Problems in children's behavior and the responses of society

The purpose of the publication is to get acquainted with the many points of view of various stakeholders on the emergence, course and changes in the behavior of children in Republic of North Macedonia today and the ways in which society copes with this phenomenon and the effectiveness of social interventions. A quality research methodology was applied and interviews and focus groups were conducted with a total of 85 participants (children, parents, teachers, experts, journalists and decision-makers). The data were processed according to the principles of qualitative thematic analysis, and the results provided answers to research questions. In this research, the multi-perspective proved important for understanding how the phenomenon is understood, its origin and consequences, and identifying what does not work, that is, in part, and what needs to be done to mitigate the phenomenon

Evolution of academic dishonesty in computer science courses

[EN] Online exams and assignments during the COVID-19 pandemic have introduced new forms of student cheating. In order to maintain evaluation criteria and preserve established ethical standards, professors have introduced new methods to minimize cheating. When returning onsite, the newly created cheating techniques evolved once again. They were supported by special groups on social networks dedicated to easier liquidation of exams and getting better grades. Crowdsourcing became frequent, particularly for homework assignment  preparation. Recently, ChatGPT has become a new ally of students. This paper presents the evolution of student cheating in several computer science courses taught by the authors of this paper. All examples of cheating are supplemented by the detecting methods and own applications used to prevent them from occurring again. The paper ends by predicting who will win in the eternal war between students and professors, at least in the short run.Zdravkova, K. (2023). Evolution of academic dishonesty in computer science courses. En 9th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'23). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 421-428. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd23.2023.1608142142

Experiences of diverse and queer youth with sexuality education in Lisbon, Portugal

This qualitative study sought the views of diverse and queer youth in relation to Sexuality Education experiences, perceptions and impact in the context of Lisbon, Portugal. Despite a growing body of research on topic, there remains a lack of intersectional approach applied to Sexuality Education studies in Portugal. Drawing on eleven semi-structured interviews, this study explores key dimensions of formal and informal education sources: family, school, peers, and pornography and the Internet. Through thematic analysis, the author examined how these dimensions shaped youth’s understanding of sexuality, identifying emerging topics regarding views, needs, dominant discourses and impact. Formal sources often perpetuated heteronormative messages affirming gender stereotypes, erotic deficit, or silence, which was associated with a negative impact and feelings of repression and exclusion. Informal sources provided more significant and useful information, especially in the case of normalising same-sex experiences amongst queer participants. Nevertheless, participants were frequently exposed to messages containing patriarchal values and gender roles that indicated the need of equipping youth with critical lens while navigating informal dimensions. These findings suggest the need of more inclusive and comprehensive sexuality education for youth at school, treating individuals as legitimate sexual subjects and providing teachers with appropriate training.Este estudo qualitativo buscou os pontos de vista de jovens diversos e queer em relação às experiências, percepções e impacto da Educação Sexual, no contexto de Lisboa, Portugal. Apesar de um crescente corpo de investigação sobre o tema, continua a faltar uma abordagem interseccional aplicada aos estudos de Educação Sexual em Portugal. Baseando-se em onze entrevistas semi-estruturadas, este estudo explora as principais dimensões das fontes formais e informais de educação: família, escola, pares, pornografia e Internet. Através da análise temática, o autor examinou como essas dimensões moldaram a compreensão da juventude sobre a sexualidade, identificando tópicos emergentes sobre pontos de vista, necessidades, discursos dominantes e impacto. Fontes formais frequentemente perpetuavam mensagens heteronormativas afirmando estereótipos de género, déficit erótico ou silêncio, o que foi associado a um impacto negativo e sentimentos de exclusão. Fontes informais forneceram informações mais significativas e úteis, especialmente no caso de normalização de experiências entre pessoas do mesmo sexo entre participantes queer. No entanto, os participantes foram frequentemente expostos a mensagens contendo valores patriarcais e papéis de género, que indicavam a necessidade de equipar os jovens com lentes críticas enquanto navegavam nas dimensões informais. Esses achados sugerem a necessidade de uma educação sexual mais inclusiva e abrangente para os jovens na escola, tratando os indivíduos como sujeitos sexuais legítimos e fornecendo aos professores treinamento adequado

Attitudes and practices towards HPV vaccination and its social processes in Europe: An equity-focused scoping review

The sociological understanding of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination offers the possibility to understand society better as the processes that shape health beliefs and influence HPV vaccine decisions relate to gender, power, and identity. This research aimed to locate, select, and critically assess scientific evidence regarding the attitudes and practices towards HPV vaccination and its social processes with a focus on health equity. A scoping review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) and the recommendations made by the Joanna Briggs Institute was undertaken. Medline and Scopus were searched from their start date until December 2021. The review followed the Population/Concept/Context (PCC) inclusion criteria: Population = General population, adults and adolescents, Concept = Empirical data on determinants of HPV vaccination, Context= Studies on attitudes and practices towards HPV vaccination and its social processes with a focus on gender, class, and ethnic/racial inequalities. Of the 235 selected articles, 28 were from European countries and were the focus of this review, with special attention to socio-economic determinants in HPV vaccine hesitancy in Europe, a region increasingly affected by vaccination public distrust and criticism. Barriers and facilitators of HPV vaccine uptake and determinants of immunization were identified. Given the emphasis on health equity, these data are relevant to strengthening vaccination programs to promote vaccination for all people.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Classification of Urinary Calculi using Feed-Forward Neural Networks

Recent studies have shown that more than 80% of the analysed samples of urinary calculi in our  laboratory were mainly composed of four types of calculi, consisting of the following substances: (1) whewellite and weddellite, (2) whewellite, weddellite and uric acid, (3) whewellite, weddellite and struvite and (4) whewellite, weddellite and carbonate apatite. In this work the results of classification of these types of calculi (using their infrared spectra in the region 1450–450 cm–1) by feed-forward neural networks are presented. Genetic algorithms were used for optimization of neural networks and for selection of the spectral regions most suitable for classification purposes. The generalization abilities of the neural networks were controlled by an early stopping procedure. The best network architecture and the most suitable spectral regions were chosen using twentyfold cross-validation. The cross-validation error for the real samples varies from 5.3% to 5.9% misclassifications, which makes the proposed method a promising tool for the identification of these types of calculi.KEY WORDS:Urinary calculi, infrared spectroscopy, classification, neural networks, variable selection, genetic algorithms

Emerging Role of Robot-Assisted Occupational Therapy for Children with Down Syndrome

Robotic technology is becoming increasingly popular as a platform for both education and entertainment. It also provides us with new conceptual directions which might have incredibly positive impact on children with physical growth delays and intellectual disabilities. In this research project, the educational robot Roamer Too from Valiant Technologies has been used to explore the development of social skills of children with Down syndrome. In conjunction with an interactive collaborative environment, this device represents a unique opportunity for these children to fully engage in learning, play, communication, build relationships and have fun. The results of this study indicate that educational robots help to develop kids’ social and learning psychologies, moving from a more standard knowledge acquisition by absorption toward acts of exploration, collaboration, and creation. As a result, children reflect social initiations, communicative competence and joint attention

Assessment of health related quality of life in paediatric patients with asthma - methods and disease determinants

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the methods for assessing Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) in children with a focus on both the instruments available for measuring HRQOL in pediatric patients with asthma and the disease determinants. Adolescents with bronchial asthma often have substantially lower HRQOL. Frequent exacerbations impair children`s normal daily routines such as school activities, play and sleep. The factors affecting children`s HRQOL largely vary from those affecting the HRQOL in adults. Chronic diseases in childhood are a risk factor associated with serious psychosocial consequences - low self-esteem, behavioral problems, and difficulties in learning. Assessment of HRQOL can be successfully integrated in achieving the primary aim of the disease management - to maintain health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being

Compliance of MOOCs and OERs with the new privacy and security EU regulations

[EN] Since their appearance in the early 2000s, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Open Educational Resources (OERs) arose among the most important educational priorities. Many top universities worldwide have been involved in the research and direct implementation of this innovative pedagogical approach. Simultaneously with the development and massive deployment of the new learning and teaching method, European regulations responsible for data privacy and protection, and information security have significantly evolved. This paper assesses the compliance of the ten most popular MOOCs and OERs with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Directive on security of network and information systems (NIS Directive). In order to systematically examine their online platforms, a few privacy indicators were outlined and thoroughly observed. Alongside this, the involvement of the open education providers in the NIS Directive was examined. Research findings are presented and elaborated in a way that it makes easy to generate recommendations on how to anticipate the future of open education as a reasonable reaction to global change in the era of rapid technological growth, and at the same time to obey the crucial ethical principles defined by this development.Zdravkova, K. (2019). Compliance of MOOCs and OERs with the new privacy and security EU regulations. En HEAD'19. 5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 159-167. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD19.2019.9063OCS15916