Who you’re gonna call? The development of university digital leaders

In our hyper-connected digitised educational world, university tutors are interested in capitalising on affordances of digital trends in teaching and learning. Students, under the alias of preservice- teachers, walk among them equipped with digital skills in areas of their interest. How can we encourage collaboration between tutors and students that can promote the use of the digital force wisely, support the development of students’ professional identities further and extend tutors’ digital competences? The story of nine tutors and eleven undergraduate pre-service-teachers working together on digital partnerships is set against discussions around digital leadership and citizenship. This case study aims to highlight how universities can respond to technology-driven change by engaging students further and support their awareness of digital citizenship. The overall results showed that the informal learning that students have capitalised outside the classroom can be used to scaffold their development of digital citizenship through offline community engagement. It demonstrates the advantage of using such opportunities as a means to encourage citizenship practices among university student communities and the positive impact that such synergies can have on all the participants

Strategic instruments to choose foreign target markets

Purpose: The paper aims to elaborate the principles and the authors’ original method to choose target markets of textile and fibers manufacturers when internationalizing their economic activity. The decision on foreign target markets must be very reasonable as having chosen a new foreign market the company put a lot of resources into it. Design/Methodology/Approach: The authors suggest to take into account three factors for the most perspective foreign markets for export interventions. The cash flow in foreign trade by specific materials (textiles and fibers) was estimated by each country – to select the countries depending on textiles and fibers import. Among those countries the markets' attractiveness was estimated by their size and growth intensity. After that general opportunities of doing business by Russian companies in the country were estimated using a complex index calculated on a basis of data characterizing import from Russia volume and its dynamics, transport accessibility, GDP Volume and Dynamics. Findings: The paper contains a set of data characterizing the most perspective countries for Russian textile companies export expansion – Cambodia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Nicaragua, Viet Nam. Central and Eastern European countries (Romania, Poland, Slovenia), United Kingdom, USA, Canada are attractive from a point of view of potential prospects of business development in the country, however cooperation with them may be difficult due to some serious barriers on entering the markets. Practical Implications: The matrix can be used in managerial practices of different companies oriented on their international business activities expanding. The results of the new methods implementation (the list of the most perspective foreign markets) can be used by for management of the Russian textile companies oriented on foregn markets. Originality/Value: The paper contains a new method of foreign target markets choosing and a new strategic instrument – the matrix of export expansion markets choosing.peer-reviewe

Autophagy in spinal muscular atrophy: from pathogenic mechanisms to therapeutic approaches

© 2024 Rashid and Dimitriadi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a devastating neuromuscular disorder caused by the depletion of the ubiquitously expressed survival motor neuron (SMN) protein. While the genetic cause of SMA has been well documented, the exact mechanism(s) by which SMN depletion results in disease progression remain elusive. A wide body of evidence has highlighted the involvement and dysregulation of autophagy in SMA. Autophagy is a highly conserved lysosomal degradation process which is necessary for cellular homeostasis; defects in the autophagic machinery have been linked with a wide range of neurodegenerative disorders, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. The pathway is particularly known to prevent neurodegeneration and has been suggested to act as a neuroprotective factor, thus presenting an attractive target for novel therapies for SMA patients. In this review, (a) we provide for the first time a comprehensive summary of the perturbations in the autophagic networks that characterize SMA development, (b) highlight the autophagic regulators which may play a key role in SMA pathogenesis and (c) propose decreased autophagic flux as the causative agent underlying the autophagic dysregulation observed in these patients.Peer reviewe

Instructional Immediacy Practices in Online Learning Environments

It is essential to create an online environment where students feel motivated and engaged, in order to achieve effective learning. Online learning environments (OLEs) enable tutors to apply various methods of enhancing students’ communication, so that the issue of feeling isolated is addressed and worthwhile learning can take place. A significant body of the literature has asserted that communication practices in the classroom are an important factor to the learning process and the student-tutor relationship. Immediacy is part of communication practices that support students learning in face-to-face and online classes. This study presents the most important immediacy practices that can help tutors to enhance students’ learning by decreasing the physical and psychological distance between students and tutors in online learning and increasing student-tutor interaction. Immediacy has been shown to be a remarkable predictor of perceived online learning, positively affecting students’ interest and engagement in a course. Hence, students become more willing to participate and communicate with their tutors and peers. Tutors should therefore be aware of these practices and understand how to apply them effectively in the enhancement of students’ online learning. Keywords: Immediacy, Online learning, Student interaction, Isolation, student engagement

Young Students’ Perceptions of Factors That Can Contribute to Emotional Eating in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The present study is aimed to establishing young students’ perceptions of factors that can contribute to emotional eating in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It has been noted that emotional eating contributes to obesity and other negative impacts of heath and therefore need to examine perceived factors that contributes to it.  The study involved 60 adolescents aged from 12 to 15 years from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. A survey questionnaire developed from the objectives of the study was used to collect data from all the 60 participants. The findings indicate that there are number of factors such as social, physical and psychological that contributes to emotional eating.  Both the literature review and the survey underlined revealed that students were influenced   by multiple factors to get into emotional eating. The study concluded that emotional eating is a complex behaviour that could result in unhealthy emotional and physical states. The study thereby recommended that there is need to address the social, physical and psychological factors that contribute emotional eating. Keywords: emotional eating, young students and social, physical and psychological factor

Students’ perceptions of their m-learning readiness

The following paper presents the results of a study aimed at achieving a better understanding of the psychological readiness for mobile learning (m-learning) among Saudi students, while also evaluating m-learning readiness as a whole in Saudi Arabia - a topic that has not yet received adequate attention from researchers. Data was acquired via a questionnaire administered to 131 Saudi students at UK universities, in July 2013. The study confirmed that students are confident about using mobile devices in their daily lives, and that they would welcome more opportunities for mobile learning. The findings also indicated that Saudi higher education students are very familiar with, and psychologically ready for, m-learning

Parametric Investigation of Lateral Spreading in Free-Face Ground Formations

Liquefaction-induced lateral spreading can cause extensive damage and even failure to foundations and earthworks resting inside or in the vicinity of the affected ground. The current practice for the evaluation of the ground surface displacement due to lateral spreading, is to rely upon a number of published empirical relations which are based on statistical analysis of field measurements. As an alternative, aimed to overcome a number of objective limitations related to the interpretation of field data, this article employs a numerical investigation to explore the main parameters affecting the anticipated maximum ground surface displacement and to quantify their effect in the form of a simple analytical relation. To ensure the credibility of the numerical methodology, it has been thoroughly validated against nineteen (19) previously reported centrifuge experiments. Furthermore, the accuracy of the new relation is evaluated through a systematic comparison with the numerical predictions of ground surface displacement, as well as with field measurements from the data base of Youd et al. (2002)

Instructional immediacy practices in online learning environments

It is essential to create an online environment where students feel motivated and engaged, in order to achieve effective learning. Online learning environments (OLEs) enable tutors to apply various methods of enhancing students’ communication, so that the issue of feeling isolated is addressed and worthwhile learning can take place. A significant body of the literature has asserted that communication practices in the classroom are an important factor to the learning process and the student-tutor relationship. Immediacy is part of communication practices that support students learning in face-to-face and online classes. This study presents the most important immediacy practices that can help tutors to enhance students’ learning by decreasing the physical and psychological distance between students and tutors in online learning and increasing student-tutor interaction. Immediacy has been shown to be a remarkable predictor of perceived online learning, positively affecting students’ interest and engagement in a course. Hence, students become more willing to participate and communicate with their tutors and peers. Tutors should therefore be aware of these practices and understand how to apply them effectively in the enhancement of students’ online learning