Nurses’ Assessment of the Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Program in Osun State, Southwest, Nigeria

Continuing Professional Development Programs have been identified as an important strategy towards improving basic professional skills and competence of health care professionals. This study explored nurses’ perception about the Mandatory Continuing Professional Development Program (MCPDP) and assessed nurses’ satisfaction with the Continuing Professional Development Program in Nigeria.Study adopted sequential explanatory mixed methods, using both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. The quantitative aspect included 412 nurses in Osun state, Nigeria selected through multistage sampling. Data was analyzed at univariate, bivariate and multivariate levels using appropriate statistics, level of significance was p<0.05. The qualitative aspect of the study employed in-depth interview; responses were analyzed thematically. Findings showed that 72.8% of the nurses had positive perception about the MCPDP, 66.3% assessed the MCPDP training as very useful, 31.3% and 2.4% assessed the training as moderately useful and useful respectively, 57.0% were very satisfied with the MCPDP training, 41.5% were satisfied while1.5% nurses were indifferent. Regression analysis revealed that nurses’ years of working experience (OR = 0.24, CI = 0.10-0.62, p = 0.003) significantly influenced perception about the MCPDP. Study concluded that professionalism in nursing should focus on ensuring quality years of working experience and effective Continuous Professional Development for all categories of nurses.

Artist’s Psychophysiology in Disposition to Style (Case Study of Lesia Ukrainka’s Biography Materials)

Purpose of the study is to shed light on the role of psychophysiology in the creative process, namely, the style corrections connected with pathological changes in the artist’s organism, deviating from empirical-descriptive methods. Theoretical basis of the study implies the interpretation of the notions style and disease not in their narrow professional limitation but from the standpoint of expanding the parameters of these concepts to philosophical dimensions. Based on the principle of analogy, the research findings prove that non-mimetic creative process ("pure" action) manifests itself exclusively in connection with a human from a bodily viewpoint through anthropological mimesis, which can program the propensity to certain capabilities of the individual organism (both psycho-physiological and in its creative and stylistic manifestations). C. G. Jung was the first who pointed to the productivity of this method in his work "Theoretical Reflections on the Nature of the Psyche". The creativity phenomenon (and its most specific feature – style) reflects not only "pure" psychology and the intellectual and spiritual component but also its relation to the artist as a physical being. It, outside its belonging to and being conditioned by transcendent factors, includes a quantitative aspect related to the moment of intensity. The disease (quantitative-intensive indicator) acts to some extent as a stimulator of the production/change of aesthetic enzyme ("The Obsessed" by Lesia Ukrainka). In this context, the dialectic method is also effective because the subject of study cannot be comprehensively argued using naturalistic approaches only and requires (according to A. Losev) a semantic explanation too. The essence of it is the logic of contradictions. In this case, the antinomy of matter-spirit plays a conceptual role in the projection on the plane of word-formation. Originality of the research findings is in the expansion of the causal relationship range of the creative process, namely the inclusion of the factor of psycho-physiological pathology into the system artist-work. This factor performs important stylistic functions. Conclusions. In contrast to scientific studies, where 1) style is analyzed separately (mostly in terms of text landscape description) and 2) the figure of the artist (mainly – in the parameters of empiricism, rarely – in psychoanalytic perspective), this study argues the need to correlate these issues, taking them beyond descriptiveness to avoid schematics and one-dimensionality.

More than the Quantity: The Value of Editorial Reviews for a User-Generated Content Platform

We investigate an editorial review program for which a review platform supplements user reviews with editorial ones written by professional writers. Specifically, we examine whether and how editorial reviews influence subsequent user reviews (reviews written by noneditor reviewers). A quasiexperiment conducted on a leading review platform in Asia, based on several econometric and natural language processing techniques, yields empirical evidence of an overall positive effect of editorial reviews on subsequent user reviews from the platform’s perspective. First, more reviews are provided for restaurants that receive editorial reviews. In addition, these reviews discuss substantive topics while also including a discussion on other topics, leading to a net increase in content length and variety. They also are more neutral in sentiment and are associated with lower rating valences. Further analysis of the mechanism reveals that the subsequent user reviews of the restaurants that receive editorial reviews become more similar to the editorial reviews in regard to topics, sentiment/rating, length, and readability, indicating a herding effect in how to write a review as the main driver of the change in the subsequent reviews. We further empirically isolate this herding effect among long-time reviewers. The findings suggest that review platforms could use an editorial review program not only to boost the quantitative aspect of user reviews but also, to manage the qualitative aspect as well. This paper was accepted by Kartik Hosanagar, information systems.

A Study of Different Algorithms used to Predict the Stock Price

A stock market is a place where we can purchase the stocks of various companies(part of the company), which makes it volatile, and predicting it becomes a tedious task. So we need various algorithms and methodologies to predict the stock prices. We cannot depend on one type of algorithm because each algorithm has its own pros and cons and also it depends on the style of the trader on how he trades stocks. This paper will deal with different aspects like quantitative aspect- LSTM, RNN, ARIMA, and qualitative with sentiment analysis for predicting the stock prices, in an efficient manner.

Exploring Primary-School EFL Teacher Expertise in Scaffolding: A Comparative Study

While much attention has been focused—in the field of teacher expertise—on expert teachers’ cognitive and behavioral characteristics, little attention has been devoted to how expert teachers reciprocally interact with the learning process. To bridge this gap in knowledge, this study seeks to explore primary-school EFL (English as a Foreign Language)—teacher expertise in the area of scaffolding. A comparison has been made among 2 expert EFL teachers, 20 experienced non-expert teachers, and 2 novice teachers in Chinese primary-school settings. By adopting a qualitative method of inquiry using interviews, classroom observations, and stimulated recalls, (yet with a quantitative aspect incorporating data analysis), the study demonstrates that expert teachers show a tendency to use scaffolding strategies more frequently and appropriately. These findings suggest that more open-ended activities be conducted to allow for scaffolding in EFL classrooms and that ESL/EFL teacher education raise scaffolding awareness in pre-service and in-service teachers.

Barriers to Development of Selected Municipalities of Sulu Province

This study was conducted to determine the barrier to the development of selected municipalities of Sulu province. It aimed to find out the Suluanos’ concept of development in terms of political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, and ecological aspects, including how these perceived barriers affect the development of Sulu. This research utilized the descriptive method where the Quantitative aspect gathered the data from 400 adults of ten big municipalities using a checklist questionnaire. The respondents were selected through systematic sampling. For the qualitative part, the collected data were from 90 participants through focus group discussions. The statistical tools used were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and group means. The finding revealed that the Suluanos’ concept of development upheld the development policies which are participatory, equitable, appropriateness, concertizing, and environment friendly and the corresponding functions of development such as the political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, and ecological aspects. Of the five development functions, the economic aspect (2.95) was the main barrier to development. It is followed by the technological aspect (2.91), the political (2.79), and ecological (2.42) as the fourth rank. On the other hand, the socio-cultural part (2.21) was the least encountered barrier. The perceived barriers that affected the development of Sulu were related to lack of high ethical standards, transparency, accountability, effectiveness, and lack of respect for and commitment to social justice, human rights, environmental life protection, and people's empowerment. Based on the data gathered, the findings made the researcher conclude that the political, economic, technological, socio-cultural, and ecological aspects in Sulu were considered barriers to development. They were not within the bounds of good governance. Bureaucracy was weak due to the leaders' personalities, who were neither transactional nor transformational. At the same time, they were not within the context of the alternative model of development. To minimize if not eliminate the barriers to development, the government's efforts should be geared towards accountability to improve the quality of governance and dispensation of justice. Further studies are recommended to determine other predictors that can similarly evaluate the development conditions of Sulu Province.

Quali-quantitative considerations on low-flow well purging and sampling

This article deals with both the main advantages and issues related to groundwater purging and sampling that are usually carried out through the so-called low-flow methodology or with the method based on the purging of 3-5 well volumes, which is still widely used in environmental monitoring. A review of the recent literature concerning the technical characteristics, innovations and modelling related to low-flow sampling is presented. The aim is to provide to the reader a broad overview on this specific field application and offer a new vision, which considers two aspects: 1. The qualitative aspect, relating to the representativeness of the sample taken through a correct purging of the monitoring well and the consequent correct interpretation of hydrochemical data; 2. The quantitative aspect, related to the possibility of using water level data during purging and low-flow sampling operations to estimate the soil horizontal hydraulic conductivity, without further investigations. Low-flow sampling methodology can be very useful especially for alluvial aquifers, providing representative samples of groundwater and hydrodynamic characteristics of the aquifer, with reduced costs and times. These two aspects are both important in the context of an environmental monitoring plan for a potentially contaminated site.

Prisoners’ Access to Justice: Family Support, Prison Legal Education, and Court Proceedings

This study investigates the extent of prisoners&rsquo; legal entitlements as well as how prisoners acquire legal assistance within the prison setup. It is argued that inmates&rsquo; legal entitlements within the prison bureaucracy are devoid of the ideal of access to justice. The study used the mixed-method approach in data gathering. For the quantitative aspect, a sample of 300 inmates was used. Simple random and systematic sampling techniques were used to select the respondents. For the qualitative aspect, the following participants were purposively selected: ex-convicts, a paralegal prison officer, a court warrant officer, prison after-care officer, registrars, and relatives of inmates. The analysed data showed that most inmates did not receive family support during their trial before conviction. It was also found that inmates had no access to legal materials due to lack of law libraries, yet received some form of legal education from prison staff. Even though the court proceedings of inmates formed a critical part of their appeal process, a little above half of the inmate population had access to these documents. With the advancement in Information and Communication Technology, it is recommended that all courts should be digitized with relevant logistics and improved infrastructure to smoothen access to case files.

A few words about the state of the Russian medical periodicals in 1922

The war, the revolution and the economic devastation that followed them dealt a heavy blow to the Russian scientific press in general and the Russian medical press in particular. others, after several attempts to come out in a reduced size, they completely ceased to appear in the light. But our scientific medical thought did not die out. Despite the extremely difficult external conditions, it continued to work hard, and as a result, as soon as the slightest opportunity arose, medical journals and newspapers began to reappear in various scientific centers of Russia. and of a special nature. Strictly speaking, there were too many of them in the coming year, if we take into account the available scientific forces and material resources of the country namely, over 50 and, naturally, the quantitative aspect of the matter turned out to be at the expense of the qualitative one. Many of these journals were published in the reporting year in the amount of only 2-3 of a very small volume. not able to boast of either their content or their appearance. Hopefully, they are just seeds from which lush sprouts will subsequently develop.

Ras/MAPK signalling intensity defines subclonal fitness in a mouse model of primary and metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma

Quantitative differences in signal transduction are to date an understudied feature of tumour heterogeneity. The MAPK Erk pathway, which is activated in a large proportion of human tumours, is a prototypic example of distinct cell fates being driven by signal intensity. We have used primary hepatocyte precursors transformed with different dosages of an oncogenic form of Ras to model subclonal variations in MAPK signalling. Orthotopic allografts of Ras-transformed cells in immunocompromised mice gave rise to fast-growing aggressive tumours, both at the primary location and in the peritoneal cavity. Fluorescent labelling of cells expressing different oncogene levels, and consequently varying levels of MAPK Erk activation, highlighted the selection processes operating at the two sites of tumour growth. Indeed, significantly higher Ras expression was observed in primary as compared to metastatic tumours, despite the evolutionary trade-off of increased apoptotic death in the liver that correlated with high Ras dosage. Analysis of the immune tumoral microenvironment at the two locations suggests that fast metastatic growth in the immunocompromised setting is abrogated in immunocompetent animals due to efficient antigen presentation by peritoneal dendritic cells. Furthermore, our data indicate that, in contrast to the metastatic outgrowth, strong MAPK signalling is required in the primary liver tumours to resist elimination by NK cells. Overall, this study describes a quantitative aspect of tumour heterogeneity and highlights potential vulnerability of a subtype of hepatocellular carcinoma as a function of MAPK Erk signalling intensity.