Religion and Well-being: Differences by Identity and Practice

Religion is often related to greater psychological well-being in college students (Burris et al., 2009). However, across studies, researchers have conceptualized “religion” in different ways. Despite the fact that religious identity and practice tend to be related, these aspects of religion may be differentially related to well-being (Lopez, Huynh & Fuligni, 2011). In addition, the relationship between religion and well-being may differ based on societal factors such as race and gender (Diener, Tay & Myers, 2011). In this study, 157 undergraduate students completed measures of religious identity, religious practice, public regard (the extent to which people feel that their race and gender identity is viewed positively or negatively by the broader society), and psychological well-being. Regression analyses showed that religious identity, but not practice, was associated with both higher positive and lower negative affect. There was a marginally significant interaction between religious identity and public regard for race for positive emotions, such that religious identity was correlated with positive emotions more strongly for participants with a high public regard for their race. Overall, results suggest that religious identity plays a more important role in well-being than religious practice. Additionally, having a higher sense of religious identity is likely to result in more well-being when accompanied by a racial identity that is perceived by the individual to have a higher public regard. This relationship is not affected by perceptions of public regard for gender

Konfirmatori faktor analisis kepuasan kerja dosen

The University is one of the places to improve the quality of human resources. The development of education at the University of Batam city in particular has involved many parties, namely professors, the University, the community and other educational organizations. Job satisfaction in University lecturer becomes important to note. The lack of research on job satisfaction in University environment and the existing research is usually done in the industrial sector alone, so this study needs to be done at University. The object in this study to confirm the item indicators of job satisfaction lecturer. Data were collected using a questionnaire involves a number of 392 lecturers in Batam City University namely Putera Batam University, Batam University, and University of Riau Islands. Data were analyzed using SEM study of Amos. Results of the study found that, item 7 item confirming the satisfaction indicators indicators that can measure satisfaction with the Good of Fit is acceptable. The acquired results of the study can be used as a reference for the purposes of institutions, academics, and practitioners in making standards and evauasi job satisfaction. In addition, on behalf of the University needs to consider item indicators of satisfaction and need to also pay attention to other factors beyond the performed studies such as demographic factors, management and others

SECTORAL EFFECTS OF RINGGIT DEPRECIATION SHOCKS

The paper seeks to address two important questions-namely, is exchange rate depreciation expansionary or contractionary and are there distributional consequences of exchange rate shocks for the case of Malaysia? In the paper, we consider the relations between aggregate output as well as eight sectoral outputs and real effective exchange rate in multivariate setting. Applying multivariate cointegration test, we find evidence for cointegration among the variables for all sectors. More importantly, both real output (aggregate output as well as all sectoral output) and real exchange rate contribute significantly to the cointegration space, affirming the presence of long run relations between the two focused variables. In most cases, the estimated cointegrating vectors suggest expansionary currency depreciation. Our simulated dynamics using generalized impulse responses further substantiate this finding especially over longer horizons. Over shorter horizons, however, exchange rate depreciation can be contractionary for certain sectors particularly for the construction sector. Lastly, we also find evidence indicative of the differential effects of the currency shocks. Comparatively, the manufacturing sector, transport, storage and communication sector, and finance, insurance, real estates and business services sector seem to be affected more by exchange rate fluctuations.Exchange Rate Shocks, Sectoral Output, Cointegration, Generalized Impulse Responses

An Empirical Analysis of Real Activity and Stock Returns in an Emerging Market

The present paper analyzes the role of stock market returns as a predictor of real output for a fast-growing emerging market, Malaysia. In the analysis, forecasting equations for 1-, 2-, 4-, and 8-quarter forecasting horizons based on autoregressive distributed lags framework are adopted. From the estimation, we find evidence that stock market returns do contain predictive ability at short-forecasting horizons, especially at less than 4-quarter horizons. Estimating the forecasting models recursively, we note reduction of out-of-sample forecasting evaluation statistics, namely the mean absolute errors (MAE) and the mean squared forecast errors (MSFE), from those obtained from the simple autoregressive (AR) model. More importantly, the null hypothesis of equal predictive accuracy between the model with stock returns as a predictor and the AR model is rejected for the 1-quarter and 2-quarter forecasting horizons by the McCraken’s (2007) out-of-sample-F statistics.Stock Return, Real GDP Growth, Out-of-Sample Forecasts, Malaysia

Assessment of Students Performances in Biology: Implication for Measurements and Evaluation of Learning

Scienceeducation is believed to be a vital tool for individual and societal development at large. The persistent low levels of students' achievement in sciences at the various public examinations in Nigeria have continued to draw the attention of major stakeholders in education. This study examined academic achievement of Senior Secondary School students in biology and gender difference in students' achievement was examined. Ex-post facto design of descriptive research was adopted for the study. A proforma was used to collect data from a sample of two hundred (200) students, selected using stratified random sampling procedure from the Science secondary schools in Kano state Nigeria. The data collected were the students' performances in biology achievement tests. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and independent-sample t-test. Overall results showed that the test internal consistency reliability is low and unsatisfactory; the students performed below average (M=47.02, SD=16.493 (47%). Similarly, gender difference exists in biology performance with another significant difference between performance of urban and rural school students. The study concludes that, biology test used in Kano state qualifying examinations to assess students potential ability in biology is not a reliable measurement tool and that, academic performance of students in biology is unsatisfactory and evidence of differential performance between gender and schools locations. The implication for measurements and evaluation of learning as well as recommendations has been discussed

Mobile Measurement system for clinical diagnosis: A Transepidermal Water Loss Probe

Transepidermal water loss (TEWL) is commonly used as a surrogate marker for skin barrier function. Although current devices enable TEWL to be measured with ease and precision under controlled laboratory conditions, they do not yield reliable readings in an uncontrolled environment. This project aimed to develop a new TEWL device that is mobile, i.e. that would fit in the pocket and measure TEWL anywhere. For this, the prototype had to be portable, wireless and to have good autonomy. In addition the prototype performances were evaluated in terms of repeatability and sensitivity. The primary design is based on a closed-chamber to limit the effect of the environment. Moreover, the use of a fan to remove surface water and homogenise the micro-climate in the chamber was introduced. Mathematical modelling and measurements of water vapour and heat flux in closed TEWL chambers of a range of geometries was investigated to establish ideal sensors locations and blower flow rates. It was found that the fan decreased repeatability but increased sensitivity. In addition, it decreased coefficient of variation of measurements on moist skin, contrary to other TEWL chamber methods. Furthermore, lower fan speed yielded better precision. Finally, the gradient calculation is the crucial part of a TEWL measurement and Least Square Fitting was used to stabilise the readings and improve repeatability at the expense of computational speed. The work suggests that it should be possible to develop a viable new design that can generate measurements in the field that are easy to make and reliable but further work is needed to establish accuracy evaluation from a calibration with a fixed quantity of water and to develop a full commercial product

Derivation and study of dynamical models of dislocation densities

In this paper, starting from the microscopic dynamics of isolated dislocations, we explain how to derive formally mean field models for the dynamics of dislocation densities. Essentially these models are tranport equations, coupled with the equations of elasticity. Rigorous results of existence of solutions are presented for some of these models and the main ideas of the proofs are given