Intercultural communicative competence through the eyes of Turkish university students

With increased globalization over the last few decades, the status of English has been recognized as an international language; and thus, the need for an intercultural focus in foreign language teaching has become crucial. Many researchers, concerned with intercultural awareness, intercultural competence, intercultural communicative competence and the integration of intercultural competence into English language teaching, conducted studies in various parts of the world. However, the number of Turkish studies on intercultural competence needs to be increased and the scope of the studies should be broadened as most of the studies focus on teacher perceptions on intercultural competence. This mixed-method study examines the perceptions of intercultural communicative competence by 93 English language learners enrolled in the English Language Teaching Department of three universities in Turkey. The study specifically searches into learners’ perceptions of efficiency of English language courses about intercultural awareness and competence. For data collection purposes, a questionnaire, a semi-structured interview and focus-group interviews were conducted. The quantitative data were analyzed using the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science) program and the qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. Findings of the study indicate that English language learners are aware of the importance of intercultural competence; however, they expect to be exposed more to intercultural aspects of English in their English courses. The study reveals that in designing the curriculum and choosing the activities, intercultural aspects should be emphasized more and the teacher should have an active role in helping the learners become aware of intercultural competence. The study also implies that teachers should be involved in in-service teaching programs which aim to (1) provide necessary background on intercultural competence and (2) help teachers integrate their theoretical and practical knowledge on intercultural competence into in-class activities

Meta-Analysis: The Effect of Lactation Education by Midwives on Exclusive Breastfeeding Behavior in Mothers and Pregnant Women

Background: Exclusive breastfeeding has a good impact on the baby's growth and development. Therefore, the role of health workers, especially midwives, is needed to provide an education about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding for babies. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of lactation education conducted by midwives related to exclusive breastfeeding behavior for mothers and pregnant women. Subjects and Method: This study is a meta-analysis study with Population: Mothers and pregnant women, Intervention: lactation education by midwives, Comparation: without midwife lactation education and Output: Exclusive breastfeeding behavior. The article search process is carried out through the Pubmed web search engine and is a research article published from 2017-2022. The articles obtained will be filtered using the stages according to the PRISMA flow diagram. Results: A total of 9 articles used in this study were reviewed and met the requirements for a meta-analysis, the research conducted in these articles was carried out in various countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, Euthiopia, and Spain. Where from the meta-analysis of 9 cross-sectional articles, it is known that there is an influence between lactation education by midwives and exclusive breastfeeding behavior for mothers and pregnant women (aOR= 1.60; 95% CI= 1.37 to 1.88; p= 0.008). Conclusion: Lactation education by midwives increases exclusive breastfeeding behavior for mothers and pregnant women. Keywords: lactation education, exclusive breastfeeding, midwives, mothers, pregnant women, meta-analysis. Correspondence: Amanda Kesli Ramadhani. Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Jl. A. Yani Mendungan, Kartasura, Sukoharjo, Central Java. Email: [email protected]. Mobile: 085692832776. Journal of Health Promotion and Behavior (2022), 07(02): 86-96 DOI: https://doi.org/10.26911/thejhpb.2021.07.02.01

Estudio del trabajo para mejorar la productividad en el área de granallado de la empresa metalmecánica PaintBlast S.A.C., Lima, 2020

El presente proyecto titulado “Estudio del trabajo para mejorar la productividad en el área de granallado de la empresa metalmecánica PaintBlast S.A.C., Lima, 2020”, presenta como objetivo general, determinar si el estudio del trabajo mejora la productividad en el área de granallado de la empresa PaintBlast S.A.C., Lima, 2020. La investigación es de finalidad aplicada, enfoque cuantitativo, nivel explicativo y diseño cuasi-experimental. La población es la producción diaria de planchas metálicas de 20m2 en el proceso de granallado en un periodo de 25 días laborales, la muestra es igual a la población, se utilizó como técnica la observación y los instrumentos fueron: un cronómetro, diagrama de operaciones y actividades, formatos para la toma de tiempos, número de muestras y tiempo estándar, fichas para la eficiencia, eficacia y productividad. Asimismo, estos instrumentos fueron validados por tres expertos en el tema. Para finalizar, se realizó un análisis descriptivo e inferencial, donde se verificó que los datos de las variables son no paramétricos y se realizó la prueba de Wilcoxon. Con ello, se demostró que la eficiencia incrementó en 9.94% y la eficacia en 4.45%. Por tanto, se concluye que la implementación del estudio del trabajo mejoro la productividad de 57.43% a 65.77%

Assessment of Soluble Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator Receptor (supAR) in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease characterized by a progressive airflow limitation. Soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) is released from the membrane-bound plasminogen activator, and is positively correlated with the activation of immune system.Aims: Release of inflammatory mediators is increased in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), particularly during exacerbations. The objective of this study was to compare plasma levels of suPAR and serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) during exacerbation and stable periods in patients with COPD.Study Design: Prospective clinical study. Methods: The patients with COPD were divided into 3 groups for evaluations: those with stable COPD [SCOPD] (n= 54), pre-treatment acute exacerbation COPD [AECOPD] (n= 53), and post-treatment AECOPD (n= 52). Plasma suPARand serum CRP levels were assessed for each patient.Results: Whereas the increased serum CRP levels of the participants were 54.82±56.63 mg/l during acute exacerbation period, during the stable period it was 5.02±6.31 mg/l and statistically significant (p= 0.0001). The suPAR level was 1.28±0.52ng/ml during the acute exacerbation period vs.1.21±0.59ng/ml during the stable period, without a difference (p= 0.49). There was a statistically significant decrease in the CRP serum levels; yet, although not statistically significant  a remarkable decrease was seen in the suPAR levels obtained before and after the management of exacerbations (p= 0.001 and p= 0.06 respectively).Conclusion: These results support the idea that suPAR, a novel biomarker, might be an important indicator if verified with further prospective studies in evaluating COPD exacerbations and treatment response like CRP used for decades