Improvements in medical care and technology and reductions in traffic-related fatalities in Great Britain

Traffic-related fatalities in the UK have fallen dramatically over the last 30 years by about 50%. This decline has been observed in many other developed countries with similar rates of reduction. Many factors have been associated with this decline, including safer vehicle design, increased seat-belt use, changing demographics, and improved infrastructure. One factor not normally considered is the role that improved medical technology may have in reducing total traffic-related fatalities. This study analyzed cross-sectional time-series data in the UK to examine this relationship. Various proxies for medical technology improvement were included in a fixed effects negative binomial model to assess whether they are associated with reductions in traffic-related fatalities. Various demographic variables, such as age cohorts, GDP and changes in per-capita income are also included. The statistical methods employed control for heterogeneity in the data and therefore other factors that may affect the dependent variable for which data are not available do not need to be considered. Results suggest a strong relationship between improved medical technology and reductions in traffic-related fatalities as well as expected relationships with demographic factors. These results could imply that continued reductions in UK fatalities may be more difficult to achieve if medical technology improvements are diminishing, however, demographic changes will likely contribute to a further downward trend.

HUBUNGAN ANTARA KEGIATAN MENDONGENG DI PERPUSTAKAAN DENGAN BUDAYA BACA

Penelitian ini dilatarbelakangi dengan rendahnya budaya baca siswa, serta kurang populernya kegiatan mendongeng di perpustakaan. Kegiatan mendongeng berfungsi untuk menarik siswa mencintai buku bacaan. Penelitian ini ingin mengetahui hubungan antara kegiatan mendongeng di perpustakaan dengan budaya baca pada siswa kelas 5 di SDPN Sabang Kota Bandung. Beberapa masalah yang akan diteliti adalah (1) Hubungan antara pendongeng dengan budaya baca siswa; (2) Hubungan antara alasan mendongeng dengan budaya baca siswa; (3) Hubungan antara kesesuaian mendongeng dengan budaya baca siswa; (4) Hubungan antara nilai pada mendongeng dengan budaya baca siswa; (5) Hubungan antara pemaknaan ulang (recretae) mendongeng dengan budaya baca siswa. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif korelasional dengan pendekatan kuantitatif. Populasi dan sampel ini adalah siswa kelas 5. Sampel yang digunakan sebanyak 39 siswa dengan menggunakan sampel area. Data diolah dengan menggunakan rumus uji korelasi Rank Spearman. Hasil penelitian secara umum adalah terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara Kegiatan mendongeng di perpustakaan dengan budaya baca siswa dengan tingkat korelasi sedang; secara khusus: 1) Terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara pendongeng dengan budaya baca siswa dengan korelasi tingkat sedang; 2) Terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara alasan mendongeng dengan budaya baca siswa dengan tingkat korelasi sedang; 3) Terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara koheren mendongeng dengan budaya baca siswa dengan tingkat korelasi sedang; 4) Terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara nilai mendongeng dengan budaya baca siswa dengan tingkat korelasi sedang; 5) Terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara pemaknaan ulang (recretae) mendongeng dengan budaya baca dengan tingkat korelasi sedang.;---The backgrounds of this study are the lack of reading culture among the students and less popularity of storytelling activity in the library. Storytelling activity functions to attract the students to love reading book. This study aims to investigate the relation between storytelling activity in the library and the reading culture in fifth grader of SDPN Sabang, Bandung City. The problems that will be observed are (1) the relation between storyteller and reading culture among the students; (2) the relation between the reasons of storytelling and reading culture among the students; (3) the relation between the coherence of storytelling and reading culture among the students; (4) the relation between the value of storytelling and reading culture among the students; and (5) the relation between recreate of storytelling and reading culture among the students. This study employs correlational descriptive method with quantitative approach. The population and the sample are the students in fifth grade. The used samples are 39 students with employing sample of area. The data are analyzed by using correlation test formula of Rank Spearman. The result of this study generally shows that there is relation between storytelling activity in the library and reading culture among the students with ‘average’ correlation level. Meanwhile, this study specifically presents: 1) there is significant relation between storyteller and reading culture among the students with average correlation level; 2) there is significant relation between the reasons of storytelling and reading culture among the students with average correlation level; 3) there is significant relation between the coherence of storytelling and reading culture among the students with average correlation level; 4) there is significant relation between the value of storytelling and reading culture among the students with average correlation level; 5) there is significant relation between recreate of storytelling and reading culture among the students with average correlation level

Election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability in Bangladesh: A case study of the 10th general election

Bangladesh witnessed her 10th General Election held on 05 January 2014 with some remarkable incidents such as major political opposition parties did not take part in the polls hence more than 50% candidates of which mostly from the ruling party were elected MPs uncontested; voters turnout was very low - about 22-26% (www.amadershomoy.com); due to a lack of contesting candidates in some constituencies there was no vote at all!); election ends with chaos; local media, international communities and donor agencies expressed their dissatisfaction about the credibility of the election outcomes and the way election was conducted; and others. However, the ruling Awami League called the election a free and fair one and expressed its satisfaction about the election outcomes. This paper deals with the following research questions: (a) What is the political culture in Bangladesh and how does political culture influence election in the country? (b) Why Bangladeshi regimes feel encouraged to allow ‘electoral engineering’ or fail to meet international standards while conducting elections? (c) What are the consequences when elections fail to meet the necessary level of credibility and how to overcome these problems? The paper is based on empirical data collected mainly from personal observation of the 10th national election in Bangladesh as well as information from the Election Commission’s website and print and electronic media reports about the 10th General Election and democracy in Bangladesh. Data from published secondary sources have also been consulted. This paper argues that Bangladesh democracy is again at the crossroads as the provision of Non-party Caretaker Government (NCG) has been scrapped by the current regime from the Constitution despite resistance from the main opposition block. In fact, the 10th general parliamentary election under party government raised critical questions about the credibility of election, legitimacy of the regime, and stability of the government. The paper further argues that democracy has been provided with little room for expected development by uncouth party politics or political culture in Bangladesh. Although an interim arrangement, called the Caretaker Government system, was introduced for transition from dictatorship into democracy in 1991 and was relatively successful in holding three free and fair elections; it suffered setback in conducting the 4th General Election owing to composition imbroglio and was replaced by a military-backed Caretaker Government. Therefore, this paper draws the conclusion that though electoral system in Bangladesh has been changed from the Caretaker Government system to election under party government system, little qualitative change has taken place in the country’s political system and electoral arena and culture to have credible election, followed by democratic legitimacy and regime stability

Election, political instability and fragile democracy in Bangladesh: Is proportional representation the remedy?

Being one of the most populous countries in the world, Bangladesh has been facing numerous challenges such as poverty, rampant corruption, decay in living conditions, slow economic growth, bad governance, insecurity and of course political conflicts and instability, which are supposed to be met in a democratic polity. After the fall of Ershad‘s military regime in 1990, democracy has been reinstated in the country. But the ―winnertakes-all political culture and mentality of the political elites has resulted in the boycott of parliament by the opposition parties followed by street agitations and general strikes on a regular basis. Thus many scholars argue that democracy in Bangladesh is not working as per the hope and aspiration of the people of Bangladesh. This paper examines the question of whether the Proportional Representation (PR) system can help in institutionalising and strengthening democratic practice in order to achieve political stability and sustained economic growth in Bangladesh. Our findings reveal that there is a need for political reforms, and particularly change from the existing ―Winner-Takes-All (WTA)‖ political system to the PR system in Bangladesh. This is because PR system paves the way for greater participation i.e. seats in the parliament are allocated among parties in proportion to votes they receive. Our data also shows that the PR system will not only grant legitimacy to the party with majority seats in the parliament to rule, but also build stakes for opposition parties to meaningfully participate in parliament by means of committee assignments in proportion to their representation i.e. the percentages of electoral votes and parliamentary seats. This paper further highlightes that the PR political system, which some scholars name it as a system with ‗justice as fairness principle‖, will also help to build a national consensus to resolve the issues of long-standing political contentious in Bangladesh such as appropriate electoral system, institutional framework of the electoral process, political neutrality of the Election Commission (EC), organise open, free and fair election, etc. These are some major political issues which are unresolved in the country for a long time and the PR system may bring a positive change in this respect by transforming traditional behavior of political elites thus making a difference in the quality of life of the citizenry in Bangladesh. The findings of this study also suggest that in order to adopt the PR system in a new democracy like Bangladesh there are also numerous challenges such as: commodification of election, commercialisation of nomination, the issue of geographical representation, instability of the government, etc

Teacher professionalism and role perception in Bangladesh

This study made an attempt to explore professional role orientation of schoolteacher in Bangladesh in terms of their professional performance and motivation. This study shows that well-trained and motivated teachers are the key to any education system but because of the political/ electoral interest in the occupation the government policies toward primary education and teaching occupation in particular are targeted to establish state authority over the activities of teachers and their vocational life. Moreover, primary teachers in Bangladesh belong to trade-union type organization instead of ‘knowledge base’ organization of occupational group. Different political parties backed vocational associations and their distinctive ideologies has resulted lack of interest articulation of the practitioners. At the same time schoolteachers fail to have access into the process of management and delivery of their services and remain powerless. Moreover, mentality of schoolteachers is to attend respective vocational training program only due to system demands and also to get on to a higher pay scale. Their training does not match to the purpose of their occupational development and poor quality of training as well as poor academic competence resulted ineffective teaching in the classroom and de-professionalized teaching occupation in primary sub-sector in Bangladesh. As primary education is nationalized and free, and the state is the ultimate user of the vocational services of primary schoolteachers, thus the power, resources and prestige of primary teaching occupation depend largely on the policies of the Bangladesh state to which it is subject. So, the state has to decide whether it will act as regulator of primary teaching occupation or instruments of its professional advancement

Election, democratic legitimacy and regime stability: evidence from Bangladesh

Bangladesh witnessed her 10th General Election with some remarkable incidents such as major political opposition parties did not take part in the polls hence more than 50% candidates of which mostly from the ruling party were elected MPs uncontested; voters turnout was very low - about 22-26% (www.amadershomoy.com); due to a lack of contesting candidates in some constituencies there was no vote at all!); election ends with chaos; local media, international communities and donor agencies expressed their dissatisfaction about the credibility of the election outcomes and the way election was conducted; and others. However, the ruling Awami League called the election a free and fair one and expressed its satisfaction about the election outcomes. This paper deals with the following research questions: (a) What is the political culture in Bangladesh and how does political culture influence election in the country? (b) Why Bangladeshi regimes feel encouraged to allow ‘electoral engineering’ or fail to meet international standards while conducting elections? (c) What are the consequences when elections fail to meet the necessary level of credibility and how to overcome these problems? The paper is based on empirical data collected mainly from personal observation of the 10th national election in Bangladesh as well as information from the Election Commission’s website and print and electronic media reports about the 10th General Election and democracy in Bangladesh. Data from published secondary sources have also been consulted. This paper argues that Bangladesh democracy is again at the crossroads as the provision of Non-party Caretaker Government (NCG) has been scrapped by the current regime from the Constitution despite resistance from the main opposition block. In fact, the 10th general parliamentary election under party government raised critical questions about the credibility of election, legitimacy of the regime, and stability of the government. The paper further argues that democracy has been provided with little room for expected development by uncouth party politics or political culture in Bangladesh. Although an interim arrangement, called the Caretaker Government system, was introduced for transition from dictatorship into democracy in 1991 and was relatively successful in holding three free and fair elections; it suffered setback in conducting the 4th General Election owing to composition imbroglio and was replaced by a military-backed Caretaker Government. Therefore, this paper draws the conclusion that though electoral system in Bangladesh has been changed from the Caretaker Government system to election under party government system, little qualitative change has taken place in the country’s political system and electoral arena and culture to have credible election, followed by democratic legitimacy and regime stability

Improvements in medical care and technology and reductions in traffic-related fatalities in Great Britain

Traffic-related fatalities in the UK have fallen dramatically over the last 30 years by about 50%. This decline has been observed in many other developed countries with similar rates of reduction. Many factors have been associated with this decline, including safer vehicle design, increased seat-belt use, changing demographics, and improved infrastructure. One factor not normally considered is the role that improved medical technology may have in reducing total traffic-related fatalities. This study analyzed cross-sectional time-series data in the UK to examine this relationship. Various proxies for medical technology improvement were included in a fixed effects negative binomial model to assess whether they are associated with reductions in traffic-related fatalities. Various demographic variables, such as age cohorts, GDP and changes in per-capita income are also included. The statistical methods employed control for heterogeneity in the data and therefore other factors that may affect the dependent variable for which data are not available do not need to be considered. Results suggest a strong relationship between improved medical technology and reductions in traffic-related fatalities as well as expected relationships with demographic factors. These results could imply that continued reductions in UK fatalities may be more difficult to achieve if medical technology improvements are diminishing, however, demographic changes will likely contribute to a further downward trend

Application of Neuroscience in Education

Neuroscience is a part of biology that focuses on systems and nerve cells in the brain. The science of nerve cells and brain work systems has an interesting focal point, which is to find out how the human brain works in every activity and action performed. In the learning process, the application of neuroscience can be said to be appropriate to help the learning process become more optimal by maximizing brain work. That is one of the goals of neuroscience, which is to be able to maximize the work of the learner's brain in the learning process and to make learning more meaningful and more interesting for the students themselves. But, of course, the application of neuroscience cannot be done directly in the classroom. It must go through several connecting aspects first, such as neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, psychological mechanisms, educational theory and then the classroom. In other words, the application of neuroscience in the teaching process still takes time, considering some of the aspects mentioned earlier

ANALISIS BIBLIOMETRIK TERHADAP JURNAL BIDANG PERPUSTAKAAN DAN INFORMASI DI INDONESIA TERINDEKS SCOPUS TAHUN 2015-2019

Pesatnya perkembangan publikasi ilmu pengetahuan terutama dalam bentuk elektronik, menjadi sebuah tantangan sekaligus kesempatan dalam memperkirakan topik yang akan menjadi tren di masa yang akan datang, Media dalam mempublikasikan suatu karya ilmiah kini tidak lagi hanya sebatas berbentuk tercetak (misalnya majalah, jurnal, buku) namun juga berbentuk digital (e-book, e-journal) sehingga peneliti memiliki lebih banyak pilihan guna mempublikasikan karya ilmiahnya, akan tetapi setiap peneliti belum sepenuhnya memahami nilai kontribusi dan ukuran yang sudah dicapai dari hasil penelitiannya, oleh karena itu perlu adanya penjelesan bibliometrika dalam menganalisis masalah tersebut. Tujuan dari penelitian ini yaitu : (1) Menganalisis produktivitas pengarang pada jurnal bidang perpustakaan dan infromasi di Indonesia terindeks scopus tahun 2015-2019; (2) Menganalisis Kolaborasi pengarang pada jurnal bidang perpustakaan dan infromasi di Indonesia terindeks scopus tahun 2015-2019. Adapun hasil dari penelitian ini adalah : (1) Pola produktivitas pengarang karya ilmiah bidang perpustakaan dan informasi di Indonesia yang terindeks Scopus tahun 2015-2019  berdasarkan hukum Lotka memiliki nilai eksponen n = 2.1894 dengan tetapan C = 0,6082; (2) Total 1903 karya tulis ilmiah bidang perpustakaan dan informasi di Indonesia yang terindeks scopus memiliki tingkat kolaborasi penulis 96% = 0,96