Independent Decisions Research Articles

Student Preferences for Active Learning and Their Beliefs, Experiences, and Knowledge

Active teaching methods are believed to facilitate higher-order thinking skills and prepare allied health students for independent clinical decision-making. This quantitative, correlational study aimed to explain the relationships between student preferences for active over traditional methods and their beliefs, the frequency and positiveness of their experiences, and the extent of knowledge they have received regarding active and traditional teaching methods. Two hundred and thirty students completed a 53-item online survey. Students were enrolled in a Doctor of Physical Therapy, Masters in Speech-language Pathology, or Bachelor of Science Nursing program in one of seventeen participating institutions across a ten-state Midwest region. A combination of student knowledge, student beliefs, and positive student experiences with active over traditional methods predicted 72.5% (R2 = .725, p = <.001) of the variance of student preferences for active methods. When students have clarity about the expectations of active learning methods, how they benefit their learning, believe they are responsible for learning and take the initiative, and perceive a positive experience, they prefer active methods over traditional methods. The results inform health professional education programs with recommendations that influence pedagogical change to support faculty and prepare students for clinical practice, higher-order thinking skills, and workforce expectations.

IMMUNER: Integrated Multimodal Mobility Under Network Disruptions

Targeting at improving door-to-door accessibility, efficiency and reducing environmental impact, recent decades have witnessed vigorous development of multimodal transport. Coupled through passenger transfer, the failure of one mode, however, is likely to cause cascading disruptions to the complete system. Therefore, to maintain safe and efficient operations, the integrated recovery of the multimodal transportation system becomes an important, timely topic, given increasingly complex schedule interactions. This study proposes a mathematical model to handle the integrated recovery problem of multimodal transportation network by minimizing the passenger travel cost and mode recovery cost under failures of multiple critical infrastructures. For a case study on air/HSR interaction in China, our model incorporates decisions in terms of aircraft recovery, railway timetable rescheduling, and passenger routing with realistic constraints (e.g. max travel time, max transfer time). A column-and-row generation based heuristic solution algorithm is developed in order to solve the complex model with given computational budgets. Results reveal that real-world test disruption scenarios can be solved within 20 minutes with a small relaxation gap. A significant amount of passenger traveling time can be reduced in contrast to a sequential recovery approach with independent reaction decisions for each transport mode. This work contributes towards the development of support tools for integrated disruption management of multimodal transportation.

Decision rules for dispersed data using a federated learning approach

The paper deals with dispersed data stored in independent local decision tables. We assume that there are the same conditional attributes in all tables. The paper proposes a new approach to generate global reducts based on data stored in all dispersed tables. The federated learning approach is used to ensure data protection and privacy. Based on the global reducts, decision rules are generated for each local table. Finally, the global classifier is composed of the set of all decision rules. In the paper, the proposed approach is compared with the baseline approach, in which the local reducts and local rules are generated for each individual table separately. The final decision is made using majority voting of the local models. It was shown that the proposed approach using federated learning provides better classification quality than the baseline approach.

Rapid Sterility Test Systems in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Applying a Structured Approach to Their Evaluation, Validation and Global Implementation.

The current compendial sterility test has a 14-day incubation time and is often the time-limiting step in the Assess and Release Process of pharmaceutical products. There is an ever-increasing number of technologies available on the market that have benefits in addition to faster Time to Result, such as standardization and automation of readout (eliminating analyst subjectivity) and improved data integrity (including eliminating the need for contemporaneous verification of the result by another analyst). Regulators have been encouraging the pharmaceutical industry to adopt these innovative systems; however, it has taken a considerable time before receiving the first approvals from various health authorities (including both the European Medicines Agency and Food and Drug Administration) for the use of an alternative and rapid sterility test for the release of sterile drug product lots. This article describes a systematic 9-step approach to the evaluation, equipment qualification, validation, and deployment of alternative sterility tests that can be applied by pharmaceutical companies wanting to take advantage of the numerous benefits of alternative sterility tests. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the validation and implementation approach, including statistical methods. Although most of the steps toward implementation are aligned, the validation and transfer have been approached differently for each of the case studies because of differences in the chosen technology as well as independent company internal decisions to comply with validation guidelines. However, both case studies show successful implementation of an alternative sterility test for sterile drug products with an ∼50% reduced incubation time.

Cultural Competency Models at the End of Life.

This chapter examines the need and importance of cultural competency in providing End of Life care. The United States is diverse in culture. As we evolve into a multiethnic society, our healthcare providers must be able to manage this shift in establishing and providing care that is culturally appropriate and effective. Americans have the rights to provide autonomy and independent decision-making related to their healthcare; however, these core values may not align with ethnic and culturally diverse groups in the United States. Conflicts often lead to health disparities and resulting in care that is fragmented and inadequate. The difference in values result in improper management and miscommunication with patients and families that significantly affect care, especially during end-of-life.

Empowering Women in Aquaculture- Evidences from Jagatsinghpur, Odisha

Empowerment levels of women involved in aquaculture-related vocations were measured using the Women Empowerment in Aquaculture Index (WEAI) in Jagatsinghpur, Odisha during 2022-23. Ninety-eight women belonging to 9 randomly chosen women self-help groups were studied using a structured interview schedule. Regression analysis indicated that 53.9 per cent variation in the women empowerment level was attributed to annual income, information source utilization, social participation, participation in extension activity, training, and innovativeness. The empowerment level of 9 SHGs varied from 61- 95 per cent, with considerable differences between the domains- access to and control over resources and services, participation in social and economic activities, ability to make independent decisions, control over income usage, knowledge on aquaculture, and attitude towards aquaculture. Non-availability of bigger size fingerlings, lack of financial support from Govt. organizations, and lack of knowledge regarding recommended practices were among the constraints that limit women’s participation in aquaculture.

Education as Thinking, or The Role of Philosophy in the Educational System

The article examines education from the perspective of its goals and functions. The development of thinking skills is considered as both the goal and function of education, and the process of thinking as a means of education. Education is broadly understood as the creation of an image, and narrowly as the complex of social institutions that carry out educational activity. As a mechanism of socialization, education is one of the most important historically formed tools for the training and development of thinking ability, which is the main instrument of the evolutionary strategy ofhomo sapiens.The article discusses the ontological status of thought as an attributive property ofhomo sapiensthat defines human being. Thinking is a psychic reality rooted in biological processes, the fundamental basis of all cognitive and human activity-based processes. The author conducts a philosophical analysis of the concepts of thinking, good thinking, qualitative thought, and education. Philosophizing is considered as a special type of thinking, and the article researches its instrumental function, the potential ability to produce sanity, prudence, an analytical approach to any situation, and the ability to make independent decisions. Common to all philosophizing subjects will be that they will act as “demiurges” of their world, which they will be able to fill with their own meanings and values. Philosophical thinking is free thinking, which has a playful character, and therefore it can be defined as a game of meanings. The article describes existing approaches to the development of the philosophical education of children. The author draws attention to the advantage of the Russian system of higher education in connection with the compulsory teaching of philosophy, and argues to develop philosophical education for schoolchildren. The article concludes that the philosophical component of education at all levels, from elementary school to university, is an effective way to form high-quality thinking among students.

Озық тәжірибелі магистратуралық мейіргерлік оқыту

Today, the APN master's program for training nurses is at a stage of active development and is an excellent opportunity for career and personal professional development of a nursing specialist. The APN program will help increase the number of quality, evidence-based nursing research conducted by nursing professionals, as well as strengthen professional skills in making individual independent decisions in the care process. This article discusses the role and importance of advanced nurses, who are rapidly developing today, in order to expand the autonomy of nurses, as well as improve the level of nurses and the quality of medical care.

Role of Organizational Citizenship Behaviour in Firm Performance: A Cross-Sectional Perspective

Employees' independent decisions to support the overall effectiveness and success of their company are referred to as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). It encompasses actions like supporting coworkers, offering to complete extra work, taking initiative, and acting ethically in the workplace. As companies look for ways to boost their performance and stay ahead of the competition, OCB is becoming more and more significant in today's competitive business environment. As businesses become more aware of the value of employee behavior in accomplishing their objectives, the idea of OCB is gaining ground in India.Increased productivity, work happiness, and staff retention are some benefits of OCB that affect business performance. Employees who participate in OCB are more likely to give outstanding service and go above and beyond for their clients, which can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Despite the potential advantages of OCB, it can be difficult for organizations to promote and reward these behaviors. This is so because OCB is optional and not included in an employee's job description. However, companies may encourage employees to engage in these behaviors and profit from higher performance by fostering a culture that values and encourages OCB.

Responsibility of local government entities related to the implementation of the budget formulation and execution process – selected issues

The functioning of the local government in the state, finding its foundations in the decentralisation process, is related to the allocation of specific tasks to it and, as a consequence, to a relevant share in public revenues. Equipping local government units with financial resources is in fact an important element ensuring their ability to perform the entrusted public tasks, while running their own financial management allows for independent decisions on the manner of management of the entrusted public resources. Independent financial management relates to the adoption of a budget resolution on an annual basis, which is its basis, and with a specific procedure for budget execution. The granting of certain competences (public tasks), revenue authority and the attribute of independent running of the financial economy is connected to a specific mode of responsibility of local government units, which, like responsibility in financial law in general, is a complex issue and is characterised by a variety of applied sanctions and legal regulations. The sanctions applicable in this case – depending on the entity concerned – are primarily systemic financial law sanctions, administrative sanctions, sanctions for breach of public finance discipline, but also criminal sanctions, fiscal criminal sanctions and civil sanctions.

Study tours in China as a tool for improving quality education

In the last decade, China has continued to pursue an active policy of reforming the education system and improving the quality of human capital, and thus creating an environment conducive to the socio-economic development of the state. The education sector is developing in all directions and is no longer limited with only compulsory nine-year education. The authorities stress the need for quality education and are taking steps to improve the educational process. "High quality" education must be comprehensive, as it is a key way of ensuring the long-term economic growth of the whole country. In such circumstances, the development of the study tour segment as a tool to broaden students' horizons and develop their practical skills, has become increasingly popular and has therefore received the support of the authorities. Study tours are organized by schools according to the characteristics of the region, the age of the students and the content needs of the curricula for specific subjects. The purpose of such out-of-school trips is to enrich the knowledge of primary and secondary school students, to acquaint them with nature and culture, and to gain experience of communicating in society and making independent decisions. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the segment as a whole has managed to weather the crisis and enter a new phase of development. Shortly before the launch of the 'Double Reduction Policy' aimed at reducing homework and extracurricular activities and improving the quality of education and its accessibility to all segments of the population, study tours became an integral part of the educational programmes of primary and secondary schools in the country, but this area is still in the process of formation and standardization. It is now increasingly noted that study tours now inherit and develop the traditional Chinese educational philosophy of 'read a thousand books and travel a thousand miles', and are becoming an important new content and a new tool for quality education in the country.

Mitigating Malicious Adversaries Evasion Attacks in Industrial Internet of Things

With advanced 5G/6G networks, data-driven interconnected devices will increase exponentially. As a result, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) requires data secure information extraction to apply digital services, medical diagnoses, and financial forecasting. This introduction of high-speed network mobile applications will also adapt. As a consequence, the scale and complexity of Android malware are rising. Detection of malware classification is vulnerable to attacks. A fabricated feature can force misclassification to produce the desired output. This article proposes a subset feature selection method to evade fabricated attacks in the IIoT environment. The method extracts application-aware features from a single android application to train an independent classification model. Ensemble-based learning is then used to train the distinct classification models. Finally, the collaborative ML classifier makes independent decisions to fight against adversarial evasion attacks. We compare and evaluate the benchmark Android malware dataset. The proposed method achieved 91% accuracy with 14 fabricated input features.

A Study to Assess the Level of Student Empowerment and Explore the Challenges and Perceived Barriers among Undergraduate Nursing Students in a Selected College of Nursing

Student empowerment is the process in which the learner attains the ability to direct one’s own self and utilises it to make independent decisions which bring out the benefit to the individual as well as to the society. Student nurses are the future of the healthcare system, who need to be motivated to steer the wheels of learning. In this process of learning a teacher plays a vital role in inculcating the ability to choose and drive self-decision power. A cross sectional descriptive design was adopted to assess the level of empowerment, challenges and perceived barriers using purposive sampling technique. The study was performed in 1st and 2nd semester nursing students in 3rd and 4th year of College of Nursing AFMC. The study demonstrated no low level of empowerment while 5.83 percent were moderately empowered and 96.16 percent students were highly empowered, which is inconsistent with other studies, majority of which showed moderate level of empowerment. The reason behind high level of student empowerment can be that it was conducted in Category A, NAAC-accredited premier nursing institute. As the study showed high level of empowerment, further research is needed on a larger scale to assess level of empowerment and challenges faced in order to develop measures and strategies to enhance the level of empowerment among nurses. Such students show job satisfaction, productivity and high standards of nursing care.

Factors Associated with COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in South Central Appalachia.

The newly emergent COVID-19 virus reached pandemic levels in March 2020. By the middle of August 2020, there were over 1 million deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the U.S., with those in rural areas outpacing urban counterparts. Prior to emergency approval of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccine formulations, mitigation efforts addressing individual behavior were challenging. However, even with the entrance of these three new vaccines, herd immunity was not achieved in rural areas, as vaccine uptake remained low there. Although there has since been an abundance of COVID-19-related research addressing health literacy, vaccine hesitancy and overall medical mistrust, few of these studies focus on Appalachia. This study identifies barriers and facilitators to adherence with COVID-19 mitigation, focusing specifically on vaccine hesitancy in South Central Appalachia. A secondary data study was conducted with a subset of Appalachian residents from the COVID-19 Public Health survey. Participants were grouped by county using ARC economic county designations for analysis. The dependent variable, vaccine hesitancy, was explored in relation to five categories of independent variable: (1) demographics (with four conceptual areas); (2) belief; (3) action; (4) medical mistrust; and (5) health literacy. Findings indicate vaccine hesitancy attributes include beliefs addressing COVID-19 threat, overstatement of severity of illness, risk of vaccines, vaccine safety information not present from manufacturer, and independent decision to vaccinate. Findings from this study are comparable to HPV vaccine studies in Appalachia. As interventions are developed for Appalachia, it is paramount to focus vaccine administration at the individual and population level.

Sexual Crime Prediction in an African Context

The growth of sexual crime in Africa and the incapacity to control it have had a major physical and psychological impact on victims. Crime in general can reduce foreign direct investment in a country. This study was driven by the need to reduce sexual crime across the country. Data mining techniques were applied to a sexual crime dataset extracted from the South African crime statistics database on Kaggle to visualise sexual crime trends and create a model that predicts the occurrence of sexual crimes, thereby helping government and law enforcement agencies gain insights into the most common sexual crime hotspots across all the nine provinces of South Africa. This model may help law enforcement combat sexual crimes faster. We identified data analytics methods for sexual crime prediction and chose the best one. Because of a linear relationship between the dependent variable (sexual crime) and the independent variables (population and density), linear regression and decision tree classifier algorithms were used to predict main causes of sexual crime in South Africa. Accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 scores were used to test the decision tree algorithm's performance. Linear regression was measured using the R-squared score, which achieved 91% accuracy, indicating how well the model will predict sexual crime occurrences.

The postulated model of the prosecutor's participation in the delibation proceedings in civil cases. De lege lata and de lege ferenda remarks

The subject of this study is a critical analysis of the current solutions in the field of civil procedural law, concerning the mechanism of ensuring the effectiveness and enforceability of foreign judgments on the territory of the Republic of Poland. As part of the 2008 amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure, the legislator removed from art. 1148, providing for the obligatory participation of the prosecutor in the delibation proceedings. Contrary to the previously and currently applicable regulations of the civil procedural law, it is proposed to leave the exclusion of the obligatory participation of the prosecutor in the delibation proceedings. At the same time, the possible introduction of the adjudicating court's obligation to inform the indicated public interest ombudsman about the initiation of delibation proceedings is under consideration, leaving the prosecutor an independent decision on whether to join the initiated proceedings (Article 59 in connection with Article 13 § 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure). Such a solution, providing for the obligation of the court to deliver to the prosecutor a copy of each motion initiating delibation proceedings, would be a compromise, because on the one hand it should not result in an excessive increase in the obligations of the prosecutor's office, but on the other hand, in doubtful situations it would allow for the real participation of the prosecutor in the proceedings.

Digital Classroom Mise en Scène during Covid-19 Era: The case of Tlemcen University, Algeria

The current growth of E-learning as a viable technique signals a shift from the traditional teacher-centred classroom to a learner-centred one. The concepts of autonomous learning, independent decision-making, time and space flexibility, and teachers' evolving roles from instructors to facilitators are all well represented in the E-learning context. Our students belong to the digital generation, and no one can deny that we spend most of our time in front of our screens, exchanging via social networks or emails. Electronic devices speed up communication and leave behind face-to-face communication, which is a primary aspect to consider, mainly during lockdown (pandemic) in social communication in general and in an educational context in particular. As a result, it is interesting to investigate how distance learning increase/decrease students' self-learning abilities during the COVID-19 pandemic and the main issues students and teachers face through online education. The present research, an exploratory case study, was conducted at the University of Tlemcen, Department of English, through E-questionnaire to investigate how learning/teaching occurs as a hybrid process that starts in the classroom and continues online. Our findings highlight the importance of Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) in autonomous learning circumstances, such as remote learning, even though the generalizability of our findings has some limitations due to the cross-sectional character of the study and the sampling technique. As a result, fostering SRL should be a top focus in the physical classroom and online education. Self-access language learning centres allow students to learn in a self-directed manner to meet various learning objectives.

Attempts of Lithuanian State Archive Institutions to Search for Archived Heritage Exported from Lithuania in the Past or Related to Lithuania

As archival institutions are operating under the conditions of globalization, digital culture, and technological changes, displaced archives are evaluated from various aspects (theoretical, sociopolitical, or technological). Ensuring the accessibility of displaced archives remains the fundamental goal of archives, which is inseparable from the strategies of document heritage accumulation (acquisition) in archives, the application of archival principles or document concepts, knowledge of the history of a country or a specific region, and knowledge of the legal system. The research and good practice of displaced archives is also of importance for the state archives of Lithuania. Professor Zigmantas Kiaupa discussed the efforts by archives in an attempt to recover documents illegally exported from Lithuania. However, searches for the archival heritage by the Lithuanian state archives after 1990 have not become the object of scientific publications.
 The article gives a review of the actions of the state archives system since 1990 which was aimed at identifying the documentary heritage related to Lithuania but preserved abroad. The focus of attention is on the creation of legal regulation, accumulation of documents, and information about the identified documents related to Lithuania and the further activities of state archives. Archival sources show that, since 1990, the identification of documents related to Lithuania and preserved abroad along with the activity of their storage in Lithuania is a continuous and consistent process, although the scope of this activity is not large, and only a few archives have been participating in its implementation. The review of the activity of the Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania and the state archives proves that international agreements or agreements of cooperation between two countries contribute to the establishment of close professional relationships, but it is not a prerequisite for the document search. It is more important to provide methodological assistance to those who have preserved the documents related to Lithuania (especially to Lithuanians living abroad) as well as to coordinate the activities related to document management, their description, digitization, and publication, as these activities require different competencies.
 The article concludes that the legislative regulation of Lithuania created legal opportunities for the state archives to make independent decisions regarding the strategy of collecting documents related to Lithuania and to be more actively involved in the activities of digital cultural heritage actualization. The state archives of Lithuania do not associate the accumulation of documentary heritage related to Lithuania only with the physical form of documents. The article argues that the accumulation of digital cultural objects and the dissemination of descriptive information in archives using several information retrieval tools further complicates the accessibility of information. This is why the accumulation of information and its provision to the user, based on the one-stop-shop principle, should be regarded as a priority.

A cross-sectional study of women’s autonomy and modern contraception use in Zambia

BackgroundModern contraceptive use effectively prevents unwanted pregnancies, promoting maternal and child health and improving the socio-economic well-being of women and their families. Women’s autonomy has been shown to increase the uptake of modern contraception use. This research aimed to investigate the relationship between measures of women’s autonomy and modern contraception use among partnered women in Zambia.MethodsThis cross-sectional survey study used data from the health census, the 2018 Zambia Demographic Health Survey. We measured women’s autonomy using three indices: women’s participation in decision-making, women’s attitude towards wife-beating and women’s household status. Information from 6727 women in a relationship, not pregnant, not planning pregnancy and aged between 15 and 49 years old were analyzed using descriptive statistics and adjusted odds ratios (AOR).ResultsThe mean age of respondents was 32 years. Most women lived in rural areas (65%), and 81% were protestant. Current modern contraception use among partnered women was 8.8%. Women’s autonomy was significantly associated with modern contraception use. Women with moderate autonomy (AOR = 1.054, P value = 0.004, 95% CI 1.048–1.312) and high autonomy (AOR = 1.031, P value = 0.001, 95% CI 1.013–1.562) had higher odds of using modern contraception compared to those with low autonomy. Other factors related to modern contraception use included a higher level of education (AOR = 1.181, P value = 0.012, 95% CI 1.091–1.783), increased wealth index (AOR = 1.230, P value = 0.006, 95% CI 1.105–1.766) and age, 15–24 (AOR = 1.266, P value = 0.007, 95% CI 1.182–2.113,) and 25–34 (AOR = 1.163, P value = 0.002, 95% CI 1.052–1.273).ConclusionThis study argues that increasing women’s assertiveness to make independent decisions within the household is cardinal to enhancing the uptake of modern contraception in Zambia and other low-and-middle-income countries. Governments and other stakeholders must therefore consider rolling out programs to boost women’s autonomy, which in turn would support gender equality and reproductive health.

The Effect of Emotional Intelligence, and Social Support on Career Readiness with Self-Efficacy Career Readiness as Mediation Variables

The work readiness of final-year students shows the quality of available human resources. This research aims to determine the influence of career readiness on the dependent variables and the mediating relationship for the variables of emotional independence, social support, and career decision self-efficacy. Meanwhile, the mediating relationship between emotional intelligence and social support on career readiness through career decisions for undergraduate students at Andalas University. The method of collecting data in this study was by distributing questionnaires to 245 student respondents. The research approach used is correlation investigation to find the relationship between variables. The data collection method for the sample is probability sampling with a simple random sampling technique and using SmartPLS software. The data analysis process used is descriptive analysis and PLS analysis. PLS analysis using the Inner model, outer model, and hypothesis testing. This study has seven hypotheses. Four of them are supported, and three are not supported. The results of this study indicate a positive and significant relationship between social support on career decision self-efficacy and social support on career readiness. At the same time, there is also a mediating relationship between social support on career readiness through career readiness self-efficacy. However, there is no relationship between emotional intelligence variables on career readiness, career readiness, and mediation relationships.