Non-work-related instant messaging in the workplace and daily task performance: complementarity between social and cognitive resources

PurposeThe ubiquity of smartphones has changed how people communicate, work and entertain. In view of conservation of resources theory and the positive spillover effect, this study explores the effect of non-work-related instant messaging (IM) in the workplace on daily task performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use the experience sampling method to collect day-level data from 75 employees over a period of 10 workdays. Multilevel path analysis is used to test the hypotheses.FindingsNon-work-related IM exerts a significant negative indirect effect on daily task performance through diminished cognitive engagement. This negative indirect effect disappears when social support is high, thereby showing the function of social support as a neutralizer of the detriment of non-work-related IM on daily task performance.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that organizations can neutralize the harm of non-work-related IM in the workplace by promoting social support perceived by employees.Originality/valueThis study advances the technology and management literature by developing and testing a balanced perspective on the ambivalent effect of workplace smartphone use that considers social and cognitive resource implications.

Quantifying an Upper Extremity Everyday Task With 3D Kinematic Analysis in People With Spinal Cord Injury and Non-disabled Controls

Objectives: Upper extremity function after spinal cord injury (SCI) is an important factor for performance of activities of daily living. An objective assessment of upper extremity function preferably in purposeful daily tasks is essential in understanding its impact on real-life activities. This study aimed to identify which movement parameters of upper extremity, measured by kinematic analysis during a purposeful daily task, are impaired in people with cervical or thoracic SCI.Materials and Methods: The study included 29 adults (mean 59.5 years, 9 women and 20 men) with cervical (n = 19) or thoracic (n = 10) established complete (n = 15) or incomplete (n = 14) SCI, and 54 non-disabled controls with commensurable age and sex (mean 59 years, 15 women, 39 men). The 3D kinematic data were captured with a five-camera system during a standardized unilateral daily task (drinking from a glass). In SCI, the upper extremity functioning of each arm was assessed with Action Research Arm Test (ARAT). Having a full score in ARAT indicated full functioning; a score of <57 points indicated limited functioning. Kinematic data from full functioning arms (n = 27) and limited functioning arms (n = 30) in SCI were compared with the non-dominant arms (n = 54) in controls.Results: In the limited upper extremity functioning group, movement time, smoothness, arm abduction, wrist angle, trunk displacement, and inter-joint coordination, but not peak velocity of the hand, angular velocity of elbow, and relative time to peak velocity, all differed from controls. In the full upper extremity functioning group, arm abduction alone was significantly different from controls.Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that apart from measures of peak velocity, kinematic measures of movement quality including movement time, smoothness, trunk displacement, and joint angles are impaired in people with limited upper extremity functioning after SCI. The study provides robust results applicable to a representative population of individuals with established cervical or thoracic SCI. The results suggest that kinematic analysis might be useful for those with limited functioning in order to get a better understanding of the specific movement impairments in daily tasks after SCI.

A-150 Comparison of a Traditional and a Novel Measure of Executive Functioning in Predicting Daily Task Performance

Objective Executive functioning (EF) is known to be associated with performance of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). However, traditional EF assessment takes place in the lab under ideal circumstances, which does not take into account the complexity of daily life, such as the need to interleave tasks. The present study aimed to examine whether a novel ecologically valid measure of EF that requires interleaving of activities, the “Night Out Task” (NOT), better predicted daily at-home IADL performance than a traditional EF measure. Method Participants were 49 healthy, community-dwelling older adults aged 60–95 (Mage = 69.35, SD = 6.51, 63.3% female, 100% non-Hispanic White). Participants completed both a traditional (Delis Kaplan Executive Function System; D-KEFS) and a novel measure (Night Out Task; NOT) of EF. Over the course of the next 18 days, they completed IADL tasks at home daily as part of the Daily Assessment of Independent Living and Executive Skills (DAILIES) protocol. Results Planning time on the NOT predicted, above and beyond the D-KEFS (p = 0.007, CI = −0.053 to −0.009), whether the DAILIES tasks were completed at all and whether they were completed during a required time frame. NOT accuracy was predictive of how accurately daily tasks were completed, but not above and beyond the D-KEFS (p = 0.131, CI = −0.266 to 1.99). Conclusions The NOT is a novel ecologically valid measure of EF that demonstrated incremental utility beyond the D-KEFS. While the NOT and D-KEFS predicted task accuracy, only the NOT planning time predicted whether participants completed a task.

Subway Sudden Passenger Flow Prediction Method Based on Two Factors: Case Study of the Dongsishitiao Station in Beijing

A sudden increase in passenger flow can primitively lead to continuous congestion of a subway network and thus have a profound impact on the subway system. To prevent the risk caused by sudden overcrowding, the prediction of passenger flow is a daily task of the rail transit management. Most current short-term passenger flow forecasts rely only on inbound passenger flow, which cannot accurately characterize the total impact of sudden passenger flow. To enhance the prediction accuracy, we propose a sudden passenger flow prediction model with two factors, the outbound and inbound passenger flows. The wavelet neural network (WNN) model was used to detect the sudden passenger flow, and subsequently, it is optimized by the genetic algorithm (GA), according to two-factor data characteristics. Sudden passenger flow events from 2014 to 2016 in the Beijing Dongsishitiao Station (DS) were used to train and verify the reliability of the prediction model. The optimized WNN results proved better than the conventional WNN, and the error of models based on two factors was significantly smaller than the models with a single-factor.

METHODS OF IMPROVING LANGUAGE SKILLS USING MEDIA SOFTWARE

Today, fast and high-quality teaching of foreign languages ​​to staff is becoming a daily task. The role of computer and pedagogical software in carrying out this task is invaluable. To this end, the article provides an analysis of the effective methods, advantages and disadvantages of using such pedagogical software tools - Rosetta Stone, Lingualeo, SmartNotebook. It also discusses the normative and legal acts on the teaching of foreign languages, Presidential Decrees and Orders, their practical expression and pedagogical software and their mechanisms of study in foreign languages.

Modul Front-End Sistem Informasi Geospasial Patroli Terpadu Kebakaran Hutan dan Lahan

To prevent and handle forest and land and forest fire (karhutla), the Ministry of Environment and Forestry assembled a patrol team that conducts a daily task to observe directly to the hotspot location as an indication for land fire. Currently, the patrol team reported the investigation result into a group chat. This method consumed many storage spaces and not suitable for formal reporting. This study aims to develop a front-end module for a web GIS application that visualizes the patrol team's daily report. The application has its data recapitulation method and able to create a formal report. The data used in this study are a set of the report that collected in 2016 by Sumatera and Kalimantan patrol team. The steps to build this application include communication, integrate with the API from the back-end system, developing functional needs, software testing, and the last is software release. The application was build using HTML and CSS for its interface and Javascript and API from the back-end module for its content management. The system uses Google Maps services and library to support the functionalities of the application. The unit testing method's test result shows that the module runs well and can afford all of the required functionality. In addition, the system testing result that the ratio between actual error and expected error is equal to 1. This result indicates the functions of the system are working properly according to the use cases of the system.

Homeschooling during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: the role of students’ trait self-regulation and task attributes of daily learning tasks for students’ daily self-regulation

As a means to counter the SARS-CoV‑2 pandemic, schools were closed throughout Germany between mid-March and end of April 2020. Schooling was translocated to the students’ homes where students were supposed to work on learning tasks provided by their teachers. Students’ self-regulation and attributes of the learning tasks may be assumed to have played important roles when adapting to this novel schooling situation. They may be predicted to have influenced students’ daily self-regulation and hence the independence with which they worked on learning tasks. The present work investigated the role of students’ trait self-regulation as well as task difficulty and task enjoyment for students’ daily independence from their parents in learning during the homeschooling period. Data on children’s trait self-regulation were obtained through a baseline questionnaire filled in by the parents of 535 children (Mage = 9.69, SDage = 2.80). Parents additionally reported about the daily task difficulty, task enjoyment, and students’ learning independence through 21 consecutive daily online questionnaires. The results showed students’ trait self-regulation to be positively associated with their daily learning independence. Additionally, students’ daily learning independence was shown to be negatively associated with task difficulty and positively with task enjoyment. The findings are discussed with regard to students’ daily self-regulation during the homeschooling period. Finally, implications for teaching practice during the pandemic-related school closures are derived.

Visual, navigation and communication aid for visually impaired person

The loss of vision restrained the visually impaired people from performing their daily task. This issue has impeded their free-movement and turned them into dependent a person. People in this sector did not face technologies revamping their situations. With the advent of computer vision, artificial intelligence, the situation improved to a great extent. The propounded design is an implementation of a wearable device which is capable of performing a lot of features. It is employed to provide visual instinct by recognizing objects, identifying the face of choices. The device runs a pre-trained model to classify common objects from household items to automobiles items. Optical character recognition and Google translate were executed to read any text from image and convert speech of the user to text respectively. Besides, the user can search for an interesting topic by the command in the form of speech. Additionally, ultrasonic sensors were kept fixed at three positions to sense the obstacle during navigation. The display attached help in communication with deaf person and GPS and GSM module aid in tracing the user. All these features run by voice commands which are passed through the microphone of any earphone. The visual input is received through the camera and the computation task is processed in the raspberry pi board. However, the device seemed to be effective during the test and validation.

The Next Steps

After all this ground has been covered and knowledge has been gained, this chapter takes what has been learned and puts it into practice. How to do this, however, isn’t as easy as it sounds. This final chapter will be devoted to helping parents apply this new knowledge to the daily task of parenting. Strategies will be outlined to help parents discuss the possibility of creating or altering parental “policy” with their spouse or partner in an effort to get all caretakers working on the same page. The chapter will also include worksheets that parents can use to provide some structure and guidance in forging a path forward using a Plan–Do–Study–Act model. Concluding the chapter and the book will be some encouraging words.