Validating Chemistry Faculty Members’ Self-Reported Familiarity with Assessment Terminology

With the increasing emphasis placed upon chemistry instructors and departments to assess and evaluate their courses and curricula, understanding the structure of chemistry faculty members’ knowledge and use of assessment terms and concepts can shed light on potential areas for targeted professional development. Survey research that might accomplish this objective often relies on self-reported responses from the target audience, and such information is sometimes difficult to assess in terms of validity. As an example of an internal mechanism to help establish validity, it is possible to include an “internal standard” item early in the survey. For the sake of understanding faculty members’ familiarity with assessment terminology, an item that asked participants to identify analogous pairs of terms comparing assessment measures (assessment validity and assessment reliability) to laboratory measures (accuracy and precision) served this purpose. Using ordered logistic regression, participants who answered the analogy question completely correctly were more likely to report higher levels of familiarity with the assessment terms. Because the self-reported data appears to be valid, these data can be further used in subsequent analyses in order to determine the general familiarity trends among chemistry faculty regarding assessment terminology

Exploring the effectiveness of the output-based aid voucher program to increase uptake of gender-based violence recovery services in Kenya: a qualitative evaluation

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Few studies in Africa have explored in detail the ability of output-based aid (OBA) voucher programs to increase access to gender-based violence recovery (GBVR) services. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted in 2010 and involved: (i) in-depth interviews (IDIs) with health managers, service providers, voucher management agency (VMA) managers and (ii) focus group discussions (FGDs) with voucher users, voucher non-users, voucher distributors and opinion leaders drawn from five program sites in Kenya. Results: The findings showed promising prospects for the uptake of OBA GBVR services among target population. However, a number of factors affect the uptake of the services. These include lack of general awareness of the GBVR services vouchers, lack of understanding of the benefit package, immediate financial needs of survivors, as well as stigma and cultural beliefs that undermine reporting of cases or seeking essential medical services. Moreover, accreditation of only hospitals to offer GBVR services undermines access to the services in rural areas. Poor responsiveness from law enforcement agencies and fear of reprisal from perpetrators also undermine treatment options and access to medical services. Low provider knowledge on GBVR services and lack of supplies also affect effective provision and management of GBVR services. Conclusions: The above findings suggest that there is a need to build the capacity of health care providers and police officers, strengthen the community strategy component of the OBA program to promote the GBVR services voucher, and conduct widespread community education programs aimed at prevention, ensuring survivors know how and where to access services and addressing stigma and cultural barriers.The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundatio

Assessment of Portand#8218;s Security and Performance in Port Harcourt Seaports Complex, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria (2005-2015)

The study assessed the portrsquos security and performance in Port Harcourt Seaports Complex, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. The study made use of 291 copies of structured questionnaire administered to the staff of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), BUA Ports and Terminals Ltd, Port Harcourt and terminal operators/stevedores and Dock workers in Port Harcourt Port Complex using a simple random sampling technique. Descriptive statistics in form of frequency and percentages were used to analyze the data. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between port security and port performance. Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 was used for the data analysis. Findings revealed that among the security facilities, fire alarm system, gun boat, wall mounted motion sensor biometric time attendance and security alarms were adequately available while security gadgets like spy camera face cap, portable hand held security, belt buckle spy camera, biro button, and wristwatch camera were adequately available at the Port Harcourt Seaport Complex. Types of port insecurity included burglary and armed robbery (27.0%) smuggling activities (28.0%), sea piracy (8.0%) and touting (93%). Cargo throughput was highest 2011 (12.1%) and least in 2015 (4.6%) while the ship turnaround time for Port Harcourt Seaport was highest in 2011 (12.46 days) and the least was recorded in 2009 (8.03 days). Cargo throughput, ship turnaround time, berth occupancy rate and tonnage per ship jointly contributed 32.4% to port security in Port Harcourt Port Complex though no significant influence of port security on port performance (t=0.757 p=0.483). The study therefore recommended among others that the International ship and port facility security code (ISPS) should be adequately implemented more both at the terminals and jetties

Design of a Research-based Assessment for Children’s Attitudes and Motivation at Chemistry Outreach and Museum Events

Outreach activities have been an ongoing commitment of the American Chemical Society and other scientific organizations, yet formal assessment of outcomes has been infrequent. We have designed a simple, reliable, and robust format for assessing attitudinal and motivational characteristics of participants attending informal public events that promote interest in and understanding of chemistry. In final form, this 6-item survey can be distributed on the front and back of an 8.5 x 5.5 card (for pre- and post- assessment). Challenges in design included construct selection and independence, adjusting language for the grade 3-12 populations, physical form and distribution, efficiency and reliability of completion, and item performance and symmetry. Along with a description of the design process, psychometric characteristics and results of field testing at outreach events are described.This is a pre-print of the article Bauer C, Emenike M, Holme T. Design of a Research-based Assessment for Children’s Attitudes and Motivation at Chemistry Outreach and Museum Events. ChemRxiv. Cambridge: Cambridge Open Engage, 2022. This content is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed. DOI: 10.26434/chemrxiv-2022-2zp5p. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Copyright 2022 The Authors. Posted with permission

Pattern Of Blood Pressure, Cd4+ T Cells Count And Some Cardiac Enzymes In Hiv Seropositive Subjects

HIV/AIDS infection is a global pandemic, which is becoming a security problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria inclusive. The present study was designed to investigate the pattern of blood pressure, CD4 + T cells count and some cardiac enzymes in HIV seropositive subjects in Nnewi and its environment because HIV infection results into a lot of clinical manifestations such as cardiovascular disorders. A total number of one hundred and fifty seropositive subjects on and without antiretroviral therapy ARVT were investigated. The results showed that total creatine kinase (CK), CK-MB and total aspartate aminotransferases (AST) were significantly increased (