Reducing off -Task Behaviors Using an Action Research Method with One-Case Study

The purpose of this action research project was to discover what interventions would be most effective in decreasing the off-task behaviors of a student. Interventions used were use of a token system, changes in classroom environment and teacher attention. The sample selected for this research was a student in a second-grade classroom. This action research grew out of the frustration and sense of inadequacy of a teacher attempting to deal with the off-task behaviors of one of her students. The student’s off task behaviors were interfering with her learning and that of her classmates. There were seven specific off-task behaviors that helped define the problem. These behaviors included daydreaming, speaking to peers, talking out of turn, touching others, fidgeting with objects, getting out of her seat at inappropriate times, and putting her head down on the table. The three tools that were chosen to document evidence of the problem were an observation checklist, a student survey and a teacher survey. The findings indicated that allowing the subject to enjoy one of her favorite activities, contingent upon a decrease in the off-task behaviors, was effective in maintaining the desired behavior of staying on-task and decreasing inappropriate behaviors

Emergency department workplace violence

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Medicine in Emergency Medicine. Johannesburg, March, 2016Objectives: The aim of the current research was to determine the perception and experience of different emergency department occupational groups regarding workplace violence in the past 12 months and to determine the effect that it had on them in two government hospitals in Johannesburg, South Africa. Materials and Methods: The current research was a cross sectional, retrospective qualitative survey. Results: Eighty-six surveys (43%) out of the distributed 200 questionnaires were returned. Five surveys were unfilled leaving 81 surveys (40.5%) that are included in the analysis. Psychological violence was experienced by 73 % (n=51) of the participants while physical violence was experienced by 34.2% (n=27). Patients were the perpetrators of 61% and 67.9% of psychological and physical violence against staff members, respectively. Friends and family members who accompanied patients in the emergency department accounted for 27.4% psychological violence while this same set of people caused 17.3% of physical violence. Ninety-one percent of the participants reported that they did not receive any training courses on how to handle workplace violence incidents. Medical staff (doctors and nurses) were found to be at an increased risk to psychological violence. Conclusions: Workplace violence was commonly experienced by ED staff members. Majority of the incidents were in the form of psychological violence; however, a considerable percentage of the participants experienced physical violent incidents. Most of the violent incidents experienced were perceived to be preventable by majority of participants. This research supports the need for practical training and education of the ED staff members, on how to prevent and deal with issues related to ED WPV.MT201

The Attitudes of Secondary School Teachers Regarding Inclusion of Students with Autism in Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this study was to examine secondary school teachers’ attitudes regarding the inclusion of students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, students with ASD can attend regular education classrooms, especially in elementary and middle schools. In addition, the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia is interested in the inclusion of students with ASD in secondary schools. Since the attitudes of secondary school teachers toward inclusion of students with ASD have not been examined, it was important to look at the attitudes of these teachers towards the inclusion of students with ASD so that it is implemented successfully. Over 2000 secondary school teachers completed an online survey. Data were collected using a convenience sample and analyzed using SPSS. The results of the study indicated that secondary school teachers in Riyadh had positive attitudes toward inclusion of students with ASD. Furthermore, most teachers participating in this study indicated that the placement of students with ASD should be determined based on the severity of ASD symptoms. In addition, secondary school teachers’ attitudes differed based on the following variables: years of teaching experience, gender, level of education, and type of school. This study suggested that secondary school teachers should be provided with effective training and professional development so that they can include students with ASD. The use of the convenience sample and the online survey could limit the generalizability of the results. Future research should examine teachers pre-service and their knowledge about ASD

A Comparative Study of Domestic and Hospital Environmental Microbial Populations in Al-Ain (UAE)

This is the first attempt to estimate biological indoor pollution in the environment of AI-Ain city. The numbers and types of bacteria and fungi in the air and on the surfaces were measured in AI-Ain hospital and three different types of domestic environments. Five different types of wards at AI-Ain hospital, medical, surgical, pediatrics, operating theater, and intensive care unit were studied. Their estimated indoor bioaerosols were compared to indoor bioaerosols in three types of dwelling houses, very good, average, and poor quality houses in AI-Ain city. A bacteriological mechanical air sampler, MK2 (Casella London) was used in this study. The result of this study showed that the same groups of bacteria and fungi isolated from the hospital environment were also found in domestic air samples. The highest number of bacteria in the hospital was found in the pediatric and female medical wards while the lowest were in the operating theater. The number of bacteria in the domestic environment was related to the type of housing; the higher the quality of house the lower the number of micro-organisms. Pathogenic and human related micro-organisms were found to be more prevalent in a hospital environment than in the domestic environment. In general the hospital air microbial counts were comparable to very good quality houses. The commonest species of fungi found in both environments were AsperigiIlus niger. Surface samples in hospital and homes showed that surface micro-organisms originated from air contaminants. A comparison of hospital and domestic bacterial sensitivity was carried out using coagulase negative Staphylococci (CNS). These were also compared to the patients\u27n CNS. The sensitivity pattern of CNS indicated that the environment or the source of the microbes had some effect upon the micro-organisms. Domestic airborne CNS were very sensitive to nearly all the antibiotics tested while patients harbored the most resistant CNS with hospital airborne CNS falling in between. Hospital airborne agents would seem to be a mixture of patients\u27 strains and the environmental strains possibly brought in by visitors to the hospital

Undemocratic parties in a “democratic” system: the formation and operation of political parties in post-2003 Iraq

This study focuses on Iraqi political parties and organisations that established and administered, under the auspices of the US administration, the political system following the first Iraqi general elections of 2005. This research presumes that the main pillar of any democratic system must be premised on a people’s freedom to engage in politics, organise themselves within groups or parties, and eventually compete for the power to rule and thus democratically realise their goals – through voting, and a peaceful transfer of power. Some of the parties that run the political system in Iraq have been afflicted with major crises, however. They believe in neither democratic action nor the state, and respect neither constitution nor law. They have channelled the political process to serve their own interests, thus rendering corruption and militarisation as hallmarks of their work. Frail legislation and executive powers further aggravate matters, as they are meant to implement the law and organise and monitor party mechanisms, both internally and statewide. Loopholes in party laws as well as failure to implement them therefore resulted in internal undemocratic practices and grave violations within parties. These have affected the established political system and created a rift between the political establishment and society. In recent years, this anger has translated into protests against the country’s political party system

A study of the nonlinearity of a building thermal behavior based on metamodeling

International audienceIn this work, we present a study of the nonlinearity of building thermal behavior based on a metamodel for cooling energy needs. We studied the nonlinearity of the thermal behavior of an office. The building quadratic behavior and interactions between its components were analyzed based on the metamodel coefficients. The metamodel was fitted with a reduced number of dynamic simulations. The nonlinearity was first assessed as function of the mean outdoor air temperature in fifteen typical European climates and then as function of the internal heat gains for the coldest and hottest climates. The metamodel provided highly accurate results with fast calculation time. However, a higher accuracy was generally obtained for hot climates, high internal heat gains and lightweight thermal mass. Conversely, the nonlinearity of thermal behavior was accentuated in cold climates and with low internal heat gains. Moreover, the interactions between the building components were found to be more influential on cooling energy needs than quadratic behavior. We propose a classification of thermal behavior into three regimes: Highly nonlinear when the energy needs are close to zero; intermediate with decreasing nonlinearities that can be expressed by power functions; and finally, a quasi-linear regime with almost-steady nonlinearities

Towards an Automatic Extraction of Smartphone Users' Contextual Behaviors

International audienceThis paper presents a new method for automatically extracting smartphone users' contextual behaviors from the digital traces collected during their interactions with their devices. Our goal is in particular to understand the impact of users' context (e.g., location, time, environment, etc.) on the applications they run on their smartphones. We propose a methodology to analyze digital traces and to automatically identify the significant information that characterizes users' behaviors. In earlier work, we have used Formal Concept Analysis and Galois lattices to extract relevant knowledge from heterogeneous and complex contextual data; however, the interpretation of the obtained Galois lattices was performed manually. In this article, we aim at automating this interpretation process, through the provision of original metrics. Therefore our methodology returns relevant information without requiring any expertise in data analysis. We illustrate our contribution on real data collected from volunteer users

Basra is burning: the protests in Basra Governorate, 2018–20

Basra has always been known in recent Iraqi history as an epicentre of protest against authority. This explains why it is one of the cities that witnessed the most protests in Iraq in recent years against the authorities’ neglect of residents’ rights. For nearly two decades, Basra has been suffering from a noticeable deterioration of services, especially over the summer. The most obvious include the lack of safe drinking water, electricity, school buildings and roads, as well as widespread unemployment. These were amongst the important factors that prompted the demonstrations that have erupted since 2010. Service provision deteriorated over time, with poor quality leading to a comprehensive collapse, which was met with mass demonstrations that escalated into violence and calls for the overthrow of the political system. This paper provides a brief analysis of the protest movement that took place in Basra Governorate between 2018–2020 in order to discover the important factors that led to its recurrence, as well as the development of protest methods and the expansion of its demands. We also focus on how authorities dealt with protesters, the extent to which they responded to, or considered, their demands and how this affected the protest movement in the governorate