Investment Of Effort Research Articles

Satisfação e lealdade discente nas universidades públicas brasileiras

Devido às mudanças do mercado e à necessidade do governo de fornecer educação aos cidadãos, o Brasil experimentou um processo de crescimento no ensino superior. Assim, de forma crescente, com transformações competitivas e constantes, as demandas por serviços de qualidade tornaram-se um denominador comum nas Instituições de Ensino Superior (IES), o qual expôs a necessidade de otimizar a gestão para que as instituições públicas melhorem seu desempenho em benefício dos estudantes. Ao contrário das outras empresas, que têm como objetivo a satisfação, essas IES geralmente percebem a satisfação como um meio para um fim. Ou seja, estudantes satisfeitos são estudantes leais. Assim, nesta pesquisa, o Modelo Europeu de Satisfação (ECSI) foi aplicado a 1.581 estudantes de 23 universidades públicas e livres no Brasil. Como resultado, observou-se que a satisfação é um fator determinante da lealdade. Entre os determinantes de satisfação, observou-se que a imagem, o tratamento das reivindicações e o valor percebido são os mais representativos. Dessa forma, a gestão eficiente da imagem da IES pública, o tratamento adequado das reivindicações dos estudantes e a percepção de que o investimento de esforço e tempo gerará ganhos futuros têm uma influência positiva e significativa na continuidade do aluno no mundo.

The effect of legacy pollution information on landowner investments in water quality: lessons from economic experiments in the field and the lab

To address the legacy effects of human activity on water quality, it is helpful to understand how land managers make decisions that directly impact legacy sources of pollutantion generated by previous generations, as opposed to current practices. Using data from an economic field experiment, we examine the effect of information about the cause and relative quantity of streambank erosion on rural landowners’ willingness to invest in stream restoration initiatives. Data from the field is supplemented with data from laboratory sessions in which students are presented with similar decision scenarios. We find that landowners assigned to legacy sediment sites characterized by high erosion rates relative to others in the community increased investment levels by 29%–40% of their budget in comparison to the control, with similar results observed among students. Our results suggest that informational outreach targeted to pollution hot spots, including those created by legacy sources, would significantly increase investments in mitigation efforts that improve water quality.

The Contribution of Instruction in a Knowledge Mapping Technique to Students' Understanding of Texts

An experiment to assess the effects of instruction in a knowledge mapping technique on students’ learning performance in Economics was conducted in four secondary schools in the State of Selangor, Malaysia. Instruction in a note-taking technique served as a control condition, and a pre-test-post-test design was utilised. The study involved 135 Sixth-Form Economics students (24 males and 111 females) and four Economics teachers. The effectiveness of the technique was assessed by four types of assessment tests, and the tests were developed on the basis of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives for the cognitive domain (Bloom, 1956), and followed the procedure suggested by Gronlund (1982). It was hypothesised that the knowledge mapping technique would assist students to perform better in the performance tests in comparison with the control group using the note-taking technique. The influences of gender, ethnicity, cognitive style and learners’ characteristics were also assessed. Furthermore, the research also investigated the effects of the technique on measures of students’ self-efficacy beliefs and cognitive effort investment.

Reshaping forest management in Australia to provide nature-based solutions to global challenges

ABSTRACT It is time to move beyond the era of conflict and develop a new shared vision for the management of Australia’s public forests. We need more holistic approaches that encompass all forest values across the landscape, rather than the current approach of dividing public forest management up across different government agencies. More collaborative approaches will be required to galvanise the resources, skills and knowledge that enables this shift in shared governance. Recent bushfires in Australia have heightened concerns that the management of public forest lands has largely failed to ensure the health of forest ecosystems, build resilience, and secure a promised balance between economic, social and environmental values. Investment in efforts to adapt forest management to address climate change has been limited; and empowering and increasing the role of Indigenous Australians in forest management could be significantly improved. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to improve the resilience of regional communities to major shocks and stresses caused by factors that encompass market dynamics, supply-chain disruptions and natural disasters. Three key strategies are proposed to strengthen forest management in Australia: first, establishing new shared governance models that bring together government agencies with Indigenous Australians and actors from the private sector and civil society; second, extending active and adaptive management across forest landscapes that builds resilience in our forests, local communities and society; and third, integrating traditional knowledge with scientific evidence and innovative technologies to enhance forest management for improved resilience and other outcomes.

Searching to improve learning from complex animated basketball scenes: when decreasing the presentation speed is more efficient than using segmentation

ABSTRACT In two separate experiments, the authors investigated how a complex animated basketball scene should be designed in order to avoid the high cognitive load due to the transient nature of information. Using system-paced segments and decreasing the video’s presentation speed were tested as instructional strategies to reduce students’ cognitive load. The effectiveness of continuous versus segmented videos was explored in the first experiment. The second experiment compared the effectiveness of normal versus low levels of presentation speed. The results indicated that while the segmentation strategy has no significant effect on learning outcomes, students profited more from the low than the normal presentation speed, as evidenced by the more favourable relationship between mental effort investment and game performance. These findings suggest that decreasing the presentation speed is an efficient instructional strategy that helps to improve learning from complex animated basketball scenes.

Agricultural R&D investment intensity: A misleading conventional measure and a new intensity index

AbstractThe conventional wisdom that developing countries are significantly underinvesting in agricultural research and development (R&D) has been challenged by studies that found that the high rates of return in the literature result from data limitations and inadequate modeling choices. However, evidence of low research effort in developing countries as measured by the intensity ratio (IR)—the percentage of agricultural gross domestic product invested in agricultural R&D—has not been questioned. This article argues that the IR is an inadequate indicator of research effort and proposes an alternative index to measure R&D intensity. Using the proposed index, we find that the investment effort in developing countries is much higher than the one observed when the IR is used, that the contribution of low‐ and middle‐income (LMI) countries to growth in global R&D intensity was higher to that of high‐income (HI) countries in recent years, that the investment gap in LMI countries is close to 50% of R&D investment, and that the proposed development goal of a 1.0% value of the IR is beyond the possibilities of most Asian and African countries.

We need to talk about the lack of investment in digital research infrastructure.

Research software infrastructure is critical for accelerating science, and yet, these digital public goods are often unsustainably funded. Solving this problem requires an appreciation of the intrinsic value of research software outputs, and greater investment of time and effort into effectively funding maintenance of software at scale.

Preboarding, Orientation, and Onboarding of New Pharmacy Faculty During a Global Pandemic

Recruitment of new faculty requires a significant investment of time, effort, and money, so it is important to set up new faculty for short- and long-term success in their new role.[1][1] One way to do this is to have new faculty participate in a formal onboarding process as it can increase the

Evaluation of Low-Carbon Development of Chinese Cities in 2018

This paper evaluates the low-carbon development of 176 Chinese cities in 2018 using the Low-carbon City Evaluation Indicator System developed by Research Institute for Eco-civilization, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The evaluation shows an overall improvement of low-carbon development of cities in China, with 10 cities scoring 90 points and above, and 106 cities scoring 80–89 points. From the perspective of city category, the low-carbon development scores present an order as follows: service-oriented [Formula: see text]-prioritized [Formula: see text] cities. Geologically speaking, eastern cites perform best, western cities come second and central cities come last. Of the three batches of low-carbon city pilots, the scores follow the pattern of Batch [Formula: see text] 3. Most cities are characterized by high carbon consumption and reduced efforts in low-carbon management and capital investment. Finally, this paper proposes to attach more importance to low-carbon development and strengthen capacity building for low-carbon governance; intensify efforts for constructing low-carbon pilots in order to help achieve the goal of carbon emission peak during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period; and to improve the Low-carbon City Evaluation Indicator System.

On the Geological and Environmental Problems of Aging Mining Enterprises

The article considers the totality of environmental and geological problems of the Kryvyi Rih iron ore basin. The aim of the article is to analyze the mountain-ecological consequences of increasing (expanding) the pace of mining in densely populated regions with a well-developed infrastructure. Based on the analysis of the current situation in the city Kryvyi Rih (Ukraine), it was proposed to transfer the established trends to the potential future consequences of increasing mining in the Urals. The research methods are the method of logical and structural analysis, logical modeling, analysis of literary sources.The main hypothesis of the study is a mining enterprise, which, regardless of current economic indicators, cannot be liquidated (reorganized) in a short time, since it requires preliminary systematic preparation. According to the results of the analysis, it was established that the main problems of mining enterprises are that they cannot be quickly eliminated, since this will negatively affect the natural environment, giving rise to numerous mining and geological problems, primarily related to hydrogeology and filling the voids. In case of refusal to solve these problems, serious consequences arise related to public health.The solution of large and global environmental investment projects is complicated by the fact that competing enterprises often operate within the same basin, which objectively cannot independently combine investment efforts to solve environmental and geological problems. Based on the results of the article, the main conclusion is formulated that it is advisable to develop an appropriate methodology for controlled attenuation of mining operations.

Assessment of visibility in industrial construction projects: a viewpoint from supply chain stakeholders

PurposeStakeholders of construction projects exhibit different perceptions regarding the visibility of materials in the supply chain, which affects the timely delivery and installation of materials. This study aims to quantitatively investigate the differences in viewpoints of owners, contractors, designers and suppliers about the visibility of materials at supply chain locations and different material types during the construction of industrial projects.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data about visibility at nine typical supply chain locations and three common material types were collected from owner, contractor, designer and supplier groups and analyzed using frequency statistics, relative importance index and tests for equality of odds.FindingsOffsite Tier-2 supplier, ports and kitting site shows the lowest visibility level for the owner, contractor, supplier and designer groups. Also, the supplier group tends to have adequate to extreme visibility at the Tier-2 supplier, kitting site and during transportation compared to owner, contractor and designer groups. An example finding concerning the visibility of material types is that owners and contractors perceive prefabricated material requires higher visibility than all other material types.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings are limited to construction projects in the industrial sector. Further, the survey participants were based in North America at the time of participation.Practical implicationsThe study’s findings indicate how visibility is spread across supply chain locations and for material types for the owners, contractors, suppliers and designers of industrial projects. As such, academia and industry’s research and investment efforts can be more focused on locations and material types that need improvement.Social implicationsIndustrial projects play an essential part in improving society’s daily lives, and this study’s findings contribute to improving the efficiency of the supply chain during construction of industrial projects.Originality/valueAlthough previous studies mentioned the need and importance of visibility improvement, none have sought to understand the perception of leading supply chain stakeholders about visibility at supply chain locations and of material types. This study’s findings provide specific insights and directions for advancing in these areas with regard to supply chain visibility.

Uncertainty Quantification with Experts: Present Status and Research Needs.

Expert elicitation is deployed when data are absent or uninformative and critical decisions must be made. In designing an expert elicitation, most practitioners seek to achieve best practice while balancing practical constraints. The choices made influence the required time and effort investment, the quality of the elicited data, experts' engagement, the defensibility of results, and the acceptability of resulting decisions. This piece outlines some of the common choices practitioners encounter when designing and conducting an elicitation. We discuss the evidence supporting these decisions and identify research gaps. This will hopefully allow practitioners to better navigate the literature, and will inspire the expert judgment research community to conduct well powered, replicable experiments that properly address the research gaps identified.

Reflection on Covid 19 Educational Contexts, Pedagogy of Hope, Self-efficacy and Effort: University of Eswatini


 Abstract 
 Towards the end of 2019 the world experienced the Coronavirus disease (Covid 19) pandemic which affected operations of education systems. This reflective study examines how a lecturer and students built hope and self-efficacy under Covid 19 educational contexts. Self-efficacy–hopeful thinking model and Bernstein Framework were used in this study. The sample consisted of 515 students and 1 lecturer and it was sampled through purposeful stratified sampling. Data was collected through the lecturer’s self-reflection on his ability to build hope, self-efficacy to meet academic demands. The lecturer also observed students’ behaviours. The data was analysed through content analysis. Findings indicated that Covid 19 educational contexts mediated on students’ levels of hope, acadmic investment and created false impression that University academic year had been lost. Some students developed low level of self-efficacy belief which forced them to approach educational problems without conviction and hopeful thinking. The findings indicated that lecturer’s behaviour towards students contributed to the improvement of a high sense of self-efficacy belief and effort investment in their work. The lecturer maintained hopefullness and confidence among students. The study concluded that educational processes under the uncertainties of Covid 19 were paradigm shift for the lecturer and students’ academic life. It provided opportunities to transform and reconstruct pedagogical discourses in relation to Covid 19 educational contexts. It may be recommended that lecturers and others within institutions may be urged to reflect on Covid 19 educational challenges and embrace them rather than avoid them. 
 Key words: Covid 19, Hope, Self-efficacy, Effort, Empathy

Effort investment in uncontrollable situations: The moderating role of motivation toward closure

According to the principle of energy-conservation principle, effort investment is usually reduced in situations that are perceived as uncontrollable. This is because when success is recognized as impossible, any effortful actions are no longer justified. However, we predicted that individual differences in uncertainty tolerance, i.e., the need for closure (NFC), may moderate effort investment in uncontrollable situations. We tested this prediction in two experimental studies in which we exposed participants with differing levels of NFC to uncontrollable events, and indexed effort through the assessment of systolic blood pressure (SBP) responses. As predicted, in the uncontrollability (vs. controllability) condition, effort investment decreased significantly among low- but not high-NFC participants. Since gaining certainty and achieving closure is not a critical epistemic goal for low-NFC individuals, exerting extra effort to gain certainty is therefore no longer justified. On the other hand, high-NFC participants do not withhold their efforts, as they are highly motivated to obtain certainty. These results may help to account for contradictory findings in effort-investment behaviour and add substantively to the literature concerning motivation toward closure.

Obtaining EHR-derived datasets for COVID-19 research within a short time: a flexible methodology based on Detailed Clinical Models

BackgroundCOVID-19 ranks as the single largest health incident worldwide in decades. In such a scenario, electronic health records (EHRs) should provide a timely response to healthcare needs and to data uses that go beyond direct medical care and are known as secondary uses, which include biomedical research. However, it is usual for each data analysis initiative to define its own information model in line with its requirements. These specifications share clinical concepts, but differ in format and recording criteria, something that creates data entry redundancy in multiple electronic data capture systems (EDCs) with the consequent investment of effort and time by the organization. ObjectiveThis study sought to design and implement a flexible methodology based on detailed clinical models (DCM), which would enable EHRs generated in a tertiary hospital to be effectively reused without loss of meaning and within a short time. Material and methodsThe proposed methodology comprises four stages: (1) specification of an initial set of relevant variables for COVID-19; (2) modeling and formalization of clinical concepts using ISO 13606 standard and SNOMED CT and LOINC terminologies; (3) definition of transformation rules to generate secondary use models from standardized EHRs and development of them using R language; and (4) implementation and validation of the methodology through the generation of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC-WHO) COVID-19 case report form. This process has been implemented into a 1300-bed tertiary Hospital for a cohort of 4489 patients hospitalized from 25 February 2020 to 10 September 2020. ResultsAn initial and expandable set of relevant concepts for COVID-19 was identified, modeled and formalized using ISO-13606 standard and SNOMED CT and LOINC terminologies. Similarly, an algorithm was designed and implemented with R and then applied to process EHRs in accordance with standardized concepts, transforming them into secondary use models. Lastly, these resources were applied to obtain a data extract conforming to the ISARIC-WHO COVID-19 case report form, without requiring manual data collection. The methodology allowed obtaining the observation domain of this model with a coverage of over 85% of patients in the majority of concepts. ConclusionThis study has furnished a solution to the difficulty of rapidly and efficiently obtaining EHR-derived data for secondary use in COVID-19, capable of adapting to changes in data specifications and applicable to other organizations and other health conditions. The conclusion to be drawn from this initial validation is that this DCM-based methodology allows the effective reuse of EHRs generated in a tertiary Hospital during COVID-19 pandemic, with no additional effort or time for the organization and with a greater data scope than that yielded by conventional manual data collection process in ad-hoc EDCs.

The search for a sustainable alternative to slash-and-burn agriculture in the World's rain forests: the Guama Model and its implementation.

This account describes the context, history and outcomes of a series of studies into the ecology of slash-and-burn (S-B) agriculture in the world's humid tropics. These studies, which began in the mid-1980s, identified promising lines of research and continued to field trials, in Central America, of candidate agricultural systems as possible sustainable alternatives to the practice. The only system to emerge from 7 years' comparative trial with any promise of sustainability, in this context, was the agroforestry technique known as alley-cropping; but only with trees of the genus Inga. Inga alley-cropping then underwent field trials with subsistence farming families in northern Honduras. The system was aimed at the twin objectives of achieving food security in basic grains, on minimal inputs, and of providing the means of eliminating further S-B in the region. Since then, Inga alley-cropping has become the heart of a sustainable and integrated rural livelihood model (the Guama Model) which is being implemented successfully in northern Honduras with some 300 families. These families had been attempting to subsist on a few hectares of land degraded by decades or centuries of S-B. The development of Inga alley-cropping, supplemented by rock phosphate and other mineral supplements, as a sustainable subsistence and cash crop alternative means that land previously being held in reserve for subsequent S-B operations can now be planted to permanent forms of agroforestry. Entire landscapes can be re-greened by productive agroforest vegetation. Achieving this at scale will require the investment of huge extension effort and funds. However, the environmental, social and economic returns are also huge; and they are sustainable. In this programme,we are seeing the vitality and goodwill of hundreds of families focussed on the raising, planting and management of trees in ways that feed the living organisms of the soil and, hence, feed themselves. In so cheerfully planting out their own futures, they plant and reshape the future of their own country. Replicating this at scale, as Rattan Lal outlines below, could reshape the future of this planet. In the mid-1980s, progress on sustainable alternatives to S-B, especially in rain forests, was frustrated by a lack of conclusiveness in the literature as to why soil fertility fails so rapidly post-burn; but also by a degree of contradiction on the impacts of the burn on certain plant nutrients. Hands (Hands 1988 The ecology of shifting cultivation. MSc thesis, University of Cambridge) concentrated on the role of soil phosphorus and attempted to resolve these contradictions. The Cambridge Alley-cropping Projects (1988–2002) continued this theme and threw light on the question of sustainable food production in rain forest environments.

Discounting for Energy Transition Policies—Estimation of the Social Discount Rate for Poland

The transition of the energy system in Poland has a long time horizon and demands a substantial investment effort supported by proper economic evaluation. It requires a precise Social Discount Rate (SDR) estimation as discounting makes the present value of long-term effects extremely sensitive to the discount rate level. However, Polish policymakers have little information on SDR: the predominant practice applies a priori fixed 5% discount rate, while studies devoted only to Poland are quite rare. To eliminate this research gap, our paper aims at estimating SDR for Poland, applicable in energy transition policies. We derive SDR for three datasets varying in length, twofold: using market rates via Consumption Rate of Interest (CRI) and Social Opportunity Cost (SOC) of capital, and prescriptive Ramsey and Gollier approaches based on Social Welfare Function (SWF). The results indicate that the rates based on CRI and SOC deviate substantially with changing data timeframes and market conditions, while prescriptive methods show much higher time stability. Due to long-term planning horizons for energy policies, we argue for adopting, as SDR in Poland, the longest dataset’s Ramsey-based rate of 4.72% which can be reduced to 4.39% by Gollier’s precautionary term (reflecting the uncertainty over future consumption growth), which are our main findings.

Environmental and economic implications of U.S. postconsumer plastic waste management

With only 8.4% of end-of-life plastics collected for recycling in 2017, management of postconsumer plastic waste in the U.S. has raised significant concerns. We present an integrated approach to assess the environmental benefits and economic implications of plastic waste management by interfacing collection and sorting with process-based treatment models for energy recovery, fuel recovery and mechanical recycling. Three composite treatment scenarios are analyzed under various techno-economic contexts to understand the key drivers of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions/savings and economic viability. At current collection volumes, both net GHG savings and net annual revenue are unfavorable. Scaling collection rates from the current level to a hypothetical 100% exposes inefficiencies beyond the collection bottleneck and results in net GHG emissions. We find that a business-as-usual increase in collection volume alone would be insufficient to offset GHG emissions and is uneconomical. We quantify the potential found in improving waste-to-energy efficiencies, developing high-yield plastics-to-fuel pathways and incorporating design for recycling considerations. From an economic standpoint, external market factors such as sale price of electricity, fuels and virgin resins are critical to financial viability of treatment processes. This analysis also allows us to appropriately assess the magnitude of investment and type of policy efforts needed to address the problem. To effectively collect and treat 100% of all U.S. postconsumer plastic waste, an upfront investment of 17–21 Billion USD is estimated. This approach underscores the importance of a systems perspective that acknowledges the complexity of the postconsumer plastic waste stream to sustainably achieve plastic waste management objectives.

Dispositional individual differences in cognitive effort investment: establishing the core construct

BackgroundIndividuals tend to avoid effortful tasks, regardless of whether they are physical or mental in nature. Recent experimental evidence is suggestive of individual differences in the dispositional willingness to invest cognitive effort in goal-directed behavior. The traits need for cognition (NFC) and self-control are related to behavioral measures of cognitive effort discounting and demand avoidance, respectively. Given that these traits are only moderately related, the question arises whether they reflect a common core factor underlying cognitive effort investment. If so, the common core of both traits might be related to behavioral measures of effort discounting in a more systematic fashion. To address this question, we aimed at specifying a core construct of cognitive effort investment that reflects dispositional differences in the willingness and tendency to exert effortful control.MethodsWe conducted two studies (N = 613 and N = 244) with questionnaires related to cognitive motivation and effort investment including assessment of NFC, intellect, self-control and effortful control. We first calculated Pearson correlations followed by two mediation models regarding intellect and its separate aspects, seek and conquer, as mediators. Next, we performed a confirmatory factor analysis of a hierarchical model of cognitive effort investment as second-order latent variable. First-order latent variables were cognitive motivation reflecting NFC and intellect, and effortful self-control reflecting self-control and effortful control. Finally, we calculated Pearson correlations between factor scores of the latent variables and general self-efficacy as well as traits of the Five Factor Model of Personality for validation purposes.ResultsOur findings support the hypothesized correlations between the assessed traits, where the relationship of NFC and self-control is specifically mediated via goal-directedness. We established and replicated a hierarchical factor model of cognitive motivation and effortful self-control that explains the shared variance of the first-order factors by a second-order factor of cognitive effort investment.ConclusionsTaken together, our results integrate disparate literatures on cognitive motivation and self-control and provide a basis for further experimental research on the role of dispositional individual differences in goal-directed behavior and cost–benefit-models.

Does the League Table Lie? The Development and Validation of the Perceived Performance in Team Sports Questionnaire (PPTSQ).

Objective performance measures are vastly used in sport psychology despite their inherent limitations (e.g., unaccounted baseline differences). Founded on the nature of group goals in team sports, we aimed at developing the Perceived Performance in Team Sports Questionnaire (PPTSQ) to capture the team members’ perception of their team’s performance. Accordingly, three dimensions were hypothesized: effort investment, skills execution, and perceived outcome. To measure these dimensions, items were generated to address the players’ perception of their team performance as a whole. Four samples of athletes were used to test the psychometric properties of the PPTSQ: professional (n = 231), collegiate (n = 222), professional—retest (n = 89), and mixed professional–collegiate (n = 139). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to estimate construct and content validities. These procedures revealed a better data fit to a two-dimensional model that consists of effort investment and perceived outcome. The reliability analyses for the PPTSQ provide satisfactory evidence that the questionnaire is a reliable measure of perceived performance in team sport. Adequate internal consistency emerged for both dimensions (0.75 < ω < 0.89). Furthermore, a high correlation was obtained for temporal stability. Concurrent validity was addressed by correlating the PPTSQ scores with the Group Environment Questionnaire and the Team Assessment Diagnostic Instrument. Correlational analysis between the PPTSQ and an objective measure of performance was used to test its predictive validity. The correlations strongly support the concurrent and predictive validities of the PPTSQ. We conclude that our perceived performance questionnaire can address various objective measures shortcomings (e.g., considering base-rate biases) resulting in a more meaningful team performance metric. Implication of the PPTSQ for sport psychology research and applied work enhancement are discussed in detail.