General Facts Research Articles

Printed and Digital Media: Printed and Digital Textbooks

This paper aims to sketch a framework for comparing the efficiency of printed and digital textbooks. Considering the fact that digital textbooks are a relatively new phenomenon, they lack both practical experiences with their use, and research on their efficiency - which is why all results will only be of a preliminary nature. This is also why our paper will focus on an initial definition of not only the theoretical framework for analysing the nature of digital media, but also for analysing printed and digital textbooks. The broadest theoretical framework consists of Lev Vygotsky’s theory on the character of culturally-psychological tools and their influence on the functional organisation of the brain and of Marshall McLuhan’s theory of media, concerning the general fact of the medium (and not its content). The theoretical analysis shows that media (printed and digital) have significant impacts on the functional organisation of the brain, which is based on the brain’s neuroplasticity. The analysis of digital media shows that they possess a set of specific features that, despite all the advantages they have, carry important risks for the organisation and functioning of the brain and for the process of learning. The production of digital textbooks also faces a significant number of challenges that the current production has not yet solved. Empirical research on the process of digital reading and understanding what has been read, indicate all the problems that still exist in digital textbook creation.

Impact of Micro Finance among Self Help Groups in Fisheries (At North Chennai)

Microfinance can be distinct for low-income consumers such as loans, transfer services, savings, insurances and other financial products. Micro Finance Institutions and Banks use Self Help Groups as a tool to bring inclusive growth. The general fact is majority of fish community population are living below poverty line all over the world. The purpose of this study are to assess the State Co-operative Bank performance of microfinance onthe economic development of fishing community in north Chennai.

The Importance of Individual Memories of Slovenian Emigrants When Interpreting Slovenian Emigration Processes

Slovenian emigration is often presented with a general overview in which general data and statistical facts prevail, while the individual experiences and memories of Slovenian emigrants are omitted from these descriptions. In the study, which was conducted using a biographical-narrative methodological approach among members of the Slovenian diaspora from the United States of America, Canada and Australia, we were interested in the personal experiences and memories of those who emigrated from Slovenia themselves, or whose ancestors did. Through those life stories and memories, we can illustrate Slovenian emigration processes in such a way that people would better understand global migration processes. In the article we present three real life stories of members of the Slovenian diaspora, their individual memories and perceptions of their place of origin, homeland, the memories of emigration and immigration processes and memories of integration to the new social environments.

The Importance of Individual Memories of Slovenian Emigrants When Interpreting Slovenian Emigration Processes

Slovenian emigration is often presented with a general overview in which general data and statistical facts prevail, while the individual experiences and memories of Slovenian emigrants are omitted from these descriptions. In the study, which was conducted using a biographical-narrative methodological approach among members of the Slovenian diaspora from the United States of America, Canada and Australia, we were interested in the personal experiences and memories of those who emigrated from Slovenia themselves, or whose ancestors did. Through those life stories and memories, we can illustrate Slovenian emigration processes in such a way that people would better understand global migration processes. In the article we present three real life stories of members of the Slovenian diaspora, their individual memories and perceptions of their place of origin, homeland, the memories of emigration and immigration processes and memories of integration to the new social environments.

Effective Contrast Enhancement of Fabric Images Using Adaptive Intensity Transformation

Quality improvement ameliorates the visibility of entity in the picture by increasing the luminance disparity between the substance and their scene. Based on principal intensity rank examination and alterable intensity transfiguration of pictures my work presents a new clarity improvement scheme. In this work, glow alterable amplitude shift expressions estimated in the little occurrence lightness component using wavelet domain and mutates strength standards according to the shifting expression. Discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is applied in fabric images. Low-low sub band of the fabric image is splitted into low, middle, and high intensity layers with the support of log average lightness approach. Using the knee parameters and the gamma parameters intensity conversion values are evaluated based on our need. This estimation is based on the supreme luminance point of each and every layer. After the intensity transfiguration, we obtained the resulting superior image using Inverse Discrete Wavelet Transform. The outcome show that the proposed work boosts the whole quality of the image and perceptibility of general facts better than presented methods.

Healthy Facts of Organic Food

The general fact is that organic food (OF) production protect nature, takes care for animal welfare and contributes to human health. OF represents approved, certified and clearly labelled food.

The generalized Hadamard product of polynomials and its stability

For two polynomials of degrees n and m () we define a set of polynomials , where for , and call it a generalized Hadamard product of f and g . We give sufficient conditions for the Hurwitz stability of . The obtained results show that the famous Garloff–Wagner theorem on the Hurwitz stability of the Hadamard product of polynomials is a special case of a more general fact. We also show that for every polynomial with positive coefficients (even not necessarily stable) one can find a polynomial such that their generalized Hadamard product is stable. Some connections with polynomials admitting the Hadamard factorization are also given. Numerical examples complete and illustrate the considerations.

Can the Testing Effect for General Knowledge Facts Be Influenced by Distraction due to Divided Attention or Experimentally Induced Anxious Mood?

Studies on testing effect have showed that a practice test on study materials leads to better performance in a final test than restudying the materials for the same amount of time. Two experiments were conducted to test how distraction, as triggered by divided attention or experimentally induced anxious mood in the practice phase, could modulate the benefit of testing (vs. restudying) on the learning of interesting and boring general knowledge facts. Two individual difference factors (trait test anxiety and working memory (WM) capacity) were measured. Under divided attention, participants restudied or recalled the missing information in visually presented general knowledge facts, while judging whether auditorily presented items were from a pre-specified category. To experimentally induce anxious mood, we instructed participants to view and interpret negative pictures with anxious music background before and during the practice phase. Immediate and two-day delayed tests were given. Regardless of item type (interesting or boring) or retention interval, the testing effect was not significantly affected by divided (vs. full) attention or anxious (vs. neutral) mood. These results remained unchanged after taking into account the influences of participants’ trait test anxiety and WM capacity. However, when analyses were restricted to the study materials that had been learnt in the divided attention condition while participants accurately responded to the concurrent distracting task, the testing effect was stronger in the divided attention condition than in the full attention condition. Contrary to previous studies (e.g., Tse and Pu, 2012), there was no WM capacity × trait test anxiety interaction in the overall testing effect. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

The Effectiveness of Environmental Interpretation in Influencing Visitors’ Knowledge in Kinabalu Park

Protected areas are established for conservation of unique and pristine environment. Although protected, they are subjected to possible environmental and social impacts due to increasing tourism activities. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of Kinabalu Park's environmental interpretation in mitigating these impacts through the assessment of visitors’ knowledge. Visitors' knowledge was compared between those who were exposed (post-visit) and not exposed to the interpretive programs (pre-visit). Overall, environmental interpretation in Kinabalu Park is partially successful in influencing visitors' knowledge related to general facts as post-vist samples indicated higher level of knowledge. However, there were no differences in their knowledge related to scientific aspect.
 Keywords: environmental interpretation; knowledge; protected areas; repeat visitors
 eISSN 2514-751X © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/aje-bs.v4i13.344

Has ‘Strict Liability’ Given Way to a General ‘Duty to Compensate Harm’ in Czech Law?

According to the new Civil Code, adopted in the Czech Republic in 2012 (“2012 Civil Code”), ‘strict liability’ (or ‘no-fault liability’) is no longer considered ‘liability’ in the traditional sense of the term. The declared concept of the Civil Code is based on the premise that the notion of ‘liability’ should be limited only to cases where a person can be held liable based on their culpability (fault). All other cases, denoted by the doctrine as the opposite to ‘fault-based liability’ (or more accurately, liability based on culpable conduct), that is, ‘no-fault’ or ‘strict’ liability, are – in actual fact – no longer conceived or designated by the Civil Code as ‘liability’ (in Czech: odpovědnost). They are rather constructed as a legal duty to compensate harm. This begs the question whether unlawfulness can be considered a prerequisite for the duty to compensate harm. The authors argue that the answer to this question depends on what the unlawfulness relates to – whether an unlawful act or an unlawful state of affairs. Their argument builds on the premise that unlawful acts are linked to an individual’s conduct, where both the reason and the will of the individual are present and, as a result, such unlawful acts are based on the individual’s culpability (fault). On the other hand, what is typical of an unlawful state of affairs is that the law has been violated, not because someone acted contrary to it, but rather because the rights of the aggrieved party were infringed. The authors conclude that an unlawful state of affairs is a general legal fact which covers all cases of ‘strict’ (or ‘no-fault’) liability and even a breach of contractual obligations. The authors develop their premise not only within Czech law, but also through comparison with other jurisdictions (France, Germany, and Austria), and analyze the potential of and limits to such approach.

Responsibility, Reactive Attitudes and Very General Facts of Human Nature

AbstractThis paper defends P.F. Strawson's controversial ‘reversal move’, the view that the reactive attitudes determine what it means to be responsible. Many are critical of this account, arguing that it leads to the result that if we were to start to hold very young children responsible, they would be responsible. I argue that it is possible to read Strawson as providing a grammatical analysis of our moral responsibility language‐game by drawing two parallels between Strawson and Wittgenstein. This interpretation shows that the formulation of the problem associated with the ‘reversal move’ rests on a grammatical mistake.

Awareness of Vitamin D Deficiency among the General Population in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Background During the last decade, vitamin D status was a major concern in the health and biomedical fields. This study assessed the level of awareness and knowledge regarding vitamin D and investigated the factors associated with the level of awareness such as knowing general facts about vitamin D, sources, benefit, and consequences of its deficiency. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted among the general population in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, above the age of 18 years who were in 3 malls during the period of August and September 2017. A self-administrated questionnaire in paper forms was utilized and was divided into two parts to collect data. It was designed by the authors after revising the previous studies and validated by three pediatric consultants. An ethical approval was obtained from the ethical committee in King Abdulaziz University. We did an initial sample and tested it with the Cronbach test. The questionnaire had 2 parts with 19 questions. The first part was demographic information, and the second part was general information about vitamin D. An ethical approval was obtained from the ethical committee in King Abdulaziz University. Each participant received explanations about the aim of the study, and a verbal consent was taken from participants. The scoring system was as follows: for each right answer, 1 score was given and for wrong answer, 0 score was given, and the overall score was 14. The collected data were statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics using IBM SPSS statistics for windows version 20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Result Out of 1022 participants, 472 (46.1%) were aged 18–28 years, 830 (82.1%) were of Saudi ethnicity, 702 (68.7%) had a university degree, 275 (26.9%) attended high school, more than half were married (55.6%), and 54.4% had children. The majority of the participants agreed that vitamin D is important in the maintenance of bone and tooth health (88.4%). It is important in the maintenance of calcium and phosphates (76.6%), and it strengthens immunity (69.4%). Of the total participants, 86.2% were aware that sunlight exposure encourages vitamin D production in the skin. The overall knowledge mean score was 5.9 ± 1.2 (39.3%). Conclusion This study highlighted a high level of inadequate knowledge of vitamin D deficiency among participants. There was a significant association between knowledge level and education level. The awareness of vitamin D deficiency is high regarding its benefits. The study revealed that participants who did not have children had the highest score for benefits. Nongovernment organizations and social workers may work together with government health-care organization to teach parents and children about the uses and benefits of vitamin D.

Romania in The Last Hundred Years Historical and Musical Considerations What was done? What are we doing? What to do?

AbstractIn 2018, Romanians celebrate theCentenary– a hundred years since Romania had the largest territory ever inhabited primarily by Romanians, at the same time, a century since Romania as amodern country was born. What do we know about our history in the last one hundred years?Whatandwhydo we celebrate? We know too little; many of the Romanians participating in the celebration do not know what it is for. The torrent of pathetic and solemn words about the past is useless. I followed two paths side by side, which happen to be in a natural connection, but sometimes they also go through distinct stages: on one hand, the course of the main historical events from the beginning of World War I until now, and on the other hand, Romanian musical life during the same period. I will cover five historical stages (World War I, Interwar Period and World War II, Soviet Occupation, Ceauşescuʼs era and Post-Communist Period) pursuing four main aims: a) an explicit historical image (as a musician I had a relatively narrow perspective on general historical facts); b) completing superficial knowledge received in school (before 1989) with information to justify certain events; c) the relationship between history–culture–music, in support of the idea that art does not exclude knowledge and civic involvement, on the contrary; d)the Pastjustifiesthe Presentand together they work uponthe Future. In the epilogue I will reveal an example that I consider illustrative for this fourth aim: the projectSaving Enescu’s Cottage from Mihăileni.I have made this study mainly for my own benefit, in order to understand the historical facts, but especially to find an answer to the question:knowing history – what’s the use?

Messages About Contraception and Condoms in Mother-Adolescent Dyadic Conversations: Knowledge, Risks, and Effectiveness.

Little is known about the content of parental discussions with young adolescents about reproductive health topics. We sought to characterize the messages mothers share about contraception and condoms. Recruitment occurred between January 2012 and May 2013. Mothers and their 12- to 14-year-old adolescent son or daughter were invited to participate in a semistructured conversation about everyday issues and health topics, including reproductive health topics. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed, and a grounded theory approach to content analysis was performed. Content analysis was performed to characterize maternal messages regarding contraception and condoms. Urban city in western Pennsylvania. Twenty-five dyads; 14 mother-daughter dyads and 11 mother-son dyads. None. Maternal reproductive health messages during conversations with early adolescent children. Four key themes emerged. Theme 1 focused on general facts about condoms and contraceptive methods, how each works, and how to obtain them. Theme 2 emphasized the consequences of sexual behaviors and the advantages of safe sex. Theme 3 conveyed the effectiveness of condoms and contraceptive methods for preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Theme 4 described where adolescents could get more information about condoms and contraception. Mothers convey a broad range of information about contraceptives and condoms to young adolescents.

The Geometry of Projective, Injective, and Flat Banach Modules

In this paper, we prove general facts on metrically and topologically projective, injective, and flat Banach modules. We prove theorems pointing to the close connection between metric, topological Banach homology and the geometry of Banach spaces. For example, in geometric terms we give a complete description of projective, injective, and flat annihilator modules. We also show that for an algebra with the geometric structure of an - or -space all its homologically trivial modules possess the Dunford–Pettis property.

What defines a good website of a Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology? A user survey.

The Internet has become a widely used source of healthcare information. Many Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology use their websites for public relations purposes. It is, however, unclear, what relevant stakeholders such as patients, relatives of patients, physicians, and medical students expect of an Obstetrics and Gynecology Department's website. Therefore, we evaluated the opinions and expectations of the various stakeholders using a structured questionnaire. We asked gynecologic patients, obstetric patients, relatives of patients, medical students, and physicians to fill in an anonymous questionnaire consisting of general facts about the informant, one open-ended question on expectations and wishes regarding the website, and 28 rating scale questions (7-step visual analog scale ranging from, not important' to, very important') covering the topics "website navigation" (4 questions), "first contact" (3 questions), "clinic processes" (7 questions), "facts and figures about the Department" (4 questions), "visual impressions" (5 questions), and "obstetrics-specific items" (5 questions). Questionnaires for physicians included four additional questions about the value of Department websites as an information tool for themselves and their patients. We used descriptive statistics to analyze the data. 1458 questionnaires were analyzed (gynecologic patients, n = 615 [42%]; obstetric patients, n = 479 [33%]; relatives of patients, n = 77 [5%]; medical students n = 238 [16%]; physicians, n = 41 [3%]). The number of circulated questionnaires was not recorded and thus, the response rate is unknown. 1304 (89%) respondents used the Internet as a regular source of health care information, 642 (44%) had previously searched an Obstetrics and Gynecology Department website. All respondents rated contact data and information about processes in the clinic highest; whereas, other issues such as medical facts, visual impressions, and website design issues were significantly less important. Pregnant women rated contact information and obstetric facts highest. 90% of physicians regularly used Department websites for patient referrals and rated contact information and medical team details most important. When designing a website of an Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, contact information and information about processes in the clinic should be displayed most prominently and be easily accessible. Subsections specifically targeted at obstetric patients and physicians should be provided.

Comparison of Corporate Culture in Croatia and Germany

The topic of the paper is a law that has found its place and application in Germany, and in Croatia it comes in a different form: the Law on the Co-decision of Workers. The co-decision law directly influences German corporate culture. The paper will outline the Act itself, its division, its structure, some general facts about how, when and where it was published, when it came into force, then we will enter into the history of co-decision. Also, a link to the Croatian Labor Code and a part equivalent to German law will be shown. At the end of the paper, a survey on the quality of corporate governance in the Republic of Croatia is presented. The principles of corporate governance of the OECD are important for the successful development of corporate culture. We used scientific methods to produce the work: The historical method involves the process by which various documents can be used to find out what has happened in the past and the course and causes of a particular event, the inductive-deductive method is used in explaining established or discovering new insights and laws, proving the set points, testing hypotheses and predicting future events, and the comparative method involves the process of comparing facts and phenomena with a tendency to identify differences and similarities.

Misconceptions Regarding Blindness Are Prevalent: Possible Implications for Best-Practices and Policy Making

The intention of this study was to investigate the perceptions that sighted people have about blindness and what the visually impaired perceive as the most challenging aspects of being blind. Sighted subjects were given surveys regarding general facts about blindness as well as questions about what they consider to be the most pressing difficulties faced by the blind. Blind subjects were also given surveys that asked them about what they perceive to be the greatest difficulties that they face, conditions that have improved for them, and what changes should be made to improve their lives. We hypothesized that sighted participants would be at least 50% accurate on routine questions about blindness, that blind participants would more often report difficulties in accomplishing daily tasks such as driving and reading as their greatest challenges, and that adults would be more knowledgeable about blindness than minors because of their increased level of education and age. The results from this study suggest that the sighted have significant factual misunderstandings about blindness as well as what should be done to help the blind. The results also demonstrate that blind subjects surveyed for this study find the most challenging adversity to be the lack of awareness and understanding about their circumstances. Additionally, sighted minors and sighted adults did not have a significant difference in their general knowledge about blindness.

A Letter Concerning Leonetti’s Paper ‘Continuous Projections Onto Ideal Convergent Sequences’

Leonetti proved that whenever $${\mathcal {I}}$$ is an ideal on $${\mathbb {N}}$$ such that there exists an uncountable family of sets that are not in $${\mathcal {I}}$$ with the property that the intersection of any two distinct members of that family is in $${\mathcal {I}}$$ , then the space $$c_{0,{\mathcal {I}}}$$ of sequences in $$\ell _\infty $$ that converge to 0 along $${\mathcal {I}}$$ is not complemented. We provide a shorter proof of a more general fact that the quotient space $$\ell _\infty / c_{0,{\mathcal {I}}}$$ does not even embed into $$\ell _\infty $$ .

Addressing Challenges in Living with AML: Impact of Video-Based Patient Education on Knowledge and Behavior

Background: Delivering high-quality cancer care requires meeting the needs of cancer patients and their families. The Committee on Improving the Quality of Cancer Care has stated that systems should support all patients and families in making informed health care decisions that are consistent with their needs, values, and preferences (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK202146/). Fundamental to this is the need to foster good communication, developing and disseminating evidence-based information to inform patients, caregivers, and the cancer care team about treatment options. We created a patient education activity to empower patients with information and resources focused on: general facts about AML, testing and results interpretation, treatment options, and resources for self-care and support.Methods: A one-hour online video-based program targeting patients with AML and their caregivers was developed in July 2017 to address the identified audience needs. The program was video-based, and broadcast an interactive panel discussions with a physician specialist in AML, a nurse practitioner specialist in AML, and a patient advocate from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The program integrated educational slides, live polling and Q&A with audience participants, and patient video vignettes that touched on real patient experiences regarding life with AML. Programs were initially broadcast live and were later “chapterized” into 4 smaller segments and made available on-demand at CancerCoachLive.com, LLS.org, and on social media platforms (e.g., LLS and Cancercoach Facebook pages, YouTube) for 6 months. Knowledge-focused test questions were administered at 3 time points (pre-activity, immediate post-activity, and 8-week [follow-up] post), in addition to behavioral and communication-focused questions being asked at the follow up point. Data from these questions, live polling responses, and learner-submitted questions during live Q&A were analyzed to determine engagement, lessons learned and continuing patient-education gaps.Results: In total, 8,935 learners took part in the program (262 on cancercoach platform/8,673 via social media platforms). 69% of respondents reported that communication and collaboration with their healthcare provider(s) improved as a result of participating in the educational program; 27% reported improvements in care for their health. Respondents reported examples of improved communication with their HCPs specific to: their disease, traditional and alternative forms of treatment, and side-effects. Reported changes in behavior and self-care included: being more active, altering self-care behaviors when undergoing chemotherapy, and keeping informed of research and treatments. Learners showed improvements on 4 knowledge questions, including questions pertaining to: 1) Common long-term or late side effects of treatment (45 and 74% relative increases); 2) Factors related to treatment for AML (26 and 33% relative increases); 3) Factors related to testing for AML (5 and 7% relative increases); and the relationship between AML symptoms and low blood count (1 and 3% relative increases). Although this study is limited to patient and caregiver self-report, educational evaluation results and participant questions indicate that patients and caregivers benefit from online education on AML.Conclusions: Education on AML specifically catered to patients and their families can yield immediate and sustained gains in knowledge and behavior, which may improve their adherence to treatment, quality of life, and patient outcomes. DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.