Pokémon GO as a Cognitive and Societal Development Tool for Personalised Learning

The present research develops and tests a theoretical gamification model (GM) that explores the use of mobile learning (ML) and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games to strengthen group prospection of teams and improve retention. The GM used Pokémon GO to enable higher education students to engage in activities and challenges with a view to observe the impacts on health and wellbeing through collection of quantitative and qualitative data. The data that was collected involved a sample set (N = 50) of participants within the general educational sector. The model constructs were measured throughout the first academic semester, from September 2018 to February 2019. There is significant evidence to show that the use of ML in the classroom is beneficial depending on the influences from and engagement with participants. The contributions from these findings should provide the basics for further research into different studies involving MMOs and ML or gamification studies.

Priority social and economic development areas as an economic development tool for the Siberian mono-settlements

The article is discussing the Priority Social and Economic Development Areas (PSEDAs) which are formed in the Siberian part of the Russian Federation (Siberian Federal District and the Baikal region). One of the goals for the PSEDAs formation is the diversification of mono-specialized towns and the reduction of their reliance on the city-forming enterprises. A typology of mono-settlements was carried out and the areas of activity that receive support within the framework of this mechanism in Siberia were presented.

Pokémon GO as a Cognitive and Societal Development Tool for Personalised Learning

The present research develops and tests a theoretical gamification model (GM) that explores the use of mobile learning (ML) and massively multiplayer online (MMO) games to strengthen group prospection of teams and improve retention. The GM used Pokémon GO to enable higher education students to engage in activities and challenges with a view to observe the impacts on health and wellbeing through collection of quantitative and qualitative data. The data that was collected involved a sample set (N = 50) of participants within the general educational sector. The model constructs were measured throughout the first academic semester, from September 2018 to February 2019. There is significant evidence to show that the use of ML in the classroom is beneficial depending on the influences from and engagement with participants. The contributions from these findings should provide the basics for further research into different studies involving MMOs and ML or gamification studies.

Perceptions of the Socioeconomic Impacts of a Women’s Major Sporting Event in Africa

Major sports events have emerged as an important destination development tool for many developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This study aimed to assess the socioeconomic impacts of the 2016 Women African Cup of Nations (WAFCON) hosted in Cameroon. Taking the hosting cities (Limbe and Yaounde) as the case study sites, the study utilized a mixed-methods research approach. The data emerged from the 759 questionnaires distributed to the event attendees and 10 interviews with key informants. The study showed the event to have created employment and income generation opportunities in the host cities and have contributed to increased national pride and social cohesion. Also, the study found the event to have played an important role in the advancement of women in sport. However, the research revealed little leveraging of the event’s socioeconomic opportunities for longer gain. The study concludes that female sports events, for destination development and the advancement of women’s sport, is an important but neglected area of focus. The study argues for stronger collaborations and partnerships within tourism and sport stakeholders to ensure the positive advancements of female sports events are sustained.

A Multi-Tool Analysis to Assess the Effectiveness of Passive Ice Protection Materials to Assist Rotorcraft Manual De-Icing

Search and rescue missions using rotorcrafts need to be reliable all year long, even in winter conditions. In some cases of deployment prior to take off, the crew may need to manually remove accumulated contaminant from the critical surfaces using tools at their disposal. However, icy contaminant may be hard to remove since the rotorcrafts critical surfaces could be cooler than the environment, thus promoting adhesion. Currently, there exists several passive ice protection materials that could reduce the ice adhesion strength and assist the manual de-icing. The aim of this paper is to propose a detailed comparative procedure to assess the ability of materials to assist the manual de-icing of rotorcrafts. The proposed procedure consists of the characterization of materials using several laboratory tests in order to determine their characteristics pertaining to wettability, their icephobic behavior, and finally their assessment under a multi-tool analysis to evaluate if they can assist. The multi-tool analysis uses different mechanical tools, which are currently used during normal operation, to execute a gradual de-icing procedure, which begins with the softest to the hardest tool using a constant number of passes or strokes, under different types of simulated precipitation. Five different materials were used to evaluate the proposed procedure: Aluminum (used as a reference), two silicone-based coatings (Nusil and SurfEllent), an epoxy-based coating (Wearlon), and finally a commercial ski wax (Swix). All of the tested materials could assist the manual de-icing, within a certain limit, when compared to the bare aluminum. However, SurfEllent was the material that obtained the best overall results. This procedure could be easily adapted to different fields of application and could be used as a development tool for the optimization and the assessment of new materials aimed to reduce ice adhesion.

Implementation of a Graphic Interface Development Tool for Prolog

The work examines the current problems of the spread of use of logical programming in the development of commercial multi-platform software applications, tools for convenient development of a modern graphical interface to the logical programs. Libraries with similar concepts of use have been analyzed and described. The purpose of the proposed concept, which is implemented as an open source library, is described, and the advantages of the proposed tools over similar existing tools are indicated. The main feature and advantage of the proposed concept is the implementation of Prolog business logic and interface by means of JavaScript usage of child processes. The proposed concept of interface to Prolog takes full advantage of the possibilities provided by async await. A framework library has been created for the use of Logic Programming in graphical interface development without losses in the application performance. The paper describes the proposed concept and the developed framework (library). The ways to further improve the possibilities for expanding the purpose of the implemented library were identified. The directions of further simplification for programmers of integration of the graphic interface to logical programs have been defined. A significant advantage of the proposed tool is the easy-to-use functions to wrap and control the correctness of requests to the Prolog. The main goal of the library is to create an environment for the Prolog developers where they can create any type of software, which is meant to be user friendly, fast, and cross platform using modern and flexible. This concept also tries to solve disadvantages and architectural problems that were found in other libraries. The safety of library functionality has been analyzed. The concept of potential horizontal application scalability is described. Conclusions and future of libraries were introduced, in which the usage of TypeScript for type-safety and avoidance of run-time errors is mentioned. Overall, the library extends the use of Prolog beyond logical programming and takes a leap forward in its progress.

The significance and impacts of a youth-led empowerment program and youth-led community development interventions in Myanmar

<p>In Myanmar, youth are traditionally perceived as a less significant segment of the society. Hence, youth development issues and problems around youth have attracted little attention from community members. Youth empowerment is a human resource development tool and a process designed to help the development of young individuals, by enabling them to solve their own problems and contribute to the development of their community. This qualitative study examines youth empowerment initiatives of one youth-led organization and its alumni by employing Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and conducting semi-structured interviews. This study focuses on how a youth-led organization has empowered youth to become socially engaged for social transformation and get involved in the country’s development sector. Results show that empowerment is an ongoing process and reveal a new dimension of youth empowerment in the Myanmar context. This study found that the nature of youth-led development organizations for youth and social change movements differed. Youth-led empowerment actions offer learning opportunities and create spaces for young people to participate in community movements. Moreover, Socially Engaged Buddhism (SEB) is an alternative to the conventional empowerment approaches, which offers Buddhist principles for individual development of young people and stimulates youth to get involved in collective social change movements to tackle structural injustices. </p>

The significance and impacts of a youth-led empowerment program and youth-led community development interventions in Myanmar

<p>In Myanmar, youth are traditionally perceived as a less significant segment of the society. Hence, youth development issues and problems around youth have attracted little attention from community members. Youth empowerment is a human resource development tool and a process designed to help the development of young individuals, by enabling them to solve their own problems and contribute to the development of their community. This qualitative study examines youth empowerment initiatives of one youth-led organization and its alumni by employing Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and conducting semi-structured interviews. This study focuses on how a youth-led organization has empowered youth to become socially engaged for social transformation and get involved in the country’s development sector. Results show that empowerment is an ongoing process and reveal a new dimension of youth empowerment in the Myanmar context. This study found that the nature of youth-led development organizations for youth and social change movements differed. Youth-led empowerment actions offer learning opportunities and create spaces for young people to participate in community movements. Moreover, Socially Engaged Buddhism (SEB) is an alternative to the conventional empowerment approaches, which offers Buddhist principles for individual development of young people and stimulates youth to get involved in collective social change movements to tackle structural injustices. </p>

Use of Personal Protective Equipment during Surgical Procedures Including Aerosol-Generating Procedures in Reducing the Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Viral Transmission: A Rapid Review

Introduction. COVID-19 infection spreads through respiratory droplets, contact, and airborne transmission. During aerosol-generating procedures (AGPs), the risk of spreading SARS-CoV-2 via aerosols is increased significantly. This rapid review determined the association between using personal protective equipment (PPE) during AGPs, including those during surgery, among confirmed or suspected patients with COVID-19 and the risk of infection among healthcare workers. Method. A systematic search of electronic databases MEDLINE, EBSCO, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and Cochrane CENTRAL base was performed last March 21, 2021, using the Boolean combination of keywords for SARS-CoV-2, PPE, and surgery. Two reviewers screened the articles for relevance and extracted the data from the included studies. We critically appraised the included studies using criteria from the Painless Evidence-Based Medicine Evaluation of Articles on Harm. We used RevMan for data pooling, with a 40% heterogeneity cut-off score. GRADEpro guideline development tool determined the quality of evidence of the included studies. Results. Five observational studies investigated the effectiveness of PPE use in reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission among healthcare workers during any AGPs. The use of N95 masks (OR 0.37 [95% CI 0.21, 0.67], 1 study, n=195), surgical gown (OR 0.59 [95% CI 0.46, 0.77] I2= 0%, 2 studies, n= 941) and gloves (OR 0.42 [95% CI 0.43, 0.55] I2=34%, 3 studies, n=978) versus their non-use significantly reduced the odds of SARS-COV-2 transmission among healthcare workers involved in AGP. Albeit inconclusive due to the very low quality of evidence, using face shields or goggles was not associated with a significant reduction in the odds of SARS-CoV-2 transmission (OR 0.70 [95% CI 0.31, 1.59]) than the non-use of face shields or goggles. The certainty of the overall body of evidence on PPE use in reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission during AGP procedures was rated very low. In addition, confounders in the assessment could have been using individual PPE with the other standard PPE, compliance of healthcare worker on properly wearing it, and observing other preventive measures. Conclusion. There were lower odds of COVID-19 infection among healthcare workers using appropriate PPE, including N95 respirators, surgical gowns, and gloves during AGPs in suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients. Several guidelines recommended using enhanced PPE among healthcare workers during surgery despite limited and low-quality evidence. The findings should help in developing recommendations in reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the Philippines. The findings should provide the information needed for healthcare policy decision-making.