Review Of Journal Articles Research Articles

Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions (HEI): Merging the Study Systematic Review, Analysis Content and Bibliometrics

This study aims to explore how the topic of sustainability in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) has been addressed in the scientific literature. It presents a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed journal articles published between 1975 and 2019. After that, bibliometric and content analyses were performed in order to identify the behavior and evolution of the literature and identify the frequency with which they appear in the text, making it possible to raise replicable and valid inferences to the data. The results of this study indicate that the theme is emerging since the year 2010 and with a strong focus on qualitative studies, focused on critical theory. The results indicate that although studies involve the tripod environment, economy, and society, there is still a gap in studies that deal with specific issues to solve practical problems and that analyze the impacts from a more holistic perspective. The combination of methods made it possible to identify and interpret the articles in the selected sample, but based on results reported by other authors, with little room for quality control and integrity.

Main Challenges to Concrete Recycling in Practice

While concrete recycling is crucial to protecting the environment, its implementation in practice is low in many countries. This study aims to highlight challenges to concrete recycling. To achieve that aim, the study objectives are (1) to identify the main challenges to concrete recycling in construction projects; (2) to compare the main challenges between small–medium enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises (LEs); and (3) to determine the underlying groups among the main challenges. Potential challenges were identified through a systematic literature review of journal articles and semi-structured interviews with fifteen industry practitioners. Then, the identified challenges were inserted into a questionnaire survey and distributed to industry practitioners. Eighty-nine valid responses were collected and analyzed using the mean score ranking, normalization, agreement analysis, and factor analysis techniques. The analyses show thirteen main challenges to concrete recycling. The main challenges include increased project duration, lack of national programs, lack of comprehensive rules and regulations, increased project cost, low demand for recycled concrete, low cost-effectiveness of concrete recycling, and increased transportation cost. However, there is no consensus on the criticality between SMEs and LEs. For example, increased project cost is the main challenge for SMEs but is only middlingly ranked for LEs. Finally, the main challenges can be categorized into three interrelated groups: people and technical, legal and environmental, and economic challenges. This study contributes to the literature by analyzing challenges that hinder concrete recycling in practice. The findings allow researchers and practitioners to develop strategies to reduce concrete recycling rejection.

CONCEPTUALIZING A MULTIFACETED TALENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW STUDY

Gifted students differ significantly with their peers in cognitive aspects, emotional and psychological aspects, and learning style. A planned talent development program can help them to reach at their highest potential. At present there are various talent development programs exist but they are not uniform in the structure. Therefore, a systematic review of journal articles on gifted education and talent development was done to understand the structure and components of gifted education program. The following journals; Roeper Review, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, Gifted Education International, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, Gifted Child Quarterly, Gifted Child Today, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Journal of Advanced Academics, Journal for the Education of Gifted Young Scientists, and cogent education were reviewed from online data bases like Research gate, Google scholar, and Academia. Articles focused on talent development published from 2011 to 2020 are considered for review. The review was conducted to develop an insight and generate the themes about gifted education that cater the need of talented at school and out-of-school. The emerged themes would be helpful in developing an efficient and multifaceted talent development program. Implication of the reviewed researches are discussed which will be helpful for policy development and program development for gifted and talented.

Systemic Leadership in Nordic Kindergartens

This is a scoping review of peer-reviewed journal articles within Nordic Early Childhood Education and Care research from 2014 to 2020. We aim to explore if and how the concept of systemic leadership is employed within Nordic research on kindergartens. Forty-two studies were included. The results show the study types, methods and informants used. Based on a qualitative content analysis, six dominating leadership perspectives were identified in the studies. These can be briefly described as: 1) leadership mirroring the outside world, 2) leadership as a collaborative process among humans, 3) hybrid leadership between solo and distributed, 4) shared formal leadership, 5) leadership as organizational learning and development, and 6) leading in the professional context. These approaches consider the ways in which systemic leadership is employed and they highlight the collective and relational dynamics of leadership beyond the individual leader. Despite a growing body of research, there remains a need for further theoretical and quantitative investigations, and studies that focus on staff without pedagogue education as informants.

Nanomaterials to help eco-friendly leather processing.

The leather industry converts the hide, a byproduct of slaughterhouses, into leather, a value-added product. This old industry generates wastes, causing environmental pollution. However, nanomaterials can help to decrease this problem. These tiny particles (1-100 nm) can replace chemicals in various steps of leather processing. This paper aims at giving an overview of the fundamentals of classical leather process and how nanomaterials can be applied in each step to obtain a more sustainable manufacturing. After a comprehensive literature review of journal articles, six steps were identified for potential for application of nanomaterials: unhairing, tanning, retanning, dyeing, fatliquoring, and finishing. With nano-oxides, polymers, and metals, it is feasible to reduce the amount of chemical products and also improve the properties of leather. Thus, it is possible to reach a more eco-friendly and effective process with the use of nanomaterials to turn hide/skins into finished leather.

Applications of machine learning to undifferentiated chest pain in the emergency department: A systematic review.

BackgroundChest pain is amongst the most common reason for presentation to the emergency department (ED). There are many causes of chest pain, and it is important for the emergency physician to quickly and accurately diagnose life threatening causes such as acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Multiple clinical decision tools have been developed to assist clinicians in risk stratifying patients with chest. There is growing recognition that machine learning (ML) will have a significant impact on the practice of medicine in the near future and may assist with diagnosis and risk stratification. This systematic review aims to evaluate how ML has been applied to adults presenting to the ED with undifferentiated chest pain and assess if ML models show improved performance when compared to physicians or current risk stratification techniques.Methods and findingsWe conducted a systematic review of journal articles that applied a ML technique to an adult patient presenting to an emergency department with undifferentiated chest pain. Multiple databases were searched from inception through to November 2020. In total, 3361 articles were screened, and 23 articles were included. We did not conduct a metanalysis due to a high level of heterogeneity between studies in both their methods, and reporting. The most common primary outcomes assessed were diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) (12 studies), and prognosis of major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) (6 studies). There were 14 retrospective studies and 5 prospective studies. Four studies reported the development of a machine learning model retrospectively then tested it prospectively. The most common machine learning methods used were artificial neural networks (14 studies), random forest (6 studies), support vector machine (5 studies), and gradient boosting (2 studies). Multiple studies achieved high accuracy in both the diagnosis of AMI in the ED setting, and in predicting mortality and composite outcomes over various timeframes. ML outperformed existing risk stratification scores in all cases, and physicians in three out of four cases. The majority of studies were single centre, retrospective, and without prospective or external validation. There were only 3 studies that were considered low risk of bias and had low applicability concerns. Two studies reported integrating the ML model into clinical practice.ConclusionsResearch on applications of ML for undifferentiated chest pain in the ED has been ongoing for decades. ML has been reported to outperform emergency physicians and current risk stratification tools to diagnose AMI and predict MACE but has rarely been integrated into practice. Many studies assessing the use of ML in undifferentiated chest pain in the ED have a high risk of bias. It is important that future studies make use of recently developed standardised ML reporting guidelines, register their protocols, and share their datasets and code. Future work is required to assess the impact of ML model implementation on clinical decision making, patient orientated outcomes, and patient and physician acceptability.Trial registrationInternational Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews registration number: CRD42020184977.

The Effect of Five Finger Hypnosis Therapy in Reducing Anxiety in Gravida Mothers: Literature Review

Background: Pregnant women often feel worried, afraid or anxious both in primi gravida and multigravida. In primi gravida mothers this feeling of anxiety arises because they have never experienced this process before and in multigravida mothers anxiety usually arises because they think about whether later after delivery they can divide their time, especially in taking care of their children. This study aimed to determine the Effect of Five Finger Hypnosis Therapy in Reducing Anxiety in Mother Gravida. Method: The research design uses a literature review of several research journal articles published on the Health Base. The health databases used include: Google Scholar, and Pubmed with a time span of 2015 to 2020 with search results of 6 journals. The results of this paper indicate that there is an effect of Five Finger Hypnosis Therapy in Reducing Anxiety in Gravida's Mother. Results: Where on average the articles get the results of anxiety before doing finger hypnosis in the mild category, after hypnosis, most of them have mild anxiety levels and there is an influence of hypnosis on anxiety levels in primigravida and multigravida mothers. Conclusion: This five finger hypnosis therapy is very meaningful because with five finger hypnosis therapy pregnant women will get inner peace and relaxation so that the level of anxiety in the mother decreases

Implications of Protest and Reform for Domestic Governance in Ethiopia

The nexus between protest–transition–reform situated in a larger frame of Ethiopia’s political dynamics anchored in historical narratives and theoretical debates are presented in this paper. Moreover, the genesis and the dynamics surrounding the rolling out of the post-2018 Ethiopia’s transition are examined from the vantage point of prospects for entrenching a stable democratic dispensation in the country. To this end, the political economy approach, along with presenting ethnographic narratives that are pertinent to the subject under study, is used as an analytical lens. Also, document review of journal articles, official and academic reports, internet blogs, and newspaper and other media posts was undertaken to substantiate findings from primary sources. The paper concludes that the ongoing Ethiopian transition unfolded by paving avenues for opening up space for negotiating unsettled issues surrounding state-society relations in a context of a relatively liberalized political economy. However, the envisioned model of transition is constrained by different factors characterized by a split in the ranks of the ruling coalition, intergroup conflicts, and rising unmet expectations that resulted in the absence of peace and stability. Besides, the prevailing weakness of democratic institutions and polarized inter-ethnic relations, the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic stalled the progress of the transition process.

Interactive Learning via Digital Storytelling in Teaching and Learning

Web 2.0 based applications are becoming a way of teaching and learning tool. This study takes a systematic review to understand various studies related to digital storytelling (DS) intervention. The research found through Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) from the year 2016 to the year 2020, which included full-text articles and peer review journal articles. This study was conducted based on ten research articles. The results show that the mixed-method research and qualitative research approach were the most famous designs with four research each. The critical findings indicated that DS engages the learners, DS creates a positive learning environment, and DS increased the learner’s motivation and self-confidence. DS could help learners to learn interactively during the Covid- 19 Pandemic. Furthermore, various age groups, methodology and research design are differentiated in the studies.

Research Achievements in Relation to Maize (Zea mays L) Crop Production and Productivity in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review

Despite the conducting much number of maize researches in different centers a little change on production and productivity in Ethiopia. Hence this review aimed to indicate how a maize production and productivity have been developed and used to inform that food security concern body of the country. I researched for different papers reporting maize production achievements, databases of peer review journal articles, scholar Google and other web sites. A total of 70 papers were reviewed from which 20 papers are included and from this 51.2% describe about maize production, 34.6% describe about productivity of a crop per area and 14.2% describe about deficiency of agricultural input utilization by local farmers. The use of new crop variety and artificial fertilizers is relatively a wide spread throughout the country. However, practical application on small holder’s field has less technical support and comparatively traditional way of crop managements have been involved. Most of the research findings, particularly those from agronomic practices, indicated that Maize has wide flexibility that is suitable for production.

An Exploration of Human Rights and Social Work Education in the United States.

Social work, with its commitment to social justice, knowledge about cultural diversity, and respect for the dignity and worth of the individual, has much to contribute to the modern-day human rights debate. Many international social work scholars have articulated the view of social work as a human rights profession. The profession’s presence in this arena, however, has not always been apparent. Amid increasing global tensions and domestic challenges, equipping social work students with human rights knowledge and skills is critical. The limited attention given to human rights in social work education, particularly in the United States, provides a unique opportunity to explore the human rights discourse occurring in academic circles. This paper presents a review of scholarly journal articles that explore the human rights discourse related to social work education in the United States. Upon reviewing the literature, the following categories emerged: (1) general articles on integrating human rights into social work education; (2) pedagogical frameworks, models, and examples of incorporating human rights into social work education; and (3) measures and perceptions related to assessing the integration of human rights in social work education. Findings indicate that the inclusion of human rights into social work education in the United States is in its infancy. It is recommended that social work programs in the United States be more intentional about integrating human rights content into the curricula to train culturally competent and globally minded social workers.

Expressions of Criticality in Expert and Student Writing: A Corpus Contrastive Analysis of Literature Reviews

Literature review in academic writing plays an integral role in demonstrating writers’ knowledge about a field of study as well as in informing the writers of influential researchers and research groups in the field. More importantly, writers are expected to critically analyze previous studies related to their topic. Despite its importance to the academic text, student writers find it challenging to establish a critical stance and to provide evaluative judgment when reviewing the literature. This paper presents a contrastive analysis of student and expert writers’ expressions of criticality in literature review sections of 8 applied linguistics master theses from UiTM (a Malaysian public university) and 62 literature reviews of research journal articles from a similar field (i.e., Language and Communication, English for Academic Purposes and Applied Linguistics). Corpus techniques are used to identify the most common expressions of criticality used by these two groups of writers. The corpus was analyzed using detailed consistency analysis and concordance software from WordSmith Tools (Scott, 2012). Findings revealed that student writers prefer to use hedges and boosters to express criticality and the evaluations they make tend to sound more reporting rather than analyzing and synthesizing the resources critically. Results from this study are beneficial for constructing pedagogical instructions and guidelines for student writers in their critical analysis of the literature review.

Country-related future research agenda of Lean Manufacturing–A systematic literature review

PurposeMany future research proposals of Lean Manufacturing (LM) are presented in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to determine these future research proposals of LM which are country-related and classify them.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review (SLR) of peer-reviewed journal articles in LM was conducted. A total of 145 articles published in 34 journals during 2010–2020 were collected from four major management science publishers namely, Emerald Online, Elsevier/Science Direct, Springer Link and Taylor and Francis. The country-related future research proposals of LM identified in the literature were classified according to, firstly, the continent of the country of reference, and secondly, some form of natural affinity of these proposals creating meaningful themes. The quality tool “affinity diagram” was applied to classify the country-related future research proposals of LM.FindingsThe country-related future research proposals of LM, which are increasing in the literature over time, refer mostly to studies to be conducted in several continents/countries and to multinational studies. Conducting studies specifically in Asia, Europe, South and North America, Africa and Australia–New Zealand is also suggested. The plethora of the country-related future research proposals of LM were classified, based on the affinity of their content, into 18 meaningful themes. These themes were also classified based on their affinity into two broad categories, namely “themes concerning the LM approach itself” and “themes concerning factors outside the LM approach”.Research limitations/implicationsThe restricted number of the databases searched and the subjectivity of classifying the large number of the country-related future research proposals into themes are the main limitations of the present SLR. Based on these limitations, future literature review studies can be carried out.Practical implicationsUseful proposals are provided to researchers of several countries for conducting original and country-specific research studies which can enrich the knowledge of the implementation of LM under the specific circumstances of a country for the benefit of practitioners.Originality/valueThis study goes beyond previous literature review studies on LM by focusing exclusively on the LM future research agenda which is country related. The analytical presentation of the country-related future research proposals as well as the formulation of clusters of these proposals make the present SLR study substantially different from those carried out worldwide so far.

Towards a Transdisciplinary Theoretical Framework of Citizen Science: Results from a Meta-Review Analysis

This work intends to lay the foundations for a theoretical framework of citizen science combining social and organizational implications with the support of information technologies. The proposed theoretical framework moves towards a shared and common research process between experts and citizens to deal with environmental and social challenges. The role and capacity of online communities is explored and their engagement capacity by means of web-based digital platforms supporting crowdsourcing activities. In this contribution, authors highlight the most common practices, methods and issues of citizen science approaches adopted from multidisciplinary application fields to obtain insights for designing a new participative approach for organizational studies. To reach this goal, authors illustrate the results of a systematic meta-review analysis, consisting of an accurate selection and revision of journal review articles in order to highlight concepts, methods, research design approaches and tools adopted in citizen science approaches.

A scoping review of the application of systematic instructional design and instructional design models by academic librarians

BackgroundAcademic libraries are providing more instruction than ever to increasingly diverse audiences. Librarians have also shown increased interest in learning theories and instructional design (ID). However, there has not yet been a systematic survey of the literature on how librarians are using ID models and systematic ID in professional practice. MethodsThe researchers conducted this scoping review of journal articles published since 1990 to look at what ID models or systematic ID are used in academic library instruction and what is role and influence of ID. Nine databases were searched to identify articles. ResultsOf the 11,221 abstracts, 58 articles described use of a systematic ID or an ID model to create an instructional product. The review found that ID models were sparsely represented in the literature and that it often appeared in a simplified or adapted form. However, it held particular promise as a tool for collaboration and reflective teaching practices. ConclusionsWhile instruction represents a major skillset in academic librarianship, the application of ID needs further representation in the scholarly literature. Further reflection on librarian use of ID can inform teaching practices committed to accountability in higher education and learner centeredness for their populations.

The Prevalence of Market Segmentation Research in the Tourism Industry in Africa

Despite the benefits that market segmentation could provide to marketers, it is uncertain to what extend market segmentation research informs decisions about marketing strategy in the tourism industry in Africa. The purpose of this paper is to appraise the incidence of market segmentation research in this context. Market segmentation is used to demarcate a broad market into smaller segments to enable the formulation of marketing strategies based on segment needs. A review of journal articles with market segmentation in the tourism industry in the African context as focus area is provided. While research in this context is available, recommendations are made about possible market segmentation research focus areas in the tourism industry in an African context.

Scholarship on urban Africa’s water crisis narratives: the state of the art

Water crises present a global water governance challenge. To date, scholarship has tended to focus on technological and policy-based solutions, while ignoring the influence of narratives on public buy-in during such crises. Africa is expected to become hotter and drier in future, while its cities experience high levels of informal population growth and inequality. These factors combine to make African cities particularly vulnerable to times of water stress. The aim in this paper is to investigate the state of the ‘art’ on narratives framing domestic water use in African cities during periods of acute water stress and ‘crises’, using a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed academic journal articles. The findings revealed a small population of recently published papers that engage critically with state-generated narratives framing the crisis, limited to case studies on Cape Town and Windhoek. We recommend, however, a greater critical engagement with the anti-establishment narratives that can flourish during periods of acute water stress, and tend to be inflammatory and divisive in nature.

Inspirations from abroad: the impact of PISA on countries’ choice of reference societies in education

ABSTRACT The Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) has instigated domestic policy debate aimed at improving education systems’ quality and efficiency. Its high performers are often described as knowledge-based legitimation tools that have become reference societies. This article analyses if and the extent to which PISA affects the choice of reference societies used in education policy. We conducted a systematic literature review of scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles. We identify two ways in which PISA affects the reference societies chosen: it builds but also triggers the collapse of the reference societies used in domestic education policy. However, there are also cases in which PISA has little influence on which countries or regions are used as references. The domestic processes of choosing the reference societies used in education policy emerge as more nuanced than first expected. This article provides a firm basis for a much-needed understanding of the topic.

Brain deficits in prediabetic adults: A systematic review.

Previous findings on the relationship between prediabetes (the precursor stage of type 2 diabetes) and brain health in humans are inconsistent. Thus, this systematic review of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies aimed to summarize what is currently known about brain deficits in prediabetic adults. Following the PRISMA reporting standards for systematic reviews, we conducted a comprehensive review of peer-reviewed journal articles published from 2009 to present, focusing on studies that assessed brain volume, structural connectivity, and cerebrovascular health in prediabetic adults and older adults (i.e., 18years or older). We systematically searched PsychINFO, Scopus, Web of Science, Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, and EMbase databases. Quality assessment was based on the NIH Quality Assessment Tool for Observational and Cross-sectional Studies. In total, 19 studies were included in our review. Results from these studies show that prediabetes may be associated with deficits in brain structure and pathology, however, several studies also refute these findings. Moreover, we identified clear inconsistencies in study methodologies, including diabetes measures and classification, across studies that may account for these conflicting findings.

Practical strategies for reducing suicide risk among depressed adults

IntroductionSuicide remains a major problem throughout society. Unfortunately, recommendations for the treatment of suicidal clients are often presented at a general level, without providing adequate detail that could guide the practicing clinician.ObjectivesThe review explains three main strategies that can be used to helpr educe the risk of suicide among depressed adults.MethodsMethod: The review identified three themes derives from an integration of 30+ years of clinical experience working with depressed outpatients combined with a comprehensive review of recent journal articles on depression and suicide.ResultsFirst, clients may become suicidal when they focus on unfortunate events from their recent or distant past, resulting in tendencies for rumination and guilt. Therapy can help clients cultivate an attitude of contentment, promoting self-forgiveness and a sense of accomplishment. Second, suicidal clients often focus on their current struggles, frequently involving financial problems, interpersonal conflict, and social isolation. Therapy can help clients to embrace life through planned activities, reconnecting with loved ones, and repairing damaged relationships. Third, clients may struggle because of hopeless views of their future, feeling trapped in a desperate situation with no possible solution. Therapy can help clients look to the future with a more optimist attitude and a sense of control.ConclusionsClients can learn to search for realistic solutions to their problems, developing a renewed sense of optimism and empowerment. The risk of suicide can be reduced when therapy helps clients reduce guilt and worthlessness, increase meaningful social bonds, and instill realistic hope for the future.Conflict of interestNo significant relationships.