Kendall's Tau Correlation Research Articles

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIET COMPLIANCE WITH BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS IN TYPE 2 DM PATIENTS IN BANTUL

Background : Diabetes Mellitus is a disease caused the body is unable to produce enough insulin and causes various complications, one of which is hyperglycemia. Diet settings are the most important key in the successful management of diabetes mellitus. Objective : The study aimeds to determine the relationship between dietary compliance with blood sugar levels among people with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Bantul. Methods : The type of research applied quantitive with a cross sectional design. That will be carried out on type 2 diabetes mellitus among people in the Bantul. Samples were recruited by purposive sampling technique in the Puskesmas Srandakan Bantul in the study was 55 people. The data were collected by using the diet compliance questionnaire and measuring blood sugar levels using medical record documentation. Kendal Tau correlation analysys was used to analized data. Result : Kendal Tau correlation test shown that between dietary compliance and blood sugar levels, obedience value of 0.000 (p<0.05), is that there is a significant relationtship between the variables of the diet compliance and blood sugar levels. so Kendal Tau r-value correlation 0,616, which means the better the dietary compliance, the better the blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. Conclusion : There is a relationship between diet compliance and blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients in the Bantul. Keyword : Type 2 diabetes mellitus, diet compliance, blood sugar levels

Depresi Dengan Fungsi Kognitif Pada Penderita Diabetes Mellitus Tipe II Di Wilayah Binaan Puskesmas Sedayu 2 Bantul

Type II Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic disease and is an important health problem in Indonesia and the world. Type II Diabetes Mellitus is a group of metabolic diseases with hyperglycemia resulting from defects in insulin secretion and insulin action. Type II Diabetes Mellitus can affect physical and psychological health. Physical decline in type II Diabetes Mellitus sufferers causes a person to experience a decrease in cognitive and psychosocial functions, such as depression. The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between depression and cognitive function in patients with type II diabetes mellitus in the target area of the Sedayu 2 Health Center, Bantul. This type of research is a quantitative correlation study with a cross-sectional approach. The population in this study were respondents with type II Diabetes Mellitus aged ≥45 years using simple random sampling technique with a total of 110 samples. The instrument used in the depression level study used the BDI (Beck Depression Inventory) questionnaire and cognitive function used the MMSE (Mini Mental State Exam). The results of the analysis with the Kendal Tau correlation test showed that there was a significant relationship between depression and cognitive function P-value = 0.000 (p 0.05). The higher the level of depression, the more severe the cognitive function of type II Diabetes Mellitus sufferers.

Physical Activity and Quality of Life of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients: A Cross-sectional Study During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted lifestyle changes, especially physical activity, which tends to decline. Lack of physical activity can worsen glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, causing complications affecting their quality of life. This study aimed to analyze the correlation between physical activity and the quality of life of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used a descriptive correlational research design with a cross-sectional approach and 84 respondents obtained by a simple random sampling technique. Data were collected using a Physical Activity Questionnaire (GPAQ) and a Diabetes Quality of Life (DQOL) questionnaire and analyzed by the Kendall Tau correlation test with a significance level of 0.05. The results showed that 51.2% of respondents had moderate physical activity levels, and 57.1% had a high quality of life. Kendall's tau b test revealed a significant positive correlation between physical activity and the quality of life of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients during the COVID-19 pandemic (p-value = 0.015 and r = 0.251). Providing health education about the importance of physical activity is essential, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, to enhance quality of life of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.

Examining academic motivation levels of undergraduate students taking distance education during the covid-19 pandemic in terms of various variables

The aim of this study is to investigate the academic motivation levels of undergraduate students taking distance education during the pandemic in terms of various demographic and technology-related variables. The research was designed with survey model. Data of the study were collected from 170 undergraduate students. "Academic Motivation Scale" and personal information form were used as data collection tools. The collected data were analyzed with Kendall's tau correlation test, independent sample t-test and one-way analysis of variance. According to results of the study, it was found that academic intrinsic and extrinsic motivation levels of the undergraduates taking distance education are high and their amotivation levels are low. It was determined that there were significant differences between the students' thoughts on whether to pursue postgraduate education in the future and their academic intrinsic and extrinsic motivation levels, but there was not any significant difference between amotivation dimension. Also, it was found that there were significant relationships between technology usage proficiency and intrinsic motivation of undergraduate students. Lastly, it was determined that there were significant relationships between average daily usage time of technological devices and their academic extrinsic motivation. Suggestions were offered in accordance with the results of the study.

A corpus-assisted ecolinguistic analysis of the representations of tree/s and forest/s in US discourse from 1820-2019

This study presents a corpus-assisted ecolinguistic analysis of the evolving discursive representations of tree/s and forest/s in US American discourse from 1820-2019 in the approximately 475-million word Corpus of Historical American English (Davies, 2010). To explore these entities and their depictions in prevailing discourse, this study performs a diachronic collocation analysis of adjectives occurring with the terms across the span of the corpus. The analysis identified the 100 most frequent adjective collocates appearing with the singular and plural forms of tree/s and forest/s and calculated Kendall's tau correlation coefficient scores using decade-by-decade per million use rates in order to empirically assess the strength of trends in language use. The findings indicate a divergence in broadly positive and negative representations over the time span as adjectives construing poor health and lack of vitality are rising while adjectives conveying positive attributes of size, beauty, and wellbeing are declining. In addition, adjectives reflecting experiential engagement with tree/s and forest/s have progressively been replaced by a discourse of scientific identification and governmental dominion.

KNOWLEDGE-BASED RESOURCES IN MARKET SHARE DEVELOPMENT

Knowledge management (KM) is described as a crucial element for business success and competitiveness. KM practices are commonly linked to continuous business renewal, productivity and efficiency improvement. Building knowledge-based resources (KBRs) in the organization is of particular importance, as they create opportunity to achieve a competitive advantage, develop market share, and strengthen the overall performance of the firm. It should be remembered that KBRs are always strongly related to human resources and refer to such attributes as individual knowledge, abilities, skills, experience and innovation. The main aim of the article is to identify the relationship between selected areas of KBRs and the change in the firm's market share. To realize of the main aim, the survey study was developed on a group of 355 enterprises in Poland in early 2022. The respondents, who represent managerial stuff or firms‘ owners, express opinions on selected KBR elements using a 5-point Likert scale. To analyze the research results, the common statistical methods in management studies were used, as descriptive statistics and Kendall Tau correlation analysis. As a main conclusion, there are positive correlation between selected KBRs and firm’s market share. Hence, building and constant renewal of KBRs brings several advantages for organizations, including development of market share, and, consequently, competitiveness improvement.

COVID-19 Did Not Stop the Rising Tide: Trends in Case Volume Logged by Surgical Residents

The coronavirus pandemic has profoundly impacted all facets of surgical care, including surgical residency training. The objective of this study was to assess the operative experience and overall case volume of surgery residents before and during the pandemic. Using data from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education annual operative log reports, operative volume for 2015 to 2021 graduates of Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education -accredited general, orthopedic, neuro- and plastic surgery residency programs was analyzed using nonparametric Kendall-tau correlation analysis. The period before the pandemic was defined as AY14-15 to AY18-19, and the pandemic period was defined as AY19-20 to AY20-21. Operative data for 8556 general, 5113 orthopedic, 736 plastic, and 1278 neurosurgery residency graduates were included. Between 2015 and 2021, total case volume increased significantly for general surgery graduates (Kendall's tau-b: 0.905, p = 0.007), orthopedic surgery graduates (Kendall's tau-b: 1.000, p = 0.003), neurosurgery graduates (Kendall's tau-b: 0.905, p = 0.007), and plastic surgery graduates (Kendall's tau-b: 0.810, p = 0.016). Across all specialties, the mean total number of cases performed by residents graduating during the pandemic was higher than among residents graduating before the pandemic, though no formal significance testing was performed. Among general surgery residents, the number of cases performed as surgeon chief among residents graduating in AY19-20 decreased for the first time in 5 years, though the overall volume remained higher than the prior year, and returned to prepandemic trends in AY20-21. Over the past 7 years, the case volume of surgical residents steadily increased. Surgical trainees who graduated during the coronavirus pandemic have equal or greater total operative experience compared to trainees who graduated prior to the pandemic.

The influence of climate change on freshwater availability in the Sokoto Rima River Basin, Northwestern Nigeria.

This research entailed the acquisition of long-term (1980-2020) meteorological data (rainfall, temperature, and runoff) which was used to compute the values for the mean annual, monthly, and seasonal hydro-climate variables to establish their trend and behavior. To substantiate if the patterns of runoff are in any way due to the changing climate, the meteorological data were subjected to non-parametric tests-Mann-Kendall (MK), Sen's slope estimator, Kendall tau, and partial correlation. MK trend test for runoff, rainfall, and temperature (on an annual and seasonal basis) revealed significant trends on an annual scale. Nevertheless, rainfall data did not exhibit any, observable trend on a seasonal scale. On both annual and seasonal scales, temperature values showed increasing trends. In the entire period considered (1980-2020), runoff also exhibited a remarkable increase in trend. Sen's estimator values ranged from - 0.04 to 3.23. The results of the Kendall tau correlation showed that runoff is positively correlated to rainfall (tau = 0.222), with a high confidence level (95%). Again, the partial correlation analysis of runoff and climatic variables for annual and seasonal timescale, results show that the runoff is significantly (rxy.z = 0.315) affected by both rainfall and temperature. It is therefore recommended that future research should utilize robust input-output models to determine the amount of water stress in the basin. As a sustainable management approach, artificial surface water reservoirs should be constructed to complement the available water from the Sokoto-Rima river and alleviate the water stress experienced by the population.

A diachronic corpus-assisted semantic domain analysis of US presidential debates

This corpus-assisted discourse study investigates diachronic change in a specialised corpus of seventeen American presidential debates from 2000 to 2020. The texts were tagged using the ucrel Semantic Annotation System (usas) ( Rayson, 2008 ) to facilitate the investigation of emergent and decreasing semantic trends over the period; the strength of trends was empirically evaluated through application of Kendall's Tau correlation coefficient. The analysis revealed that domains reflecting truth evaluations and matters of credibility increased alongside a more people-orientated discourse, as evidenced by increases in personal pronouns. Furthermore, instances invoking warfare and defence decreased, paralleled by a decrease in the representations of toughness. These results may reflect a shift in US political discourse generally, and American presidential discourse specifically, while also reflecting evolving contemporary social and political interests over the twenty-year span of the corpus. This study concludes with interpretations of these discursive shifts in the context of the current era of so-called ‘fake news’, intense partisanship, and social and political divisiveness. Findings indicate that the current US political climate cannot simply be attributed to an anomalous Trump administration but, rather, the discursive features contributing to and reflecting the current political environment have been present and increasing since at least the year 2000 election cycle.

Perancangan Sistem Monitoring Pengukuran Kinerja Produksi Gula Menggunakan Model BSC-SCOR Pada Pabrik Gula

Poor supply chain management can cause operational costs to swell, which consumes business funds while slowing down the delivery process to customers. The Redjosari Sugar Factory currently has a decline in the percentage level of productivity and is still below the predetermined production target. This is because it has not been able to identify and monitor its success or failure and has not decided for performance measurement standards. For this reason, it is necessary to measure the performance of the factory. This study aims to determine the KPI criteria for measuring performance in production activities and to design a monitoring system. The research was conducted using the BSC and SCOR methods. Tools are needed to identify Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in its application and then combined with the AHP method. Furthermore, the monitoring system design and Kendall Tau test were carried out. The study results obtained 11 KPIs for measuring supply chain performance in the production activities of the Redjosari Sugar Factory. In addition, the performance measurement system designed in this study is a dashboard monitoring system based on the Microsoft Excel application. The dashboard monitoring system that has been created can be used to monitor the performance of supply chain activities through the level of production activity at each KPI and monitor the overall progress of the performance results of each perspective on the BSC model. Based on the results of the Kendall Tau correlation analysis between the monitoring system and the effectiveness of the production process, it was found that there was a relationship between the two variables and had a strong relationship. The results of this study can be used as a reference for improving performance at the Redjosari Sugar Factory.

HUBUNGAN PENGETAHUAN PENATALAKSANAAN FARMAKOLOGI DENGAN NILAI TEKANAN DARAH PADA PENDERITA HIPERTENSI

Hypertension is a cardiovascular disease with a systolic blood pressure value of 140 mmHg and a diastolic blood pressure value of 90 mmHg. The prevalence of hypertension globally according to WHO is 22% of the total world population. Hypertension cases if not handled properly can cause death, so it is important for hypertensive patients to have good knowledge about hypertension management, especially pharmacological management. The method in this research is descriptive correlation, using a cross sectional approach. The number of respondents in the study were 45 respondents, the sampling technique used purposive sampling. The research data were analyzed using SPSS with the Kendall's-tau correlation test, the results obtained p-value 0.236 > 0.05, meaning that there was no relationship between knowledge of pharmacological management and blood pressure values in patients with hypertension. The implication of this study is that it is hoped that people with hypertension will not only have knowledge, but also have good behavior in taking drugs, and following a low-salt diet.

Assessing the Relationship between Residual Cancer Burden and the Tumor Immune-Microenvironment in Early-Stage, Hormone Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer Following Preoperative Radiation Therapy in MC1732 Clinical Trial

<h3>Purpose/Objective(s)</h3> Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and ectopic lymphoid formations known as tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) are prognostically significant in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, there is a paucity of data on this matter in hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer and whether these immunological parameters are impacted by preoperative radiation therapy (RT). The purpose of this work is to assess the relationship between residual cancer burden (RCB) and TILs/TLS in HR+ early-stage breast cancer following preoperative radiation therapy. <h3>Materials/Methods</h3> During 2019-2020, patients with cT0-T2, N0, M0 breast cancer were enrolled in a clinical trial (MC1732) in which they received hypofractionated whole-breast RT in 25 Gy in 5 fractions 4-8 weeks prior to breast-conserving surgery (BCS). RCB (determined per MD Anderson calculator), estimated % cellularity, TILs, and TLS were assessed in the surgical tissues. Low TIL was defined as < 10%, intermediate TIL as 11-49%, and high TIL as > 50%. The relationships between RCB class, numerical RCB values, and immunological parameters were explored using Kruskal-Wallace/Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test, linear regression, and Kendall's tau correlations. TILs and TLS were log-transformed to overcome extreme distributions. Lastly, a predictive model for pathologic outcomes was developed using backward elimination. <h3>Results</h3> Among the 22 patients analyzed for RCB, all were ER/PR positive. One patient was HER2 positive, and 13/22 had Grade 1 disease. Pathologic complete response (pCR) was noted in 18%, RCB-I in 60%, and RCB-II in 22%. In post-treatment samples, low, intermediate, and high TIL were found in 77%, 18%, and 5% of patients, respectively. Approximately 36% of patients had at least one TLS present after radiation. Kruskal-Wallace/Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test indicated a significant association between RCB class and % TILs and TLS (p = 0.010 and 0.003, respectively.) Kendall's tau correlation indicated a statistically significant positive correlation between RCB values and % TILs (p = 0.02) and TLS (p = 0 .001). Linear regression revealed that for every one-unit increase in RCB value, there was a statistically significant 4.3 unit increase in the % TILs (p <0.001), and a 2.48 unit increase in TLS (p <0.001). Finally, per the backward selection model, the number of TLS was associated with increased % cellularity at the time of surgery. <h3>Conclusion</h3> Our data suggest that increases in TILs and TLS following preoperative radiation are associated with increased residual disease in HR+ early-stage breast cancer. Given the fact that there are multiple types of potential immune infiltrates, further work is needed to elucidate the mechanisms behind these findings and specific types of immune infiltration.

A Comparison of the Pearson, Spearman Rank and Kendall Tau Correlation Coefficients Using Quantitative Variables

In all fields and branches of sciences especially statistics, the correlation coefficient is one of the most often used statistical measures. This study has been carried out for comparing the performances of the Pearson (), Spearman's Rank (), and Kendall’s Tau () correlation coefficients under three sample sizes based on the data of quantitative variables of cotton. Descriptive statistics showed the presence of genetic variability for the cotton studied traits in this study. The quantity, significance, and direction of the correlation calculated by differed in some cases from the other methods under the three sample sizes, opposite is true for and . The highest number of positive correlations among studied traits were by under N = 30 observations, and by and under N = 20 observations. The studied correlation methods performances by Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) revealed that and appear to be a good estimator of correlation because they have the lowest values of RMSE. The highest values of RMSE were observed by and under N=10 and N=20, and by under N=30. The results of PCA could be useful and appropriate in this study, in which the PCA1 had highly positively correlated with the three studied methods for N=10 observations, and with and for N=20 observations.

HUBUNGAN KOMUNIKASI PERAWAT DALAM PELAYANAN KESEHATAN DENGAN KEPUASAN PASIEN DI PUSKESMAS COLOMADU 1 KABUPATEN KARANGANYAR

Patient satisfaction toward nurse communication is the level of one's feelings after comparing patients nurses perceived communication with the expectation desired by the patient. Nurses in providing nursing care can not be separated from the nurse communication with patients that can affect patient satisfaction. Interview results are known in 5 patients who received less outpatient good service nurses in part because communication is less friendly to the patient empathy also those with less effective.To determine the relationship between the communication of nurses in health care with patient satisfaction in the health center Colomadu I Karanganyar. This descriptive quantitative research with cross sectional design. Population of 2500 patients, 96 samples were taken by accidental sampling technique. Data analysis techniques used by Kendall Tau correlation analysis: (1) Communication nurses mostly have good communication as many as 48 people (50.0%), (2) patient satisfaction satisfied people mostly belonging to as many as 56 people (58.3%); (3) There is a significant relationship between the communication of nurses in health care with patient satisfaction in the health center Colomadu I Karanganyar (r xy = 0.525&gt; 0.218; p = 0.000

Evaluating differences in the Level of Working Conditions between the European Union Member States using TOPSIS method

Work, which is a conscious activity of man, plays an immensely important role in their life and is the basis for the development of civilization. The work process is closely related to the conditions in which work is performed. These conditions include a number of social, technical, environmental as well as economic and organizational factors necessary to perform work safely in accordance with the applicable legal conditions. The role and importance of working conditions is appreciated by all organizations, countries and their groups taking action to improve them, including formal order. Given the importance and topicality of this issue, research has been carried out, the main goal of which was to assess the level of working conditions in the European Union (EU) countries according to the adopted criteria. The research was based on data from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound). Accordingly, eight main criteria were adopted, which were characterized by 64 sub-indicators. Such a broad approach to describing individual areas related to working conditions made it possible to analyze many factors influencing them. The research covered the 27 EU member states by determining indicators for working conditions criteria and an indicator for general (overall) working conditions. On this basis, their ranking and the level of working conditions in these countries were specified. The TOPSIS method was applied to this part of the research. With the use of partial levels of working conditions evaluation criteria and the k-means method, the authors identified countries similar in terms of the level of studied working conditions criteria. Based on the Spearman's rho and Kendall's Tau correlation coefficients, relationships were examined between the working conditions and the level of economic development and indicators characterizing the area of health and safety at work in the countries under study, which is very important from the point of view of working conditions. The results showed significant differences in working conditions between the EU-27. They were found to be definitely worse in the economically less developed countries (mainly the so-called "new" EU) than in the economically stronger states (the so-called "old" EU countries). The assessment and groups of similar countries in terms of working conditions should be used to develop strategies to improve these conditions in the EU-27. This is particularly significant in the context of dynamic technological, social and geopolitical changes across Europe, which have a significant impact on the labor market.&nbsp

Evaluation and Ranking of E-Government Websites Using Weighted-Combinative Distance-Based Assessment Approach

Electronic government (e-government) now becomes a necessity rather than an option for the countries that aim for improved governance. Indeed, existing agencies of government make a powerful connection with customers through e-government to deliver better, cheaper, and faster services. In the present research, a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach, namely weighted-combinative distance-based assessment (W-CODAS), is proposed which is a combination of Shannon entropy approach and CODAS and implemented to rank the e-government websites of eight countries by selecting 15 evaluation criteria. Further, the results obtained from W-CODAS method are compared with well-known methods AHP and TOPSIS and validated by Kendall's tau correlation test. The results of the present research based on W-CODAS show that the e-government website of Finland is placed at the top position (Rank 1) followed by UK. Similarly, the Netherlands website occupies last position and is ranked at number eight.

252P Real-world progression-free survival (rwPFS) and time to next line of therapy (TTNT) as intermediate endpoints for survival in metastatic breast cancer: A real-world experience

Real-world progression-free survival (rwPFS) and time to next line of therapy (TTNT) are two endpoints of clinical interest in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Their validation as intermediate endpoints for overall survival (OS), in a real-world setting, remains not fully established. We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the nationwide US Electronic Health Record-derived de-identified Flatiron Health database. The study population included pts diagnosed with MBC from Jan 1, 2011 through Feb 30, 2021. Kendall tau correlation between each surrogate endpoint (rwPFS and TTNT) and OS was evaluated using the Hougaard copula model. Kendall’s tau (τ) was calculated in the full cohort, and within each subgroup of metastatic disease, based on their prognostic significance, as defined by the occurrence of bone metastases (mets) only (subgroup 1), non-hepatic visceral mets +/- bone mets (subgroup 2), liver mets +/- other visceral and/or bone mets (subgroup 3), and one or more brain mets +/- other types of metastasis (subgroup 4). This work was supported by the imCORE network. Overall, 9,733 patients with MBC were included. Median age was 63 years (IQR: 54-72). Regarding sites of metastatic disease, subgroup 2 was most highly represented (n=4,188; 43.0%), followed by subgroup 1 (n=2,601; 26.7%), subgroup 3 (n=2,306; 23.7%) and subgroup 4 (n=638; 6.6%). Median OS in the overall population was 32.4 mos (95%CI: 31.2-33.3). Median rwPFS was 11.5 mos (95%CI: 11.1-11.9), and median TTNT was 11.1 mos (95%CI: 10.7-11.5). In the full cohort, the correlation of rwPFS with OS was 0.54, while that of TTNT with OS was 0.47 (Table).Table: 252PMedian OS, rwPFS and TTNT and Kendall tau correlation of each pair of evaluated endpoints.Overall Population (n=9,733)Subgroup 1 (n=2,601)Subgroup 2 (n=4,188)Subgroup 3 (n=2,306)Subgroup 4 (n=638)Median OS, months (95%CI)32.4 (31.2-33.3)44.3 (42.2-46.9)32.7 (31.0-34.0)22.6 (21.3-24.4)16.6 (14.8-19.7)Median rwPFS, months (95%CI)11.5 (11.1-11.9)18.5 (16.9-19.4)11.9 (11.4-12.7)8.2 (7.7-8.9)5.9 (4.9-6.7)Median TTNT, months (95%CI)11.1 (10.7-11.5)16.2 (15.1-17.9)11.3 (10.6-12.0)8.7 (8.2-9.2)6.7 (5.7-7.6)rwPFS-OS Correlation: τ (95%CI)0.54 (0.53-0.56)0.47 (0.45-0.50)0.54 (0.52-0.56)0.57 (0.55-0.59)0.60 (0.56-0.64)TTNT-OS Correlation: τ (95%CI)0.47 (0.46-0.48)0.37 (0.34-0.40)0.45 (0.43-0.46)0.54 (0.52-0.56)0.58 (0.55-0.62) Open table in a new tab Real-world PFS (rwPFS) and TTNT may represent meaningful intermediate endpoints for OS in patients with MBC overall, and within different disease subgroups.

A Gender-Related Analysis of a Robots' Math Class

Using robot programming activities for learning in the classroom is one way to drive interest and engagement in the STEM field among students, especially girls. And this is a field that is particularly characterized by an underrepresentation of women. Accordingly, many countries are increasingly integrating activities related to computer science concepts into their education systems. The EU also sets the goal of considering the connections between STEM disciplines in schools and having students gain experience with robots as well. The use of robots for teaching purposes creates opportunities for motivating and meaningful mathematics lessons that are linked to the fundamental concepts of computer science. Mathematics teaching in such a context offers possibilities for an experimental and problem-oriented approach to the content and a deep insight into mathematical concepts. Research in this area shows that the use of robots can promote understanding of mathematical concepts, change attitudes and motivation, and develop metacognitive and problem-solving skills. However, as for gender differences in this context, little is known to date. Addressing this gap, for this work, we investigated learners' performance, mathematical and computational ideas and experiences, problem-solving strategies, and help used in an ER (Educational Robotics) activity. In addition, the learners’ mathematical competence and computational thinking skills as well as possible correlations of these measures with the learners’ performance on an ER activity were examined. For these purposes, an ER activity on the topic of plane geometric figures was designed, which was carried out in a 6th grade (11-12 years) class (n=24) of an Austrian middle school in the city of Salzburg using the TI-Innovator Rover. The comparison of six female and six male student groups, each consisting of two students, made it possible to address the above research questions. For this purpose, a mixed-methods approach was chosen. Qualitative data, consisting of the audio recordings of the student groups' conversations during the ER activity, the constructions made on the posters, the student notes, and the saved programs, form the basis for thematic analysis. The quantitative data include the number of tasks solved during the ER activity by the student groups, the mathematics grade of the last school year by the students, and the results of a test on the students' computational thinking skills with the related self-assessments. Appropriate quantitative methods for analysis include the Wilcoxon rank-sum test (Mann-Whitney test), the Welch Two Sample t-test, and Kendall's tau and Pearson's correlation coefficient to test for differences and correlations. The main results indicate that groups with female students perform better while showing high engagement in the activity, exhibit a more systematic approach to problem-solving and at the same time use less intensive help from the teachers than their male counterparts in this class. The paper concludes by giving future directions for research and the limits of the present work.

Using the PageRank Algorithm to Rank Football Players in a Game

There are many methods to rank football players based on their performance in a game or series of games. However, since most methods are subjective, this paper proposes the PageRank algorithm as an objective method to rank players in a football team, where players can be considered as the nodes, and the passes made between them as the edges of a graph. To achieve this, we consider weighting functions, which are based on parameters which consider the number and quality of passes as well as the actions of individual players in the game. In this paper, the game chosen for implementing the rankings is the 2018 World Cup Final between France and Croatia. The weighting functions are then combined in multiple ways to create different models, which hare implemented in Python to compute the rankings. The models are compared with the official rankings of players during the game with the help of the Kendall's Tau Correlation Coefficient in order to find the distance between the two ranking vectors. While the results may not be highly accurate for the models tested in this paper, a number of additional factors influencing player performance, which official rankings account for, can be considered through more weighting functions. This would lead to more accurate results, thus making the PageRank algorithm a promising and objective tool for ranking football players in a game.

Hubungan Personal Factors Dan Interpersonal Influences Dengan Perilaku Merokok Pada Remaja Perempuan

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Smoking is one of health problems that has not been resolved because the level of cigarette consumption is still high, this is evidenced by increase in the percentage of smoking from year to year in adolescent girls. Smoking behavior is influenced by several factors based on the Health Promotion Model theory&lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;. This study was to determine the relationship between personal factors and interpersonal influences with smoking behavior in adolescent girls. This study used an analytical survey method with a cross-sectional design. Kendall's Tau Correlation test is used as bivariate analysis. Questionnaire given to 119 adolescent girls in Cimanggis, Depok City, West Java with accidental sampling technique. The results showed that the majority of adolescent girls were light smokers (92.4%), there was no association between age with smoking behavior (Sig.2-tailed = 0.569), there was no association between income with smoking behavior (Sig.2-tailed = 0.587), there was no association between education level with smoking behavior (Sig.2-tailed = 0.505), there is a significant association between knowledge with smoking behavior (Sig.2-tailed = 0.000), there is a significant association between families with smoking behavior (Sig.2-tailed = 0.012), there is a significant association between peers with smoking behavior (Sig.2-tailed = 0.008), and there is a significant association between advertising media with smoking behavior (Sig.2-tailed = 0.012). &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Keywords:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;em&gt;personal factors, interpersonal influences, smoking behavior, adolescent girls&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;