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All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing. • Type of peer review: Single-blind • Describe criteria used by Reviewers when accepting/declining papers. Was there the opportunity to resubmit articles after revisions? The criteria used by the reviewers were as follows (with Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor and Very Poor highlight for each criteria): –Significance of actual state of the problem; –Originality of the work; –Quality of research methodology; –Validity of the results and interpretation; –Clarity of the conclusions; –Validity of the future results; –Adequacy of recognition of the quotations of previous work; –Quality of the language. The reviewer’s recommendations were: –Accepted as it is; –Accepted with minor revisions; –Resubmitted with major revisions; –Rejected. Yes, of course was the possibility for all authors to resubmit articles after reviewer’s comments. • Conference submission management system: The Conference management system consist in our platform www.modtech.ro with the database included such as: REGISTER, LOGIN, USERS INFORMATION (email, city/country, uploading paper time, options (automatically email to the each author, view & edit details about the participant), delete the user account), NEWSLETTER (inform in a same time all the participants), FILES (uploading abstracts and full papers, message for accepted/denied). Also, the modtech.ro website has the information about ORGANIZERS, TOPICS, CONFERENCE COMMITIES, PUBLICATION ETHICS AND MALPRACTICE STATEMENT, ModTech ATTENDANCE POLICY, CALL FOR PAPERS (Abstract template, Paper template, Poster template, Copyright, Attendance Application Form), REGISTRATION, IMPORTANT DATES, PUBLICATIONS, BOOK OF ABSTRACTS, PLENARY/KEYNOTE/INVITED SPEAKERS, VENUE, NEWS, CONTACT. • Number of submissions received: 131 • Number of submissions sent for review: 128 (3 paper rejected after the plagiarism report) • Number of submissions accepted: 125 (IOP-91; IJMMT-20; 14-withdrawn due to the loss of SCOPUS indexation by the IOP) • Acceptance Rate (Number of Submissions Accepted / Number of Submissions Received X 100): 95.4% • Average number of reviews per paper: 2 • Total number of reviewers involved: 39 • Any additional info on review process (ie plagiarism check system): Was used the PLAGIARISM DETECTOR PRO v. 1861 • Contact person for queries: Dumitru Nedelcu, Phone: +40771346968, Email: [email protected]

Impact of absenteeism on academic performance under compulsory attendance policies in first to fifth year university students

Since the implementation of the European Higher Education Area, universities have been obliged to implement continuous assessment systems that require a high degree of attendance by students. Using recorded data, from year 1 to year 5, of 694 students of a European university, where attendance is mandatory, the main objective of this research is to analyse to what extent absenteeism affects performance across the years of degree study. The investigation found a decreasing effect. In addition, a cluster analysis was done to find out if the compulsory attendance policy impacts all students equally. Three different behavioural styles were found: those who attend regularly, students who manage their number of absences to comply with attendance rules, who are the real targets the policy, and a third group with a high number of absences not affected by the policy. These findings identify the groups of students who benefit most from adequate attendance.

A Collaborative Problem-Solving Approach to Improving District Attendance Policy

Collaborative problem-solving research approaches have the potential to support improvement in educational policy and practice beyond instruction, by facilitating the development of a shared understanding of complex problems and creating social structures where district, community, and research partners can work together to solve them. This study investigates how findings from a developmental evaluation of a district attendance initiative were incorporated into the initiation process of a networked improvement community to create a shared narrative about how members conceptualized the problem of absenteeism and how they should adapt their levers to better align to that problem. The developmental learning process created an infrastructure within which district leaders and community partners could develop a partnership culture that facilitated change in policy. This study suggests the need to revisit the assumptions that have driven non-instructional improvement efforts and highlights the potential of collaborative problem-solving to strengthen the implementation of district reforms.

Online absention System as implementation of ASN management in the new normal era in Jambi Province

Since the issuance of Presidential Decree (Keppres) No. 11 of 2020 concerning the Establishment of Public Health Emergency COVID-19 and Circular Letter of the National Personnel Agency (BKN) Number 11/SE/IV/2020 concerning the Guidelines for Disciplinary Punishment for State Civil Apparatus (ASN) Conducting Travel Activities Outside the Region and/or Going Home during the Emergency Public Health Period, Jambi Provincial Government implements an online attendance policy through the SiAbOn application installed on a smartphone. The goal is to monitor the location of the presence of the ASN during the Eid al-Fitr holidays from 23 to 25 May 2020, as well as concrete efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19. The research problem formulation is to see how the effectiveness and efficiency as well as the impact of the SiAbOn application on the implementation of ASN management in the new normal era. Data sources were obtained from ASN, Department of Communication and Information (Dinas Kominfo), and Jambi Province Regional Personnel Agency (BKD Prov. Jambi). The sample location is Jambi Province. The research method used was quantitative. The results showed that out of 11,214 ASNs, 92.37% (10,351 ASNs) used SiAbOn, while 7.70% (863 ASNs) did not. These results are very satisfying considering the preparation time until the implementation was very short, only 14 days with an ASN area of more than 600 km2, geographical challenges, and limited internet infrastructure. The SiAbOn implementation policy during the Eid holiday then was adopted as a permanent policy in the new normal era replacing the obligation to record attendance using a hand-key machine which could be the source of COVID-19 spread.

Examining the linkage between class attendance at university and academic performance in an International Branch Campus setting

The relationship between class attendance and academic performance has been an important area of research, with a positive association being posited between the two. The setting for our study is an International Branch Campus (IBC) of a British university that needs to demonstrate the quality of its service delivery both to the parent institution and to the fee-paying students. We employ a dataset of over 900 students in an undergraduate degree programme and subject it to statistical techniques, namely quantile regression and two-stage quantile regression. Our results show that attendance has a beneficial influence on academic performance and this benefit persists at higher percentile of grades. We propose that IBCs could consider an attendance policy that encourages students to attend classes.