contemporarily, the users (i.e., students/teachers, parents, and administrative staff) greatly rely on these websites to perform various academic tasks, including admission, access to learning management systems (LMS), and links to other relevant resources. These users vary from each other in terms of their technological competence, objectives, and frequency of use. Therefore, academic websites should be designed considering different dimensions, so that everybody can be accommodated. Knowing the different dimensions with respect to the usability of academic websites is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) approach has been considered to be a significant method to deal with the uncertainty that is involved in subjective judgment. Although a wide range of usability factors for academic websites have already been identified, most of them are based on the judgment of experts who have never used these websites. This study identified important factors through a detailed literature review, classified them, and prioritized the most critical among them through the FAHP methodology, involving relevant users to propose a usability evaluation framework for academic websites. To validate the proposed framework, five websites of renowned higher educational institutes (HEIs) were evaluated and ranked according to the usability criteria. As the proposed framework was created methodically, the authors believe that it would be helpful for detecting real usability issues that currently exist in academic websites