Data Gathering Devices Research Articles

Financial Management Skills and Utilization of Youth Enterprise Development Fund among Youth Groups in Baringo South Constituency, Kenya

The Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) was introduced in 2006 as a strategy to broaden economic opportunities and promote youth participation in nation building. The effective utilization of the fund is vital if its objective of empowering young people through entrepreneurship. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between financial management skills and the utilization of business development fund among youth groups in Baringo South Constituency. The study specifically sought to determine the relationship between investment decision making process, financial record management, saving behavior and cash flow management and the utilization of the YEDF in Baringo South Constituency, Baringo County, Kenya. Financial self-efficacy theory, goal setting theory, contingency theory and information asymmetry theory formed theoretical basis for this research. Researched entities was 22 YEDF-funded MSEs in Baringo South Constituency's. The study’s sample size was made up of 88 group officials, four fund managers and three youth fund officials. Questionnaires were used in the collection of primary data. Prior to the study, a pilot was conducted in Koibatek to test data gathering devices. Research data was collected qualitatively and quantitatively. Data was presented using tables and charts. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used in the quantitative statistical analysis. The mean, standard deviation, frequencies, and percentages are used in descriptive. The study established a positive and significant relationship between the three independent variables: investment decision making, financial record management and saving behavior, and YEDF utilization among youth groups in Baringo South Constituency, Kenya. The study found a weak positive and significant relationship between cash flow management and YEDF utilization among youth groups in Baringo South Constituency, Kenya. The study recommended that entrepreneurial training for youth enterprises, and distinct saving accounts to assist youth groups organize their finances. It also emphasized on the importance of cash flow statements to help investors and shareholders understand how much money group is producing and spending. The study suggested that further studies should be conducted on financial management skills and use of government financial kits such Uwezo funds, Women Enterprise Development funds should be conducted. Keywords: Financial management skills, investment decision, financial records, saving behavior, cash flow, fund utilization.

An Artificial Intelligence Mechanism for the Prediction of Signal Strength in Drones to IoT Devices in Smart Cities

Drones, the Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be used to create extraordinary responses to today’s difficulties in smart city challenges. A drone, which would be effectively a data-gathering device, could approach regions that become complicated, dangerous, or even impossible to achieve for individuals. In addition to interacting with one another, drones must maintain touch with some other ground-based entities, including IoT sensors, robotics, and people. Throughout this study, an intelligent approach for predicting the signal power from a drone to IoT applications in smart cities is presented in terms of maintaining internet connectivity, offering the necessary quality of service (QoS), and determining the drone’s transmission range offered. Predicting signal power and fading channel circumstances enables the adaptable transmission of data, which improves QoS for endpoint users/devices while lowering transmitting data power usage. Depending on many relevant criteria, an artificial neural network (ANN)-centered precise and effective method is provided to forecast the signal strength from such drones. The signal strength estimations are also utilized to forecast the drone’s flight patterns. The results demonstrate that the proposed ANN approach has an excellent correlation with the verification data collected through computations, with the determination of coefficient R2 values of 0.97 and 0.98, correspondingly, for changes in drone height and distances from a drone. Furthermore, the finding shows that signal distortions could be considerably decreased and strengthened.

The implementation of EFL online learning: how do the non-English department students perceive it?


 The COVID-19 outbreak influences nearly all facets of life, including education. This study conducted survey investigations to detect non-English students' views on the implementation of EFL online learning. This study used cross-sectional survey research designs employing questionnaires and interviews as data-gathering devices and procedures. The population of this study was all the first-graders of the Islamic Education Program of a State Institute for Islamic Studies situated in Central Java, Indonesia, in the academic year of 2020/2021. A number of 135 students took part as the sample of this study. The results of the study showed that there are three main phases of EFL online learning. First, at the preparation phase, they had high optimism of EFL online learning. Second, it turned into caution and forbearance at the implementation phase. At last, their optimistic level was increasing at the end (evaluation phase). This study means that it is not simple to retain the enthusiasm and optimism of students through EFL online study, particularly in non-English department classrooms. Teachers should be innovative in delivering instructions for learning, offering learning equipment, and selecting appropriate learning platforms. Teachers should also be able to comprehend pupils' psychological state to prevent boredom in online learning.

A Versatile, Low-Power and Low-Cost IoT Device for Field Data Gathering in Precision Agriculture Practices

Spatial and temporal variability characterization in Precision Agriculture (PA) practices is often accomplished by proximity data gathering devices, which acquire data from a wide variety of sensors installed within the vicinity of crops. Proximity data acquisition usually depends on a hardware solution to which some sensors can be coupled, managed by a software that may (or may not) store, process and send acquired data to a back-end using some communication protocol. The sheer number of both proprietary and open hardware solutions, together with the diversity and characteristics of available sensors, is enough to deem the task of designing a data acquisition device complex. Factoring in the harsh operational context, the multiple DIY solutions presented by an active online community, available in-field power approaches and the different communication protocols, each proximity monitoring solution can be regarded as singular. Data acquisition devices should be increasingly flexible, not only by supporting a large number of heterogeneous sensors, but also by being able to resort to different communication protocols, depending on both the operational and functional contexts in which they are deployed. Furthermore, these small and unattended devices need to be sufficiently robust and cost-effective to allow greater in-field measurement granularity 365 days/year. This paper presents a low-cost, flexible and robust data acquisition device that can be deployed in different operational contexts, as it also supports three different communication technologies: IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee, LoRa/LoRaWAN and GRPS. Software and hardware features, suitable for using heat pulse methods to measure sap flow, leaf wetness sensors and others are embedded. Its power consumption is of only 83 μA during sleep mode and the cost of the basic unit was kept below the EUR 100 limit. In-field continuous evaluation over the past three years prove that the proposed solution—SPWAS’21—is not only reliable but also represents a robust and low-cost data acquisition device capable of gathering different parameters of interest in PA practices.

Business model innovation for value and technology based preventive health care

In this paper, a structured approach for the development of an initial business strategy blueprint for a complicated, multi-partner, multidisciplinary, early-stage research project focusing on value-based and preventive health care technology, is presented. Based on an in-depth analysis of the changes, trends, and innovation mechanisms in the health care industry and of the health care markets and reimbursement systems in the four use case countries, an initial context-specific and country adaptable business strategy was developed. In that context, a variety of tools (business model canvas, business model templates, platform thinking, etc.) were used to create a modular and adaptable business strategy that could be cost-efficient. Finally, it was analyzed to what extent a transformation of the project’s part¬ner current business models and roles, would be required. One of the biggest challenges in that context is to bridge the gap between the current business models of the individual partners and the novel strategies required to make REACH and its touchpoints (=smart products and services acting as data gathering devices) a real innovation.

Social Responses to Nature; Citizen Empowerment through Design

Abstract Traditionally, design content creation has remained within professional practice and manufacturing industries. Open Design (OD) utilizes accessible fabrication, enabling lay users to create and reappropriate content. Citizen Science encompasses activities where communities gather contextual environmental data for scientific or community purposes. The paradigm combination provides opportunities for communities, grass-roots projects and social initiatives with opportunities to create ‘products’ addressing personal and global issues. Social design (SD) combines OD/Citizen Science practices, empowering responses by fostering ‘innovations that are both good for society and enhance society’s capacity to act’. This article highlights a SD case study that applied OD/Citizen Science to beekeeping. The ‘Bee Lab’ project empowered participants to construct data-gathering devices, embodying Manzini’s SD approach. The case study aided motivated participants to address local/global issues, facing Apis mellifera (the honey bee). The project yielded insights into motivation, community leveraging, public engagement for social good and more. Insights have been distilled into repeatable stages for analogous activities. The results offer applications for communities, design agents or organizations wishing to address the burgeoning challenges facing social responses to nature.

Georeferenced and secure mobile health system for large scale data collection in primary care

IntroductionMobile health consists in applying mobile devices and communication capabilities for expanding the coverage and improving the effectiveness of health care programs. The technology is particularly promising for developing countries, in which health authorities can take advantage of the flourishing mobile market to provide adequate health care to underprivileged communities, especially primary care. In Brazil, the Primary Care Information System (SIAB) receives primary health care data from all regions of the country, creating a rich database for health-related action planning. Family Health Teams (FHTs) collect this data in periodic visits to families enrolled in governmental programs, following an acquisition procedure that involves filling in paper forms. This procedure compromises the quality of the data provided to health care authorities and slows down the decision-making process. ObjectivesTo develop a mobile system (GeoHealth) that should address and overcome the aforementioned problems and deploy the proposed solution in a wide underprivileged metropolitan area of a major city in Brazil. MethodsThe proposed solution comprises three main components: (a) an Application Server, with a database containing family health conditions; and two clients, (b) a Web Browser running visualization tools for management tasks, and (c) a data-gathering device (smartphone) to register and to georeference the family health data. A data security framework was designed to ensure the security of data, which was stored locally and transmitted over public networks. ResultsThe system was successfully deployed at six primary care units in the city of Sao Paulo, where a total of 28,324 families/96,061 inhabitants are regularly followed up by government health policies. The health conditions observed from the population covered were: diabetes in 3.40%, hypertension (age >40) in 23.87% and tuberculosis in 0.06%. This estimated prevalence has enabled FHTs to set clinical appointments proactively, with the aim of confirming or detecting cases of non-communicable diseases more efficiently, based on real-time information. ConclusionThe proposed system has the potential to improve the efficiency of primary care data collection and analysis. In terms of direct costs, it can be considered a low-cost solution, with an estimated additional monthly cost of U$ 0.040 per inhabitant of the region covered, or approximately U$ 0.106 per person, considering only those currently enrolled in the system.

Ethnographic Research 2.0

Purpose – This article aims to present current and potential uses of innovative social research methodologies which harness emergent technologies. This article also seeks to note ethical issues surrounding emergent technologies.Design/methodology/approach – Specifically, the use of social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook as well as their applications will be explored. The use of iPhones as data gathering devices will also be explored as an example of the utility of ubiquitous technologies to ethnographic work.Findings – This paper finds that emergent technologically‐mediated ethnographic methods are of potential value to organizational ethnographers and that methodological barriers can be overcome to best leverage new media technologies in organizational ethnography.Research limitations/implications – This article has not been designed as a comprehensive overview of these social research methods nor as a primer to implement them. Rather, the main purpose of it is to begin to explore their potential...

Theory from Wind Tunnels: Empirical Roots of Twentieth Century Fluid Dynamics

Wind tunnels became major data-gathering devices for aeronautical engineering. They were indispensible for the design of airships and airplanes (and later also for optimizing the aerodynamic behavior of cars, trains, buildings and bridges). It is not astonishing, therefore, that theoretical concepts of fluid dynamics, too, emerged in close relation to wind tunnel testing. As the scope of fluid dynamics broadened after the Second World War, its roots in aeronautical engineering became obscured. I focus on the relation of the empirical and the formal in boundary layer theory, turbulence research, and gas dynamics. It is rarely remembered that it was in the wind tunnel where the empirical roots of these fields of 20th century fluid dynamics grew in close context with problems of aeronautical engineering.

On the Relationship between English Proficiency, Writing Ability, and the Use of Conjunctions in Iranian EFL Learners' Compositions

Abstract The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between English proficiency, writing ability, and the use of conjunctions in Iranian EFL learners' compositions. To this end, four research questions were formulated : (1) Is there any relationship between English proficiency of Iranian EFL learners and the extent to which they use particular groups of conjunctions (additive, adversative, causal, temporal)? (2) Is there any relationship between English proficiency of Iranian EFL learners and their writing ability? (3) Is there any relationship between writing ability of Iranian EFL learners and the use of conjunctions? (4) What is the relative importance of the four groups of conjunctions and English proficiency in predicting the writing ability? The study involved 120 male and female English learners of Kish Language Institute studying at different levels: Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced. Two data gathering devices were employed: a NELSON test compatible with English knowledge of the subjects (version 300-A), and two compositions. The topics assigned for the compositions were “Describe your city, Tehran” and “Describe your English teacher". The students wrote the first composition in a session along with taking NELSON and the second one after a two-week interval. In each examination, the subjects wrote a text including about 150 to 200 words. The analyses included Correlation, ANOVA, Chi-square, and Multiple Regression to display the relationship between the above-mentioned variables. The results indicated taht the High group of proficiency has a significant superiority over the Mid and the Mid group over the Low one on the writing scores. The use of Chi-square analysis displayed which level of proficiency or which level of writing use which type(s) of conjuction more. Multiple regression, then, identified which variable(s) are more important or contribute more to writing scores.

The image in sociology : histories and issues

While photography had established a minor presence in early American sociology, it was not until the 1970s that a practice of « visual sociology » became recognized as a subfield of the parent discipline. In anthropology, photography was used to gather data to support theories of social evolution popular in the early 20th century, but photography as a data gathering device fell into disuse as the theoretical focus of anthropology changed. In the 1940s, the pioneering work of Bateson and Mead reinvigorated the use of still photography in the analysis of culture. To this day, however, still photography remains underutilized in relation to film and video in visual anthropology.I suggest that for visual sociology to fully develop, it must continue to embrace a theoretical dimension. Furthermore, visual sociology must address postmodernism criticisms of documentary photography (from which much visual sociology takes its form) and scientific field reporting. Finally, I suggest that visual sociology offers a new means of gathering and presenting social science data. These experimental forms include photo elicitation, visual narrative, and the non‑linear organization of visual information in hyperlogic texts.

The Importance of Group Size in the Use of Problem-Solving Skills on a Microcomputer

Sixty-six seventh and eighth grade students were tested to find if group size was related to microcomputer problem-solving success and time to solution of problems. Individuals or groups of two, three or five students attempted to solve problems requiring the indirect linking of twenty clues. The microcomputer was used as a data presentation and recall device for students and a data gathering device for the researchers. The number of problems successfully solved significantly differed based on group size with students in groups scoring best. There were no differences in time to solve problems based on group size but practice significantly decreased problem-solving time for all.

Epistemological Implications of Fieldwork and Their Consequences

Fieldwork is anthropology's primary data-gathering device, providing a boundary marker from related disciplines. Since data obtained through fieldwork form the bases of anthropological theory, it is crucial that their truth value be analyzed. The paper discusses reasons for both the relative lack of epistemological concern in anthropology until recent times and its current vogue. The empirical foundations of fieldwork are examined and a grid is presented for judging the philosophical position of fieldworkers. Application of the methods suggested is illustrated by a case study of missionary/anthropologist field interaction. Finally, an argument is outlined against both rationalism and phenomenology as being antiscientific. These last two positions are seen as the logical result of anthropology's neglect of epistemology. [epistemology, fieldwork, methodology, recurrent relationships, empiricism]

Curriculum Practices

The purposes of this study were: (a) to determine significant differences between selected variables and attitude toward participation in curriculum planning, curriculum use, adaptation of curriculum content, and curriculum role patterns; and (b) to determine significant relationships between the dependent variables and teaching experience, grade level, and education. Data were gathered from 35 volunteer elementary school teachers. The primary data gathering devices used were the daily lesson plan, the Curriculum Attitude Inventory, and the Personal Professional Data Inventory. Analysis of variance and Pearson product-moment correlations coefficient tests showed that ethnicity and education were major factors affecting the curriculum practices of teachers and that some relationship existed between curriculum role pattern and education.

The questionnaire as a data-gathering device: medical school response patterns.

In this article the authors present the findings of a study of the process by which medical schools' internal information systems respond to external questionnaires. A representative sample of six medical schools was selected for the study, which was conducted under the joint auspices of the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Bureau of Health Manpower, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The process for completing four national questionnaires was analyzed following site visits and detailed documentation at each school. An overall objective of the study was to estimate the effect of this process on the quality of data supplied. A number of problems with the process which inhibited the provision of reliable data were found. These are highlighted and corrective action suggested both for the institutions completing the questionnaire and for the sponsoring agencies.

Randomized Response: A Data-Gathering Device for Sensitive Questions

Summary The primary purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of a data-gathering device which was first introduced exactly ten years ago by Stanley L. Warner. This technique, known as randomized response, provides the researcher with an opportunity to reduce, if not eliminate, the response biases which usually occur when respondents in human population surveys are questioned about highly personal matters. Cooperation and honest answers to sensitive questions are expected with the randomized response technique since it does, in fact, protect the privacy of the respondent. In this paper the range and scope of the technique will be illustrated by discussing the highlights of various measurement designs that have been proposed. Finally, some applications will be presented.

The 1972 Elections

Elections satisfy both the practical and the theoretical requirements of classical democratic theory if they answer one question only: Who shall rule? Judged by this test the American elections of 7 November 1972 returned as clear and unequivocal an answer as the United States Constitution permits – crystal-clear as to individuals, equivocal as to parties and political forces. But the student of politics and society cannot resist treating elections as data-gathering devices on a wide range of other questions, on the state of the public mind, on the relative potency of pressure groups, on the internal health of the political parties, and, of course, on the shape of things to come. In this ancillary role American elections, despite the generous wealth of statistical material which they throw up – so much more detailed and categorized (though often less precise) than our own – Suffer in most years from one severe limitation, a limitation which in 1972 was particularly conspicuous; they do not engage the interest of more than a moderate percentage of the American citizenry. In 1972 that percentage was as low as 55 per cent, i.e. out of an estimated eligible population of 139,642,000 only 77,000,000 went to the polls. Since this circumscribes the conclusions which can be drawn from the results themselves, as well as constituting a phenomenon of considerable intrinsic interest, it seems worthwhile to begin any examination of the 1972 elections by an analysis not of the votes counted but of those which were never cast.

Improved Methods of Accrediting

B ECAUSE of a growing concern about the quality of higher education in the United States, increased attention has been given in recent years to the evaluation of colleges and universities. Evaluation studies have been conducted by accrediting groups, educational organizations, interested individuals and, especially, by institutions themselves. Many colleges and universities have made self-studies, not only in the interest of quality in higher education, but also to aid in longrange planning. The establishment of bureaus of institutional research and the support provided by foundations have stimulated additional interest in the problem. Despite the interest in institutional evaluation, the results thus far fall short of expectations. Although the findings of self-studies in many cases have been useful to the local institution, they have not developed principles of evaluation which would have wide application. In accrediting, evaluation plays a central role, particularly in the process of determining the degree of quality which separates the acceptable from the ''not quite acceptable. The principal techniques used by accrediting agencies in the evaluation of colleges and universities are the personal interview and the questionnaire. Institutions have been required to supply an extensive body of information by answering questions put to them in oral or written form; and their educational quality has been judged in large part on the basis of the information collected by means of these two data-gathering devices. To be sure, the interview and questionnaire are essential tools in institutional evaluation, but experience in counseling and personnel work has shown that, particularly in predicting success, other measuring instruments, such as tests, are usually more effective in assessing the aptitudes, interests, and achievements of individuals than are the interview and related observational procedures.' One wonders, therefore, how much time, money, and energy are wasted each year by excessive reliance on personal visits of accrediting teams when better data could possibly be collected by the use of other measurement techniques. If it is granted that the interview and questionnaire are not adequate techniques for gathering data, what other methods are satisfactory? One must recognize that evaluation proceeds from certain assumptions. The writer, with many others, believes that an educational institution