Understanding E-Portfolio Continuance Intention among Students: A Self-Determination Perspective

This paper proposed an extended information system continuance model (ISCM) in the context of e- Portfolio utilization among students, Based on self-determination theory (SDT). The purpose was to investigate the factors influencing students’ continuance intention towards using e-Portfolio. The 370 usable data were collected and analysed further using partial least squares. In the proposed model, satisfaction, perceived usefulness, confirmation, perceived autonomy and perceived competence were found to be significant in explaining the students’ continuance intention to use e-Portfolio. The results of this study show that applying SDT to e-Portfolio in higher education institution can be useful to predict the students’ continuance intention

Serum Hsp70 antigen: Early diagnosis marker in perinatal asphyxia

BACKGROUND: Perinatal asphyxia is an important cause of mortality and permanent neurological and developmental deficit. Early and accurate diagnosis would help to establish the likely prognosis and may also help in determining the most appropriate treatment. Studies in experimental animal models suggest that a protein called Hsp70 may be a good and potentially useful marker of cellular stress that may be clinically useful in determining the presence of neonatal asphyxia. OBJECTIVES: Regarding the importance of early and accurate diagnosis of asphyxia, we conducted this study, which is the first investigation of the comparison of the serum Hsp70 antigen level between asphyxiated and healthy infants. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this observational study, the serum concentrations of Hsp70 antigen were compared between neonates suffering from perinatal asphyxia (n = 50) and normal neonates (n = 51). The inclusion criteria for the cases were neonates who had reached term and had at least two clinical criteria of asphyxia. Exclusion criteria were babies with gestational age < 37 weeks, infants with congenital abnormalities or positive blood culture. Exclusion criteria in this group were the requirement to hospital stay during first week of the life or babies whose mothers had difficulties during pregnancy or delivery. Term neonates without major anomalies who had asphyxia during delivery were enrolled in the first six hours after delivery, and control group consisted of healthy term neonates without problems and normal delivery process in the first week of life. The cord blood was taken during labor to measure Hsp70 antigen level by using an in-house ELISA (The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). RESULTS: The median values of serum anti Hsp70 titers were significantly higher in asphyxiated neonates compared with non-asphyxiated neonates (0.36 [0.04 - 1.14] vs 0.24 [0.01 - 0.63]). At cutoff point = 0.3125 ng/mL, sensitivity was 58% and specificity 76% based on ROC curve. CONCLUSIONS: A significant difference between the serum concentrations of Hsp70 of the control and patient group was observed in this study. It is inferred serum concentrations of Hsp70 antigen may be a useful marker for the early diagnosis of that prenatal hypoxia

Michaël Oustinoff, La traduction

« Qui ne connaît pas de langues étrangères, ne sait rien de la sienne », Goethe Dans un ouvrage pourtant bref, « Que sais-je » de 128 pages, Michaël Oustinoff, maître de conférences à la Sorbonne, parvient à nous brosser un tableau exhaustif de la traduction, à la fois sur le plan chronologique, thématique et théorique. Le style est souvent académique, parfois ardu, mais c’est là le travail d’un grand érudit, qui étaye chaque idée, chaque théorie, d’une référence précise à des auteurs, à des ..

Motivational model for continuous intention of electronic portfolio usage among students

The implementation of the electronic portfolio (e-Portfolio) has increased in higher education, as it can serve students in new and creative ways. However, despite its advantages, students are not willing to continue the use of the e-Portfolio system. One of the reasons is the lack of motivation to spend the time and effort required to use the system. The aim of this study is to provide a better understanding of the motivational factors affecting students’ continuous intention regarding e-Portfolio usage by means of proposing a motivational model. The model is based on the synergy of four theories, namely, self-determination theory, use and gratification theory, unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, and Information Systems continuance model. A qualitative approach using face-to-face interviews was employed to confirm the factors identified in the literature and to explore potential factors that are not currently presented in the literature. Thereafter, a quantitative method using the survey technique was applied to collect data from students. The survey yielded 374 useable responses which were further analyzed using the Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique. This technique was used to validate the measurement items and to test the hypotheses and research model. The results indicate that students’ satisfaction is the most significant predictor of the students’ continuous intention to use the e-Portfolio system, followed by social influences, perceived usefulness, facilitating conditions, feedback, long-term consequences of use, and perceived enjoyment. The results also indicate that five categories of uses and gratification, including outcome, content, process, social and technology gratification, have an influence on the students’ continuous intention to use e-Portfolio. Based on the findings, this study provides some practical recommendations for higher education institutions to enhance the continued use of e- Portfolio among students and classifies based on the different roles of managers and administrators, academic advisors and lecturers, designers and developers, and students

Obesity paradox versus frailty syndrome in first-ever ischemic stroke survivors

No description supplie

Comparing three data mining algorithms for identifying associated risk factors of Type 2 Diabetes

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) shows increasing prevalence and global health burden, causing a concern among health service providers and health administrators. The current study is aimed at developing and comparing some statistical models that are useful in measuring or establishing such associations. The three particular statistical methods investigated in this study are artificial neural network (ANN), support vector machines (SVM) and multivariate logistic regression (MLR) using demographic, anthropometric and biochemical characteristics on a sample of 9528 individuals from Mashhad city. Methods: The statistical methods involved in this study are also known as machine learning algorithms and require dividing the available data in to training and testing dataset. This study has randomly selected 70% cases (6654 cases) for training and reserved the remaining 30% (2874 cases) for testing. The three methods are compared with help of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results: The prevalence rate of T2DM is 14% in our population. The ANN model has 78.7% , accuracy, 63.1% sensitivity and 81.2% specificity. Values of these three parameters are 76.8%, 64.5% and 78.9% respectively for SVM and 77.7%, 60.1% and 80.5%, respectively for MLR. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) is 0.71 for ANN, in SVM model was 0.73 for SVM, and 0.70 for MLR.&nbsp; Conclusion: The overall conclusion is that ANN performs better than two models and can be used effectively to identify associated risk factors of T2DM. &nbsp

WHY STUDENTS USE ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIO: FROM USES AND GRATIFICATION PERSPECTIVE

E-Portfolio is considered as a digital collection of students’ work which demonstrates their reflections, experiences and progress over a period of time. Students can collaborate with other students and their lecturers through e-Portfolio. This paper explains the importance of uses and gratification theory in an electronic portfolio. Using the theory, this paper will investigate and examine the gratifications that students receive from the use of e-Portfolio. Generally speaking, this paper intends to provide a better understanding of why students use e-Portfolio. For the purpose of this research, an exploratory study is applied using 15 in-depth interviews with the students who use e-Portfolio. The result of qualitative content analysis shows that the e-Portfolio use is motivated by eight major themes including giving and receiving feedback, long-term consequences of use, selfdocumentation, information sharing, informativeness, social interactions, entertainment and convenience utility. Among these themes, giving and receiving feedback, long-term consequence of use, information sharing and self-documentation have the considerable influence on student motivation to continue e-Portfolio utilization. These themes can help universities to be aware of their students’ needs and reasons of using e-Portfolio. Therefore, universities can change some of their policies to motivate the students to continue the use of e-Portfolio

Planning Investment Model for the Electric Power Industry Subject to Underdevelopment Constraints

Industrial Engineering and Managemen