Years Of Programming Experience Research Articles

Behavior and adrenal physiology of Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) serving as ambassador animals.

Ambassador animals are part of many zoo programs, but studies assessing their impact on these animals are relatively rare. This study validated an excrement glucocorticoid metabolite (GCM) assay for Magellanic penguins and used GCM measures in conjunction with behavioral observations to evaluate individual responses to participation in an ambassador animal program. Excrement samples and behavioral observations were collected daily from each bird during two phases, 1 week during which it participated in a twice-daily ambassador program and 1 week in which it did not. We found no differences in GCMs between phases or in comparisons between penguins with 5 or 10 years of program experience. GCM also did not show significant individual variation and did not increase over time during the program phase. There were no significant correlations between bird experience and behavior frequencies, nor GCM concentrations and behavior, across birds. We observed significant positive correlations between the penguins' engagement with novel objects during programs and their unguided approach to guests. Our results suggest that there is no adverse physiological effect of program participation on these penguins, that behavioral and physiological responses may be decoupled, and that choice and control can increase desired behaviors behavior during ambassador programs.

The ASPIRE-to-Excellence Program: A Global Effort to Improve the Quality of Medical Education.

Publications and organizations ranking medical schools rely heavily on schools' research-oriented and grant-success data because those are the publicly available data. To address the vacuum of evidence for medical education quality, in 2012 the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) introduced an initiative entitled A Schools Programme for International Recognition of Excellence in Education (ASPIRE) awards. ASPIRE panels of international experts in specific areas of medical education have developed internationally peer-based criteria to benchmark excellence in social accountability, student engagement, student assessment, faculty development, and simulation; they plan to publish criteria on curriculum design and development in 2018. Schools are encouraged to use ASPIRE criteria to challenge themselves and, for a fee, may submit evidence that they have met the criteria for excellence in one or more of the five areas. The international panels then judge the evidence submitted by the school and determine whether an award of excellence is merited.The authors share lessons learned from five years of program experience. Of the 88 schools submitting evidence, 38 have been recognized for their excellence in one of the ASPIRE topic areas. As the number of representatives from the schools that are awarded ASPIRE recognition continues to increase and those individuals find new ways to contribute, hopes are high for this program. Challenges remain in how to better define excellence in low-resources settings, what new areas to take on, and how to keep infrastructure costs down. However, as an example of continuing global interaction for quality improvement, optimism prevails.

ICT Teachers’ Acceptance of “Scratch” as Algorithm Visualization Software

<p>This study aims to investigate the acceptance of ICT teachers pertaining to the use of Scratch as an Algorithm Visualization (AV) software in terms of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. An embedded mixed method research design was used in the study, in which qualitative data were embedded in quantitative ones and used to explain the results. The data were collected from 214 pre-service ICT teachers studying in four large public universities. Data was gathered through a questionnaire adapted from David’s Technology Acceptance Survey (1989) and through open-ended questions. T-test and Pearson correlation, as well as descriptive statistics, were used to analyze quantitative data and constant analysis techniques were used to analyze qualitative data. Both kinds of data were mixed and are presented in the results section. The results show that pre-service ICT teachers mainly have positive and similar Scratch acceptance scores in terms of usefulness and ease of use. The factors explaining participants’ perceived usefulness are identified as visual interface (37%), pedagogy(36%), and computational thinking (27%). The majority of the participants also found Scratch to be easy to use. Pre-service ICT teachers explained that what makes AV software easy to use is color separation (40%), drag and drop (30%), and familiar interface (30%). Additionally, no significant difference between the acceptance scores of the participants was found in terms of gender, years of programming experience, programming background, and the high school they graduated from as indicators of programming experience. Results congruent with previous studies regarding Scratch were found by the current study.</p>

On the use of software design models in software development practice: An empirical investigation

Research into software design models in general, and into the UML in particular, focuses on answering the question how design models are used, completely ignoring the question if they are used. There is an assumption in the literature that the UML is the de facto standard, and that use of design models has had a profound and substantial effect on how software is designed by virtue of models giving the ability to do model-checking, code generation, or automated test generation. However for this assumption to be true, there has to be significant use of design models in practice by developers.This paper presents the results of a survey summarizing the answers of 3785 developers answering the simple question on the extent to which design models are used before coding. We relate their use of models with (i) total years of programming experience, (ii) open or closed development, (iii) educational level, (iv) programming language used, and (v) development type.The answer to our question was that design models are not used very extensively in industry, and where they are used, the use is informal and without tool support, and the notation is often not UML. The use of models decreased with an increase in experience and increased with higher level of qualification. Overall we found that models are used primarily as a communication and collaboration mechanism where there is a need to solve problems and/or get a joint understanding of the overall design in a group. We also conclude that models are seldom updated after initially created and are usually drawn on a whiteboard or on paper.

Teaching human-centered security using nontraditional techniques

Computing science students amass years of programming experience and a wealth of factual knowledge in their undergraduate courses. Based on our combined years of experience, however, one of our students' abiding shortcomings is that they think there is only one correct answer to issues in most courses: an idealistic stance. Human-centered security, as well as other areas, requires students to understand that they have to weigh up a number of different possible solutions, and satisfice, rather than choose the one that is undeniably the best. In other words, they need to adopt a more realistic stance. Lecture-based teaching cannot develop this facility, due to its inability to engage students deeply with the issues and possible solutions. We argue that depth (in terms of understanding the complexity and issues involved) as well as breadth (in terms of appreciating the different positions taken by users on these issues) are essential for developing the realistic stance. This article reports on an instructional design that was used to help students become more realistic in their decision making. The design is based on seven educational strategies that, in tandem, help students to see the depth and breadth of topics in the course. We detail the instructional design and its application to three topic areas in the course, and report on the outcomes. We found evidence that students did indeed develop the depth and breadth we were hoping for. In concluding, we reflect on the design and the positive result, and propose changes to further improve the course.

The importance of socio-economic context for social marketing models for improving reproductive health: Evidence from 555 years of program experience

BackgroundOver the past two decades, social marketing programs have become an important element of the national family planning and HIV prevention strategy in several developing countries. As yet, there has not been any comprehensive empirical assessment to determine which of several social marketing models is most effective for a given socio-economic context. Such an assessment is urgently needed to inform the design of future social marketing programs, and to avoid that programs are designed using an ineffective model.MethodsThis study addresses this issue using a database of annual statistics about reproductive health oriented social marketing programs in over 70 countries. In total, the database covers 555 years of program experience with social marketing programs that distribute and promote the use of oral contraceptives and condoms. Specifically, our analysis assesses to what extent the model used by different reproductive health social marketing programs has varied across different socio-economic contexts. We then use random effects regression to test in which socio-economic context each of the models is most successful at increasing use of socially marketed oral contraceptives and condoms.ResultsThe results show that there has been a tendency to design reproductive health social marketing program with a management structure that matches the local context. However, the evidence also shows that this has not always been the case. While socio-economic context clearly influences the effectiveness of some of the social marketing models, program maturity and the size of the target population appear equally important.ConclusionsTo maximize the effectiveness of future social marketing programs, it is essential that more effort is devoted to ensuring that such programs are designed using the model or approach that is most suitable for the local context.

Ten Years of Police Defibrillation:

Objective.In 1992,a study to evaluate the effectiveness of police defibrillation was initiated in seven suburban police departments. This paper describes the characteristics of those programs andthe attitudes of chiefs andofficers ten years after the commencement of that study.Methods.A 32-item survey instrument including questions on department demographics, defibrillation program characteristics, andattitudes was mailed to the chiefs. A separate 25-item survey was developed to assess officers' attitudes; a nonmanagement officer distributed andcollected these surveys anonymously. Responses are reported descriptively.Results.All seven chiefs and78% of the officers completed surveys. Police arrive prior to emergency medical services on 80% or more of calls, with a mean ± standard deviation response interval of 3.1 ±1.7 minutes. All departments identify a program coordinator andsix a medical director; three departments have a quality-improvement program. Five departments have liability coverage for the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED), andno department reported any liability-related problems. Five of the chiefs and82% of the officers disagreed or strongly disagreed that liability issues are a concern or a source of hesitation in using the AED. Ninety-six percent of the officers agreed or strongly agreed that police AED use is beneficial to cardiac arrest victims. All seven police chiefs and89% of the officers agreed or strongly agreed that AED use by police is appropriate.Conclusions.In these seven police departments with ten years of program experience, defibrillation has become integrated into the law-enforcement culture. Liability issues are not a prominent concern of chiefs or officers. Police chiefs andofficers in these departments continue to support police-based defibrillation programs.Key words:cardiopulmonary resuscitation; electric countershock; emergency medical services; heart arrest; police; ventricular fibrillation.

A program structure analysis of East German television, 1968–1974

The period between 1968 and 1974 is a special ‘case’ of continuity and transformation for television in the GDR. On the one hand, more than 10 years of programming experience had been accumulated. ...

Essential elements of postabortion care: origins, evolution and future directions.

In this comment we chronicle the development and expansion of a postabortion care model designed to promote interventions that address abortion-related public health concerns even when abortion laws and policies are restrictive. We review years of program experience with the original model which led to the development of an expanded and updated model Essential Elements of Postabortion Care (PAC). Implementing the model challenges global public health leaders donors technical assistance agencies and ministries of health to work with communities to ensure that all women who want to prevent or space pregnancies can obtain contraceptive services; that all women have access to services to manage complications abortion whether induced or spontaneous; and that women receiving treatment also receive counseling and reproductive and other health services they need at the treatment visit as well as follow-up care and contraceptive resupply. (excerpt)

Exemplars of Successful Alzheimer's Demonstration Projects

SUMMARY The Alzheimer's Demonstration program was established in 1991 to develop models of home and community-based care for persons with Alzheimer's disease and their families. After more than ten years of program experience and evaluation, the Alzheimer's Demonstration program has generated significant information about how to work successfully with families coping with Alzheimer's disease. In particular, the Demonstration program has been very successful in developing innovative program models and approaches to serving traditionally underserved populations such as ethnic minorities, low income, and rural families. Of particular interest is the significant number of successful project components that are replicable in a variety of community settings. This article provides detailed programmatic and replication information for five successful Alzheimer's Demonstration program models: Mobile Day Care, Rural Geriatric Dementia Evaluation, El Portal services for Latinos, Client Advocates, and AL-CARE services for clients who live alone.

Locality metrics and program physical structures

Years of programming experience has convinced us that the physical structure of a program, such as the locations of the program's components, their calls, and the depth of nested calls, is important in determining how effective and efficient the program can be debugged and maintained. This paper introduces a new class of physical metrics, known as locality metric, that measures the relative positions of components in a program listing and reveals useful attributes that may affect programmer productivity. The placement of the components can be determined by a simple algorithm that is of polynomial time complexity. The paper compares the performance of the algorithm with that of an exhaustive search approach and also reports various characteristics of the locality metric based on the collected statistical data. The performance shows the feasibility of the algorithm and closeness of its output to the optimal result found by the exhaustive approach.

Cross Sectional and Longitudinal Models of 1977 National Social Insurance Expenditures

Abstract This article partially replicates Cutright's (1967) analysis of determinants of cross-national differences in 1960 social insurance expenditures. Analyses of national differences in 1977 finds that a proxy for Cutright's theoretical construct of an egalitarian political system does not influence social insurance expenditures in the low GNP/per capita (GNP/C) stratum, but it is an important variable in analyses the high GNP/C stratum. This proxy is also significant in analysis of 1965 to 1977 increases in expenditures in high GNP/C countries. The percentage of the labor force in industry, an indicator of the control of the population over its environment and its vulnerability to economic change was a significant predictor in the high GNP/C stratum in 1977, but was unimportant among lower GNP/C nations. The experience and power of the social insurance bureaucracy and its constituency as indexed by the years of program experience (SIPE) was significant in analysis of 1977 expenditures in both high a...