Task Completion Research Articles

ROLE OF COMPENSATION IN IMPROVING EMPLOYEE WORK PRODUCTIVITY AT PT. INFOMEDIA NUSANTARA, OCC DWS PROJECT DIVISION, SOUTH JAKARTA

This study analyzes the role of compensation in improving employee productivity at PT. Infomedia Nusantara, OCC DWS Project Division, South Jakarta. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, the study involves interviews, observations, and documentation, focusing on 80 employees. Compensation, both financial and non-financial, is examined for its impact on motivation and productivity. Financial compensation includes salaries, bonuses, and insurance, while non-financial aspects cover recognition and a positive work environment. Findings reveal that compensation significantly influences employee productivity. Financial compensation, such as timely salary payments and performance-based incentives, increases employee motivation and satisfaction, leading to improved task completion and efficiency. However, the suspension of annual leave during the pandemic negatively impacted morale and work-life balance, highlighting the importance of maintaining non-financial compensation for sustained productivity. The SWOT analysis underscores the strengths of robust infrastructure and certified employees but identifies challenges, such as limited training opportunities and reduced benefits. To address these, the study suggests enhancing financial rewards and reintroducing non-financial benefits, such as flexible leave policies. This research concludes that fair and consistent compensation enhances employee performance, benefiting both employees and the organization. PT. Infomedia Nusantara is encouraged to balance financial and non-financial compensation to maintain employee satisfaction and productivity.

Being young and resilient in times of AI, disasters, and crises

Disasters, crises, and resilience are interconnected with a general comprehension of “normality” or everyday routine disrupted by sudden and adverse events. However, some inconsistencies in the above interpretation induce an epistemological and existential crisis. First, the everyday life of some disadvantaged groups can be described as catastrophic and miserable whether the general community recognizes it or not. Nevertheless, some of the usually resilient groups could become future icons of the new risk, particularly AI hazards. Second, disasters are, by definition, sudden events with identified timeframes, while crises can be long-lasting with the tendency to become omnipresent. Third, when compared with earlier assertions, particular groups may undergo a long-lasting and gradual crisis that diminishes their capacity to anticipate future events, a critical aspect of resilience, and influences the social structure. An exemplary case is the unregulated widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI) by students to complete tasks, which diminishes critical thinking and reduces significant cognitive engagement. Such actions are possible with the cultural complicity of various stakeholders. Ultimately, the dystopian vision of a mindless and non-resilient young populace within an already susceptible context of an aging society—particularly with the increasing prevalence of dementia—reveals novel vulnerabilities, signalling the onset of an impending disaster. The suggestion made in this paper is for the research and teaching community to play a more active role in mitigating, if not preventing, potential unintended yet not-so-unforeseeable consequences.

Expecting the unexpected: Examining the interplay between real-world knowledge and contextual cues during language comprehension.

Communication frequently involves discussions about real-world implausible events. Since most prior research used specific contextual cues to indicate a strong bias towards real-world knowledge violations, it remains unclear how real-world and contextual knowledge interact when the context is relatively unconstraining (e.g., dream scenarios), where both plausible and implausible information is supported. We investigated this issue using sentence completion (Experiment 1) and self-paced reading tasks (Experiment 2). Results of Experiment 1 showed that comprehenders were guided by the dream context to expect less plausible information in a general way, but their expectations were still largely constrained by real-world knowledge. Results of Experiment 2 showed that although comprehension in such contexts was initially guided by real-world knowledge, plausible information became more difficult to comprehend than implausible information (e.g., "putting meat and vegetables in the refrigeratorplausible/wardrobeimplausible") at the final regions of the target sentence. Our study is the first to show that context is powerful enough to guide comprehenders towards expecting world knowledge violations even without explicit constraints indicating this bias, which is mainly driven by increased comprehension difficulties for plausible contents rather than decreased difficulties for implausible ones. Importantly, our findings raise new questions about how comprehenders switch from an old situation model to a new one. They also indicate necessary extensions for language comprehension models, highlighting that information unrelated to both real-world and contextual knowledge in any direct way (i.e., information with extremely low cloze probability) can still be ultimately preferred in certain contexts.

The Relationship Between Cognitive and Morphological Skills: Evidence from Turkish Kindergarten Children

ABSTRACT This study investigated the role of domain-general cognitive processes, specifically inhibitory control, verbal working memory (WM), and nonverbal reasoning, on children’s productive grammar skills, focusing on Turkish past tense (e.g. fırçala-DI brush-PAST.3sg) and causative suffix (e.g. fırçala-t-TI brush-CAUSE-PAST.3sg), representing the broader categories of inflectional versus derivational morphology, respectively. We tested 84 5-year-old Turkish-learning children from a densely populated district in Istanbul, Türkiye on a sentence completion task to assess the use of morphology. Children were more successful in producing the correct suffix for the past tense than causative suffix, when using both familiar and pseudo verbs. Zero-order correlations showed significant relations between correct suffix use and all cognitive assessments. However, regression analyses revealed that only nonverbal reasoning predicted children’s overall correct suffix use and inhibition predicted it only for the past tense with pseudo verbs. Hence, children who have better reasoning abilities may have more robustly abstracted the grammar rules of their native language. Children with better inhibitory control can more effectively suppress the primed present tense verb and correctly use the past tense. This ability is particularly evident when dealing with pseudo verbs, which make the task more abstract. These findings imply the consideration of domain-general cognition in the development of abstract grammar in childhood.

Capturing Requirements for a Data Annotation Tool for Intensive Care: Experimental User-Centered Design Study.

Increasing use of computational methods in health care provides opportunities to address previously unsolvable problems. Machine learning techniques applied to routinely collected data can enhance clinical tools and improve patient outcomes, but their effective deployment comes with significant challenges. While some tasks can be addressed by training machine learning models directly on the collected data, more complex problems require additional input in the form of data annotations. Data annotation is a complex and time-consuming problem that requires domain expertise and frequently, technical proficiency. With clinicians' time being an extremely limited resource, existing tools fail to provide an effective workflow for deployment in health care. This paper investigates the approach of intensive care unit staff to the task of data annotation. Specifically, it aims to (1) understand how clinicians approach data annotation and (2) capture the requirements for a digital annotation tool for the health care setting. We conducted an experimental activity involving annotation of the printed excerpts of real time-series admission data with 7 intensive care unit clinicians. Each participant annotated an identical set of admissions with the periods of weaning from mechanical ventilation during a single 45-minute workshop. Participants were observed during task completion and their actions were analyzed within Norman's Interaction Cycle model to identify the software requirements. Clinicians followed a cyclic process of investigation, annotation, data reevaluation, and label refinement. Variety of techniques were used to investigate data and create annotations. We identified 11 requirements for the digital tool across 4 domains: annotation of individual admissions (n=5), semiautomated annotation (n=3), operational constraints (n=2), and use of labels in machine learning (n=1). Effective data annotation in a clinical setting relies on flexibility in analysis and label creation and workflow continuity across multiple admissions. There is a need to ensure a seamless transition between data investigation, annotation, and refinement of the labels.

Internal Communication Patterns in Improving Employee Performance in Macro Planning

This study aims to analyze the communication patterns applied in the Macro Planning Division of BAPPERIDA, West Papua Province to improve the effectiveness of internal communication. This study uses a descriptive qualitative approach that focuses on understanding employee behavior, perceptions, and motivations in the context of the organization. The subjects of the study consisted of employees in the Macro Planning Division of BAPPERIDA who were selected through purposive sampling based on their competencies and roles. Data collection was carried out through in-depth interviews, direct observation, and documentation studies. The results of the study indicate that internal communication in the Macro Planning Division of BAPPERIDA is running well, which is reflected in the improvement of work quality, punctuality, initiative, ability, and smooth interaction between leaders and staff. Employees have completed planning tasks, such as RKPD, RAP, and RPJMD, although there are some minor obstacles faced. Supporting factors for employee performance include discipline, understanding of tasks, and punctuality in completing work. In addition, the leadership communication approach that emphasizes good coordination and active problem-solving also facilitates task completion. This study concludes that effective communication is an important factor in achieving organizational success, with no significant obstacles found thanks to established internal communication practices. These findings underscore the importance of effective communication in optimizing organizational performance, increasing employee productivity, and creating more solid working relationships within the organization.

Securing fog computing in healthcare with a zero-trust approach and blockchain

As healthcare systems increasingly adopt fog computing to improve responsiveness and real-time data processing at the edge, significant security challenges emerge due to the decentralized architecture. The traditional perimeter-based security models are inadequate for addressing the dynamic and distributed nature of fog networks, leaving them vulnerable to unauthorized access, data tampering, and latency issues. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel security framework that integrates blockchain (BC) and software-defined network (SDN) technologies, underpinned by zero-trust (ZT) principles, to address these challenges in latency-sensitive healthcare environments. The proposed framework enhances security by combining BC’s immutable transaction logs for data integrity and traceability with SDN’s dynamic network reconfiguration for real-time access control and anomaly detection. The integration of BC and SDN supports continuous authentication and monitoring using cryptographic protocols (SHA-256A and RSA-2048) to secure data transmission. Additionally, tasks are dynamically allocated to fog nodes based on a multi-metric scheduling mechanism that considers fog node capacity, proximity, and compliance with predefined security protocols. The framework was evaluated using iFogSim, simulating a healthcare environment with 50 IoT devices, 10 fog nodes, and varying workloads (100–1000 tasks/min). The key evaluation performance metrics include intrusion detection rate (IDR), data integrity (DI), task completion rate (TCR), average task response time (ART), and average block time. The implementation results demonstrate satisfactory improvements compared to existing models: a 40% increase in IDR, a 30% enhancement in DI, a 15.29% rise in TCR, and a 39.66% reduction in ART. Moreover, the baseline IDR (85%) and DI (70%) were drawn from ZT-1, while TCR (85%) and ART (300 ms) were measured using ZT-2 as benchmarks. These findings illustrate the feasibility of integrating BC, SDN, and ZT principles to mitigate threats such as unauthorized access, data tampering, and delays in latency-sensitive tasks.

Utilising Explainable AI to Enhance Real‐Time Student Performance Prediction in Educational Serious Games

ABSTRACTIn recent years, serious games (SGs) have emerged as a powerful tool in education by combining pedagogy and entertainment, facilitating the acquisition of knowledge and skills in engaging environments. SGs enable the collection of valuable interaction data from students, allowing for the analysis of student performance, with artificial intelligence (AI) playing a key role in processing this data to make informed inferences about their knowledge and skills. However, the lack of explainability in AI models represents a significant challenge. This research aims to develop an interpretable model for predicting students' performance in real‐time while playing an SG by: (1) calculating the performance of an interpretable prediction model of task completion in an SG and (2) demonstrating the application of the interpretable model for just‐in‐time (JIT) classroom interventions. Our results show that we are able to predict students' task completion in real‐time with a balanced accuracy result of 77.21% after a short playtime has elapsed. In addition, an explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) approach has been applied to ensure the interpretability of the developed models. This approach supports personalised learning experiences, unlocks AI benefits for non‐technical users, and maintains transparency in education.

Formal managerial authority and frontline managers' perceived ability to lead in public organizations: results from Danish hospitals

Formal managerial authority is the right to make managerial decisions for a delimited part of an organization and its employees. Based on the literature, this article develops a measure of formal managerial authority that is used to examine the distribution of formal managerial authority. Results from a survey of 181 managing physicians and 451 managing nurses show that formal managerial authority varies significantly across types of managerial decisions and professional groups. An exploratory cross-sectional analysis shows that formal managerial authority is positively associated with self-reported visionary leadership and the perception of being able to complete leadership tasks within the allotted time. We find no association with self-reported use of verbal recognition or the perception of having the necessary leadership skills.

The role of digital addiction and self-efficacy on academic procrastination: A Turkish pre-service teachers’ case

The study examined the relationships between digital addictions, academic self-efficacy, and academic procrastination among pre-service teachers. The sample included 549 pre-service teachers who participated voluntarily, with 412 females and 137 males enrolled in various disciplines. Two models were constructed to investigate these relationships. The initial model showed negative relations between addiction to digital media or tools, academic self-efficacy, and the ability to complete academic tasks on time. Conversely, higher levels of academic self-efficacy decreased academic procrastination. Academic self-efficacy was also found to partially mediate the relationship between digital addiction and academic procrastination. The second model confirmed that addiction to digital media or tools negatively related to pre-service teachers’ ability to complete academic tasks on time. Similar to the first model, higher levels of academic self-efficacy were associated with lower levels of academic procrastination. As a result of the study, strategies based on literature were proposed to help pre-service teachers reduce digital addiction and enhance academic self-efficacy. It is believed that implementing these strategies will help students complete their academic tasks on time and improve their academic performance.

Harnessing Social Media for Independent Learning: Insights from Higher Education Students

The utilisation of social media has changed the educational landscape by providing a flexible and innovative platform for students' self-directed learning. This study aims to explore the impact of social media as a source of self-directed learning on undergraduate students at the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Pattimura University, Indonesia. Using a quantitative-descriptive approach, data was collected from 166 students through a structured questionnaire. The results showed high usage of social media for learning, with platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp being the most frequently used. Students utilise social media to complete academic tasks, expand their knowledge, and improve their digital competence, reflecting the potential of social media as an adaptive and effective learning tool. This research highlights the role of social media in supporting the principles of andragogy and lifelong learning, and identifies various benefits, including collaboration, creativity and problem-solving. However, it also reveals challenges such as distraction and the validity of online information. The results provide practical recommendations for educational institutions to optimise the use of social media in the learning process, including through digital literacy training and integration into the curriculum. The findings offer important insights for the development of innovative digital education that supports students' learning needs in the modern era

Unlocking potential: how project-based learning influences kindergarten motor skills

Introduction: various studies have shown that the Project-Based Learning (PBL) has a significant impact on learning across different educational levels. However, there is an empirical gap, particularly regarding the implementation of PBL in early childhood education. Research in this age is still limited, especially in evaluating the impact of PBL on early childhood motor skills. Objective: this study aims to analyze the effectiveness of PBL in improving gross and fine motor skills in early childhood. The main focus of this study is to encouraging the development of childrens’ entrepreneurial spirit through activities such as batik making, exploring the garden, and games. Methodology: this research uses a pre-test and post-test experimental design to evaluate changes in motor skills quantitatively. The participants consist of 10 early childhood from TK Islam Nibras and 10 early childhood from TK Lentera Qolbu. Results: the analysis results show that early childhood involved in PBL activities experienced significant improvement in coordination, body balance, large muscle strength, as well as the ability to complete tasks requiring hand precision and hand-eye coordination. Conclusions: it is important for teachers to tailor the projects to each child's needs and abilities, and to provide an environment that supports their motor development.

Exploring Oral Narrative Abilities of Chilean School-Age Children With Down Syndrome: A Preliminary Study.

Narrative abilities are essential for school achievement and quality of life, yet children with Down syndrome (DS) often struggle with these skills. This work explores the oral narrative abilities of school-age Chilean children with DS. The participants were 11 children with DS aged between 7;2 and 12;1 (years; months). All participated in a retelling task using a wordless picture book. Microstructural and macrostructural performance were analyzed and compared with data from a reference database of typically developing Spanish-speaking children, matched by chronological age or linguistic abilities. Children with DS showed proficiency in identifying introductory story elements but faced difficulties with cohesion. Restricted microstructural performance and task completion time were observed. Ethical-methodological challenges and recommendations for practice and research are discussed.

Validating the questionnaire of achievement of developmental task (QADT) to measure achieving mental wellness in school-aged children.

This article presents a verification of the factor structure and validation of the Questionnaire of Achievement of Developmental Task (QADT), designed to measure children's social expectations in early childhood. Three tasks, important from the point of view of both children's functioning at a given life stage and preparation for the next developmental phase, were selected. These are school skills, cooperation with others and a sense of competence. The research aimed to verify the tool's psychometric validity and establish relationships between developmental tasks and indicators of children's mental health. The study was conducted in primary school's 4th, 5th and 6th grades (N = 453). The QADT, Brief Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale and Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children were used. The tool shows sufficient validity and reliability. The hypothesis regarding associations between the level of developmental task completion and life satisfaction and depressive symptoms was also confirmed. The QADT tool can be used in scientific research. This work contributes to the growing body of literature on factors influencing children's mental health and underscores the importance of measuring social expectations of children in early childhood. It also highlights the need to consider developmental tasks in clinical practice and interventions to improve children's mental health. Ultimately, the findings of this study can inform the development of effective preventive and intervention strategies to promote children's mental health and well-being.

Filipino Language Learners’ Micro-macro Level Responses to Compliments

This study sought to investigate various implications of compliments to responses among Filipino students of Negros Oriental State University, Dumaguete City. Particularly, this study examined compliment responses of NORSU college learners of English as a second language using the critical lens of Holmes (1986) model of compliment responses (CR). The research instrument used in this study is the adapted Discourse Completion Task (DCT) based on the three macro and micro-levels of accept, reject, and evade of designed by Tang and Zhang’s (2009). The DCT is composed of four situational topics to elicit compliments: appearance, character, ability, and possession. Descriptive statistics was performed in this study in analyzing the data elicited from the DCT questionnaire. Using a quantitative content analysis to investigate compliment-response discourses, data analysis showed that majority of the compliment responses of accept rather than reject or evade were predominantly recorded. More interestingly, the study further revealed that there was a large number of combination/modification occurred in the data, and therefore, was added as a new category in the current study. This multitude of data about the students accepting compliments and then underplaying its effect shows a strong indication of the Filipino students’ idiosyncratic way of responding to compliments

The Influence of Transformational and Transactional Leadership Styles on Employee Performance (Case Study at PT Perkebunan Nusantara 1 Regional 7, Kedaton District, Bandar Lampung City)

This study examines the impact of transformational and transactional leadership styles on employee performance at PT Perkebunan Nusantara 1 Regional 7. Employee performance is a crucial factor in achieving organizational goals, and leadership style plays a significant role in shaping motivation and productivity. Using a quantitative approach, data were collected through questionnaires distributed to 80 employees across four divisions. The findings indicate that transformational leadership positively influences employee motivation and engagement, while transactional leadership ensures task completion through structured reward and penalty mechanisms. The study concludes that a combination of both leadership styles leads to optimal employee performance, balancing innovation with efficiency.

Pemanfaatan Aplikasi Trello untuk Efisiensi Agenda Manajemen Sekolah di SMK Negeri 5 Balikpapan

This research analyzes the use of the Trello application in improving school management efficiency at SMK Negeri 5 Balikpapan through a qualitative descriptive approach based on case studies. This research uses a qualitative descriptive approach based on case studies at SMK Negeri 5 Balikpapan, with data collection through observation, interviews and documentation. Research results show that Trello significantly improves schedule management, task distribution, and team collaboration through progress visualization, automatic reminders, and comments features. Time efficiency increases by up to 40%, while the on-time task completion rate reaches 85%. These findings support the theories of time management, Agile, and work motivation, and show that Trello has the potential to be an effective digital solution in educational management, especially in overcoming challenges related to organizing tasks and communication between team members. These findings support the theories of time management, Agile, and work motivation, and show the potential of Trello as a digital solution in educational management. It is estimated that the use of applications such as Trello can be further optimized by training staff and developing more specific features according to managerial needs in educational institutions.

Are Vestibular Function or Visuospatial Perception Affected in Individuals with Idiopathic Scoliosis?

Purpose: It was aimed to investigate relationship between characteristics of the curve and balance, vestibular dysfunction, visuospatial perception, navigation performance, and quality of life in idiopathic scoliosis. Material and Methods: 33 participants with idiopathic scoliosis were included. Radiography, ScolioDetector application, unipedal stance test, Utenberger test (displacement and rotation), Visuospatial Memory Test, triangle completion task, and Scoliosis Research Society-22 evaluation parameters were. Results: According to the type of curve, a significant difference was found only in the unipedal stance test with the right eyes closed and in the rotation with the eyes open (p0.05), except for the duration of standing on one foot with eyes open on the right soft ground (p=0.009); There was a significant difference in displacement and eyes-open rotation angle (p

Comparison of laparoscopic performance using low-cost laparoscopy simulators versus state-of-the-art simulators: a multi-center prospective, randomized crossover trial.

Simulator training is an efficient method for the development of basic laparoscopic skills. We aimed to investigate if low-cost simulators are comparable to more expensive box trainers regarding surgeons usability, likability, and performance. This multi-center, randomized crossover study included 16 medical students, seven abdominal surgeons, and seven urological surgeons. Participants performed four laparoscopic tasks (peg transfer, circle cutting, balloon resection, suture and knot) on both, a "Low cost trainer" (LCT) or a "high cost trainer" (HCT) in a randomized order. The primary endpoint was the subjective rating of both training simulators in terms of camera view, depth perception, movement of instruments, pricing, and usability for training. Secondary endpoints were force parameters, task completion time, surgical errors, and psychological workload. Participants rated the LCT better concerning view (p < 0.001), depth perception (p = 0.003), pricing (p < 0.001), and usability for digital training (p < 0.001), but worse in terms of instrument movement (p = 0.004). Overall, the LCT was rated better than the HCT (p = 0.015). Regarding force parameters, participants showed a significantly lower force exertion on the HCT during the peg transfer task (p = 0.008). The force exertion in the other tasks were comparable between both trainers. Participants were significantly faster using the HCT during the peg transfer (p = 0.049) and significantly slower in balloon resection (p = 0.049) and suture and knot task (p = 0.026). The assessment of the participants' workload showed no differences. The LCT was generally rated better than the HCT. The differences concerning force exertion and task completion time showed better results during peg transfer at the HCT but were generally inconclusive and without systemic advantage for either trainer. However, the LCT could be a promising and cost-effective augmentation for modern laparoscopic training.

P-322. Transmission of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus to Healthcare Personnel Gloves and Gowns: a Cohort Study of VA Hospitals in 5 States

Abstract Background The aim of this study was to determine the rate of MRSA transmission to healthcare personnel (HCP) gloves and gown and to determine which patient care interactions and HCP roles are associated with greater transmission of MRSA. Methods Patients with a positive MRSA clinical or surveillance culture within the past 7 days were enrolled at 5 VA medical centers. Research team members observed 5 HCP in the room for each patient and recorded any items that were touched on a standardized data collection form. After completion of tasks and prior to room exit, HCP gloves and gown were cultured separately. The primary outcome was a surrogate measure for transmission defined as “yes” if a HCP glove or gown was contaminated with MRSA. Results We enrolled 799 patients and obtained 3,832 glove and gown cultures. Transmission of MRSA to gloves or gown occurred 713/3832 (18.6%) of the time while 589/3832 (15.4%) of interactions resulted in contamination of gloves and 319/3831 (8.3%) of interactions resulted in contamination of gowns. The gloves and gown of physical therapists and occupational therapists were most frequently contaminated with transmission occurring in 24/84 (29%) and 11/38 (29%) of observations respectively (Table 1). Any interactions that involved touching the patient (patient alone or patient and environment) resulted in glove or gown contamination in 622/2901 (21.4%) of observations, while touching only the environment resulted contamination in 91/931 (9.8%) of observations. Specific patient care activities with the highest rates of transmission included touching the endotracheal tube (12/35, 34%) and assisting the patient with bathing and hygiene (89/283, 31%). Specific environmental items touched with the highest rates of transmission included the call button (75/221, 34%) and the lift (31/125, 27%) (Figure 1). Conclusion Contamination of HCP gloves and gowns with MRSA occurs frequently when caring for Veteran patients particularly when there is direct patient contact. Hospitals may consider optimizing contact precautions by using fewer precautions for low-risk interactions and more precautions for high-risk interactions. Disclosures Anthony Harris, MD, MPH, Innoviva: Advisor/Consultant|UpToDate: Infection Control Editor