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We examined how a group of Chinese undergraduate students understood paraphrasing and source use conventions for research paper writing in English. Prior scholarship has generated valuable insights about novice second language (L2) writers' unconventional source use practices, but little is known about how these writers interpret and understand source use expectations for English academic writing. We followed a group of nine Chinese undergraduate students for an academic term as they learned to paraphrase and write with sources for their research paper assignments. Drafts of students' papers were collected and rounds of text-based interviews were conducted where students were asked to explain their source use decisions. Findings showed that the students actively and constantly referenced their source use knowledge of Chinese essay writing to help make sense of source use expectations for English academic writing, although their understanding of English academic source use as well as their rendition of culture may likely be viewed by expert academic writers as 'insufficient' or 'inadequate'. We conclude by highlighting the importance of foregrounding learner voice and acknowledging the legitimacy of the interpretations of novice L2 writers as intercultural informants in the teaching of English academic source use.

The two most popular decision-making processes are tossing a coin and playing rock, paper, scissors. In the activity described in this article, students find the theoretical probabilities of winning a coin toss and a round of the rock, paper, scissors game. They next devise strategies to win and test them out. Students then compare the theoretical probabilities they found with the experimental probabilities. The mathematical topics covered in this activity include calculating basic probability; understanding that for independent events A and B, P(A and B) = P(A) × P(B); recognizing a geometric series and applying the appropriate formula to find what it converges to; and understanding the meaning of descriptive statistics. Students were able to prove that although theoretically both games are fair in that they both give each of the two players a 50 percent chance of winning, several strategies can be employed to make each game unfair.

It is essential to establish a multi-dimensional postgraduate quality evaluation system for student assessment and training. This study aimed to explore the construction of the multiindex and hierarchical comprehensive evaluation system for postgraduate training in science and engineering based on the Context, Input, Process, Product (CIPP) model using Analytic Hierarchy Process. It involved 756 postgraduates in physics and engineering who were randomly selected via the Internet. Data were collected from the questionnaire about postgraduates' basic information. After collection, Factor Analysis was used to verify the rationality of the design of second-level and third-level indicators, and adjust the corresponding weights. On this basis, Cluster Analysis was used to classify the training quality of the postgraduates based on their scores on academic ability, basic quality, and social ability indicators. The results revealed that the index system includes 4 first-level indicators,12 second-level indicators and 36 third-level indicators, and different weights being assigned to the indicators according to their influence on the training quality of postgraduates in science and engineering. This study also provides some reference for the quality of science and engineering postgraduate training in Chinese universities by proposing relevant measures, which could be interesting also for international audience.

Established in 1950, the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD) is an international organization comprising universities and colleges (https://www.aucccd.org). AUCCCD members are the higher education leaders for student mental health. Our members represent a wide range of professional disciplines, public and private institutions, and a range of institutional student enrollment sizes. This white paper: (a) provides a historical background on counseling and mental health services on college campuses; (b) argues that, based on current research, there is no single organizational structure that is optimal; (c) makes recommendations about factors to consider when making decisions about the counseling center that are based on specific campus needs and resources rather than a preferred organizational structure; and (d) advocates for a collaborative care model regardless of organizational structure.

The importance of shared decision making (SDM) for informed consent has been emphasised in the updated regulatory guidelines. Errors of completion, legibility and omission have been associated with paper-based consent forms. We introduced a digital consent process and compared it against a paper-based process for quality and patient reported involvement in shared decision making. 223 patients were included in this multi-site, single centre study. Patient consent documentation was by either a paper consent form or the Concentric digital consent platform. Consent forms were assessed for errors of legibility, completion and accuracy of content. Core risks for 20 orthopaedic operations were pre-defined by a Delphi round of experts and forms analysed for omission of these risks. SDM was determined via the 'collaboRATE Top Score', a validated measure for gold-standard SDM. 72% (n = 78/109) of paper consent forms contained ≥1 error compared to 0% (n = 0/114) of digital forms (P < 0.0001). Core risks were unintentionally omitted in 63% (n = 68/109) of paper-forms compared to less than 2% (n = 2/114) of digital consent forms (P < 0.0001). 72% (n = 82/114) of patients giving consent digitally reported gold-standard SDM compared to 28% (n = 31/109) with paper consent (P < 0.001). Implementation of a digital consent process has been shown to reduce both error rate and the omission of core risks on consent forms whilst increasing the quality of SDM. This novel finding suggests that using digital consent can improve both the quality of informed consent and the patient experience of SDM. • The paper consent process is associated with errors and omissions of core risks. • A digital consent process improved error rate and omission rate of core risks. • Patients reported a higher level of shared decision making with a digital process. • Documentation of consent can be reliably standardised with an electronic record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an introduction to issues surrounding the participation rights of young people in research and the implications of their growing involvement in research as well as providing a discourse on the ethical implications related to consent. The unique contribution of this paper is that it considers children's rights in respect to the increasing opportunities for young people to take part in evaluation research. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to acknowledge the growing involvement for young people in research and the implications of ensuring that their rights of participation are respected. Secondly, we will consider the children's rights legislation and our obligations as researchers to implement this. Finally, we will explore consent as an issue in its own right as well as the practicalities of accessing participants. This paper will postulate that any research about young people should involve and prioritize at all stages of the research process; including participation in decision-making. We conclude by identifying five key principles, which we believe can help to facilitate the fulfilment of post-primary pupils' ability to consent to participate in trials and evaluative research.

Publishing scientific articles is an expedition of tenacious efforts with patience and conscientious decision-making; however, even with such careful consideration, researchers may overlook the dubious activities of clandestine organizations or remain oblivious to the unethical aspects of publishing. Paper mills are the latest impediment to academic publishing's integrity. The increasing number of paper mill publications damages the credibility of genuine journals and jeopardizes academic integrity, adding to the vulnerability of research. This paper deals with the tactics, activity, detection, impact, and solving the menace of such fraudulent practices. This paper is a summary of existing literature and analysis that aims to increase awareness of fraudulent practices like paper mills among researchers and academicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extracorporeal life support systems (ECLS) are life-sustaining measures for severe cardiovascular diseases, serving as bridging treatment either until cardiovascular function is restored or alternative treatment, such as heart transplantation or the implantation of permanent ventricular assist devices is performed. Given the insufficient evidence and frequent urgency of implantation without initial patient consent, the ethical challenges and psychological burden for patients, relatives and the interprofessional intensive care team are significant. As with any treatment, an appropriate therapeutic goal for ECLS treatment based on the indications and patient informed consent is mandatory. In order to integrate the necessary ethical considerations into everyday clinical practice, a structured algorithm for handling ECLS is proposed here, which takes ethical aspects into due account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are millions of children attending English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) government schools for their basic education. The vast majority of these are in countries across the Global South. In these contexts, EMI policy decisions are rarely based on educational arguments while global learning discussions exist with limited engagement with the challenges of EMI. This is despite a significant evidence base that highlights the widespread impact that EMI has both on educational quality and inequalities. A recent British Council position paper suggests that EMI research tends to be descriptive, perceptions-based and lacking in theoretical underpinning. This paper responds to this critique by bringing together critical theories of social and epistemic justice to develop a series of questions that could be used to interrogate the multiple ways that EMI impacts children's basic education in the Global South.

Aim: Patients' death or adverse events appear to be associated with poor healthcare decision‐making. This might be due to an inability to have an adequate representation of the problem or of the connections among problem‐related elements. Changing how a problem is formulated can reduce biases in clinical reasoning. The purpose of this article is to explore the possible contributions of psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology (PNEI) and psychology of reasoning and decision‐making (PRDM) to support a new nursing theoretical frame. Design: Discursive paper. Method: This article discusses the main assumptions about nursing and nurses' ability to face patient's problems, suggesting a new approach that integrates knowledge from PNEI and PRDM. While PNEI explains the complexity of systems, highlighting the importance of systems connections in affecting health, PRDM underlines the importance of the informative context in creating a mental representation of the problem. Furthermore, PRDM suggests the need to pay attention to information that is not immediately explicit and its connections. Conclusion: Nursing recognizes the patient–nurse relationship as the axiom that governs care. The integration of PNEI and PRDM in nursing theoretics allows the expansion of the axiom by providing essential elements to read a new type of relationship: the relationship among information. PNEI explains the relationships between biological systems and the psyche and between the whole individual and the environment; PRDM provides tools for the nurse's analytical thinking system to correctly process information and its connections. Impact on Nursing Practice: A theoretical renewal is mandatory to improve nursing reasoning and nursing priority identification. Integrating PNEI and PRDM into nursing theoretics will modify the way professionals approach patients, reducing cognitive biases and medical errors. No Patient or Public Contribution: There was no patient or public involvement in the design or writing of this discursive article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through historically oriented critical discourse analysis this article considers how the messages regarding the purpose of higher education, as presented in prospectuses of four case study institutions, have been impacted by massification and marketisation in England between 1977 and 2018. The prospectuses of four higher education institutions of different status were analysed to trace how discourses relating to the value of an undergraduate degree could be identified in the prospectuses. The findings suggest that while the prospectuses presented multiple rationales as to why students should undertake degrees, there was a significant increase in focus on graduate transitions to employment and a parallel hollowing-out of information relating to course content. The study found that over the period the vocabularies drawn on to present the value of a degree have become homogenised, yet the rationales given for undertaking tertiary study became more numerous and complex, making diversity of institutional offers difficult for prospective students to differentiate.

This study investigated the effect of an electronic boycott of foreign products on the purchasing rate of Jordanian consumers for products from Beirut Lights company for hygienic paper manufacturing. This study collected data from 310 consumers purchasing products from Beirut Lights Company for Hygienic Paper Manufacturing using questionnaires. This study employed the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) approach and analysed the data. The results revealed that electronic boycotts (consumer animosity, consumer ethnocentrism, consumer efficacy, and product judgment) have significant and positive effects on purchasing rates. The results revealed that a 1% increase in Consumer Animosity would lead to an 18.5% increase in Purchasing Rate. Additionally, the results demonstrated that Purchasing Rate would increase by 15.2 percent with a 1% increase in Consumer Efficacy. Also, the results revealed that a 1% increase in Consumer Ethnocentrism would lead to a 23.5% increase in Purchasing Rate. Similarly, the results revealed that a 1% increase in Product Judgement would lead to a 44.1% increase in Purchasing Rate. For Western multinational corporations focused on expanding their foothold in the world's biggest consumer market, this study's conclusions have crucial consequences for decision-makers and management. The suppressed and intense emotion of hostility, which is a remnant of past hostilities, needs much more attention from the Beirut lights firm, which manufactures hygiene paper in Jordan. In other hostile market scenarios, the conclusions of this examination may be applicable to a strategic study of the boycott model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the care of adolescents, health care providers often face situations raising ethical concerns or dilemmas, such as refusal of a treatment or hospitalization, or request of confidentiality while engaging in risky behaviors or facing unplanned pregnancy. This position paper provides concrete avenues as how to assess the adolescent's capacity for autonomous decision making, e.g. the patient's competence in a specific situation, and how to elicit informed choice or consent. To do so, professionals need to be sensitized and trained as how to assess the cognitive and socio-psychological development of the young patient. Another challenge for the health professionals is to balance the needs to support patient's autonomy while offering secure guidance and protection if needed. To optimize such a process, they establish a climate of trust and empathy that will allow the patient to participate freely in the decision. In addition, especially when the decisions have potentially important consequences on the health and life, the professionals include, with the adolescent's permission, parents, caregivers or other significant adults, as well as they may request the opinion of other members of the health care team or expert colleagues such as ethicists.

Decision prediction based on neurophysiological signals is of great application value in many real‐life situations, especially in human–AI collaboration or counteraction. Single‐trial analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals is a very valuable step in the development of an online decision‐prediction system. However, previous EEG‐based decision‐prediction methods focused mainly on averaged EEG signals of all decision‐making trials to predict an individual's general decision tendency (e.g., risk seeking or aversion) over a period rather than on a specific decision response in a single trial. In the present study, we used a rock–paper–scissors game, which is a common multichoice decision‐making task, to explore how to predict participants' single‐trial choice with EEG signals. Forty participants, comprising 20 females and 20 males, played the game with a computer player for 330 trials. Considering that the decision‐making process of this game involves multiple brain regions and neural networks, we proposed a new algorithm named common spatial pattern‐attractor metagene (CSP‐AM) to extract CSP features from different frequency bands of EEG signals that occurred during decision making. The results showed that a multilayer perceptron classifier achieved an accuracy significantly exceeding the chance level among 88.57% (31 of 35) of participants, verifying the classification ability of CSP features in multichoice decision‐making prediction. We believe that the CSP‐AM algorithm could be used in the development of proactive AI systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Career Decision-Making Difficulties Questionnaire was completed in a Hebrew paper version (n=417) and Internet version (n=837), showing similar internal consistency and reliability in both versions. Response pattern of 24% of Internet users was questionable. Comparison of results from English paper (n=403) and Internet (n=182) versions found high correspondence in the structure and pattern of scale reliability. (Contains 51 references.) (SK)

Computer-based interventions are being used more in the classroom. Student responses to these interventions often contribute to decisions making regarding important outcomes. It is important to understand the effect of these interventions within the context of the intervention as well as across related context. The current study examined the generalization of math fact fluency gains resulting from a computer-based intervention to paper-and-pencil performance. A total of 31 second grade students completed fluency drills on the computer or with paper and pencil. Pretest-posttest performance on both computer and paper and pencil for all students was evaluated using a doubly multivariate repeated measure ANOVA. Results indicated that gains achieved on the computer did not generalize to paper-and-pencil performance. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

The paper argues that the Warin Ukraine is promoting and accelerating the Westernization of the region's higher education. The paper employs Mignolo's (2011) geopolitics of knowledge as the theoretical framework to illustrate how internationalization promotes the adoption of Western/English liberal education and how the War in Ukraine is speeding up the process. Using focus groups, I capture conversations with local graduate students in Kazakhstan to demonstrate that Western education is acquired to 1) accelerate the de-Russification of Kazakhstan by moving away from the former imperial power, 2) use English to undermine the Russian language and cement Kazakhstan's independence from Russia, 3) acquire internationally recognized English credentials for global/Western competitiveness and modernity. The participants in this study framed their decision to pursue university graduate studies as freedom from the Soviet system, de-Russification, and modern development, underscoring the high value that some graduate students have for an English credential.

In this practice-based pedagogical paper, we, the university faculty of Education, Food and Nutrition, Sociology, and History in the U.S., describe how we started a Reflective Practice Teaching Circle at our institution for interdisciplinary dialogue about the effective use of social media (SM) for teaching and learning. Our discussions led to the design of the Social Media Entry Model that educators can use for decision-making. We begin this paper with a brief synthesis of scholarly literature describing students' SM use and how higher education faculty use SM to support 21st-century skills development. Next, we describe the institutional, individual, and pedagogical barriers that prevent faculty from embracing SM as a teaching and learning tool. Based on our shared vision and praxis, we present the Social Media Entry Model and describe how educators can use it when deciding how to integrate SM into the formal or informal curriculum. Through our narratives, we illustrate how we use a variety of SM platforms and different entry points in the model to enhance students' 21st-century skills. We also discuss the legal and ethical issues that educators must consider to ensure that university students use SM in a socially responsible manner.

This paper presents a midterm review of a 4-year factor analysis project aimed at validating an outcome-based assessment of study-abroad programs attended by Japanese students. This paper outlines how the results from the initial two years captured changes in perceptions and reasons for studying abroad. It found that students have become increasingly focused on how the experience will impact their future careers. This is a shift from those who studied abroad before the COVID-19 pandemic. Those students motivations for studying abroad were primarily internal and experiential, such as wanting to improve their language skills and experience life in another country, or external and passive reasons arising from the circumstances or opinions of family or friends. The research also indicates how awareness of this shift could assist administrators in designing and conducting successful international experiences.

This design case details the design process of a multiple-choice assessment of socio-scientific systems thinking. This assessment is situated within a larger project that aims to understand the ways students use multiple scientific models to understand complex socio-scientific issues. In addition to the research component, this project entails developing curriculum and assessment resources that support science teaching and learning. We begin this paper by framing the needs that motivated the design of this assessment and introducing the design team. We then present a narrative outlining the design process, focusing on key challenges that arose and the ways these challenges influenced our final design. We conclude this paper with a discussion of the compromises that had to be made in the process of designing this instrument.

ICT advancements have enabled more online activities, resulting in several cyberethical behaviours. The literature documents the prevalence of plagiarism and online fraud, among others. While behaviour has been explained by several theories, as scholarship and research advance, frameworks are modified to include more constructs. This paper proposes a developed framework for studying cyberethical behaviour in North Central Nigeria, with a focus on exploring the factors that influence individuals' attitudes, awareness, and perception of cyberethics. The framework is based on a modified reasoned action approach model and incorporates key constructs such as attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and awareness of cyber ethics. An adapted questionnaire was used as an instrument for collecting quantitative data. This study used multistage sampling. A sample size of 989 north-central Nigerian female university postgraduate students was selected from a population of 9,000. Perception and attitude toward cyberethical behaviour were positively correlated. Perception, awareness, and attitude toward cyberethical behaviour correlated. Perception and awareness significantly affected cyberethical behaviour. The study aims to provide insights into the factors that shape individuals' decision-making processes regarding cyberethics and to identify potential areas for intervention and education. The paper also discusses the importance of promoting cyberethics in Nigeria, given the increasing use of technology and the growing threat of cybercrime. The proposed framework offers a valuable tool for researchers and policymakers seeking to understand and address cyberethical behaviour in North Central Nigeria.

Play, which is both a context and process for children's learning, has become a pivotal pedagogical component in global early childhood education. The uptake of intentional teaching has contributed to the shift in understandings of play, from viewing play as a means of recreation and entertainment to a more socio-cultural perspective that advocates for educators' proactive and engaged roles in play. The recent update of the Early Years Learning Framework (2023) in Australia has included an emphasis on intentionality in play-based learning. However, there is little academic work on intentionality, and recent studies demonstrate educators' struggles in conceptualising their roles as intentional teachers. Drawing on the findings of a literature review, this discussion paper aims to conceptualise intentional teaching from two aspects: intentionality and decision-making. This paper argues that while educator and child intentionality are the starting point of intentional actions, the decision-making process enables educators to have ongoing intentionality behind their teaching practices. It concludes by advocating for a broader understanding of intentional teaching that focusses on the underlying thought processes behind educators' decisions and actions.

Academic journals rely crucially upon the willingness of academics to review papers and for them to provide high-quality review reports. The purpose of this Editorial is to assist reviewers for Tourism and Hospitality in providing review reports that will be helpful to the journal editors in making decisions about whether to accept, reject or require revisions to papers that are submitted to the journal. It provides reviewers with a 'peep behind the curtain' of what can sometimes seem a rather opaque paper review process, with the aim of clarifying the purpose and format of the review process, and thereby to gain a greater appreciation of what it required of them. Several tips for writing high-quality review reports are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Context: Continuous improvement and networked improvement science have emerged as prominent approaches to improving schools. Although continuous improvement approaches have generated promising results in education, how these efforts come to be enacted remains a crucial question that can generate insight into how these approaches can be improved. Purpose and Objective: Our study is focused on understanding how improvement is performed by focusing on the process of generating a shared aim statement in a teacher-preparation improvement network. We seek to understand how practitioners within a network (a) engage a central tension (between language acquisition and multilingualism), (b) negotiate this tension, and (c) reach a settlement that results in a shared aim. Setting: This study takes place in a teacher-preparation improvement network as part of the California Teacher Education Research and Improvement Network (CTERIN). The focus of the network centered on improving the preparation of candidates to build on multilingual students' strengths. Participants: The improvement network that is the focus of our research consists of 49 teacher educators across eight teacher preparation programs as well as three facilitators who were part of CTERIN, including the two authors of this study. Research Design: Our analysis examines the interactions among teacher educators and improvement facilitators to unveil the practices that they engaged in to produce a shared aim. Data for this study include audio and video recordings of three 90-minute videoconference meetings, audio-video of a two-day in-person convening, and improvement artifacts such as fishbone and driver diagrams. Findings: Our study highlights the range of practices that practitioners engaged in and how those evolved as they negotiated and settled a tension between language acquisition and multilingualism. As the process of generating an aim unfolded, teacher educators engaged in the practices of aspirationalizing, dualizing, recentering, rerouting, clarifying, tuning, and converting. Conclusions and Recommendations: We argue that these practices make visible that the process of generating an aim statement is a complex and complicated process that requires negotiation and a recognition that some perspectives are foregrounded and others are backgrounded. Understanding this process has implications for how improvement facilitators engage practitioners in the process of doing improvement and generates theory of improvement implementation by highlighting how disparate teams, individuals, and organizations reaching sharedness requires negotiating, foregrounding, and backgrounding.

When participants in introductory business courses encounter the term "operations strategy," it is not easy for them to appreciate what operations strategy is about, or how it fits with overall business strategy. This game breaks down highfalutin jargon into experiences that participants can readily relate to. While working in teams to make paper boats, and competing with other teams, participants realize that they have intuitively engaged in the formulation and implementation of their team's operations strategy. They begin to appreciate the interplay between the customer's requirements, their own team's strengths, the "competitive priorities" that their team must emphasize, and the tradeoffs inherent in making these decisions. (Contains 1 table and 2 notes.)

Purpose: The aim of this paper, using the intuitionistic fuzzy (IF)–set based Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) method, is to create multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) mechanism that evaluates the papers according to the offset print quality, separately for each of the CMYK colors. Thanks to the mechanism, the most suitable and the most unsuitable paper for printing is determined. Design/methodology/approach: With the IF PROMETHEE method, respectively, deviations are calculated by linear criteria type; the overall IF preference relation matrix is obtained. Finally, the positive and negative outranking flows are calculated; by obtaining net outranking flows, all papers are ranked from best to worst for printability. Findings: Based on the results of the MCDM algorithm; the best offset printing quality is Matte Coated 115 gr. for cyan, magenta and black and Glossy Coated 115 gr. for yellow. The worst offset printing quality for all papers is 70 gr. III. low grade paper. According to the findings, when all colors are examined, the best paper for offset printing quality is coated papers; the worst paper is III. low grade papers. Originality/value: The creation of mechanism that evaluates all criteria together leads to the most accurate result. Cases of hesitation are also addressed using an IF-based algorithm; all criteria were assigned individual importance levels, and a single result was obtained by activating all of the criteria simultaneously. Therefore reasons, this is paper that will bring innovation and shed light on studies in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present-day curricular designs have to take the pupils' psychological needs in account, thus becoming melodies of mental health and happiness for the next generation. Emphasizing the findings from previous investigations using the research synthesis methodology, the present study has been conducted aiming at achieving some integrative knowledge under the inclusive title of "Mental Health Improvement-based Curricular Content." Goal-oriented homogeneous sampling method was applied in order to select 100 research papers from Iranian scholars on the subject of pupils' mental health improvement using accredited databases between 2005 and 2016. Data analysis using open subject coding encompassing three stages, namely open, axial, and selective coding, indicated that a curriculum with contents in two overall categories of mental health literacy (optimism and positive thinking; socialization; monotheistic life; happiness; self-efficacy; self-awareness and self-actualization & …) and mental health skills (emotions management, interpersonal communication, critical thinking, adaptability, tolerance, and finally & …) has to be designed in order to improve the pupils' mental health.

The level of confidence in pass/fail decisions obtained with computerized adaptive tests and paper-and-pencil tests was greater for 645 medical technology students when the computer adaptive test implemented a 90 percent confidence stopping rule than for paper-and-pencil tests of comparable length. (SLD)

Reviews have long been recognized as among the most important forms of scientific communication. The rapid growth of the primary literature has further increased the need for reviews to distill and interpret the literature. This review on Reviews and Reviewing: Approaches to Research Synthesis encompasses the evolution of the review literature, taxonomy of review literature, uses and users of reviews, the process of preparing reviews, assessment of review quality and impact, the impact of information technology on the preparation of reviews, and research opportunities for information science related to reviews and reviewing. In addition to providing a synthesis of prior research, this review seeks to identify gaps in the published research and to suggest possible future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides background information on the Beinecke Library at Yale University and describes the digitization of a portion of the James Boswell papers to make them more accessible. Discusses funding; the decision making process; the scanning process; and the decision to deliver images on CDs instead of over the World Wide Web. (LRW)

With the rapid development of the autonomous world, local decision making between devices is becoming important. This article provides a new paradigm (Rock-Paper-Scissors-Hammer: RPSH) that can reduce the number of conflicts or decision draws and thus increase the throughput of autonomous devices while reducing the kept number of records or transactions. The paradigm requires a sealed envelope protocol and sequential message passing between both parties to decide unanimously a winner between the two participants without a third-party mediation. The message passing proposes a detailed record in a blockchain-like format that is not corruptible and is verifiable for conflict resolution. A simulated IoT environment is created to show the advantage of the proposed protocol and it shows significant reduction in mean efforts due to the elimination of draws or undecided situations. Autonomous devices, such as cars, need to maintain meticulous, lightweight, but blockchain-like record keeping for insurance settlements or conflict resolutions; that archival data size is significantly reduced by the RPSH protocol.

This study investigates the changing discourses of the value of degrees in prospectuses between 1976 and 2013, chosen due to the massification of higher education and use of the particular marketing tool of prospectuses. This research analysed the messages in prospectuses through the period in four English higher education institutions of different status, to consider how these changes reveal the communication of the value of the idea of a degree in the period. Four topics of the value of a degree were identified as part of the wider literature review: the value of a degree for traditional liberal purposes; as a marker of prestige of the awarding institution; for graduate employment; and for employability. The research finds that while significant change in each institution's construction of degree value is reflected in the prospectuses, the adjustments in discourse between each set of prospectuses are incremental, and not necessarily possible to link causally to specific governmental policies. Over the period, a re-calibration of the idea of the value of a degree can be tracked towards employment purposes and away from the traditional liberal idea of higher education. However, a review of the most recent marketing materials indicates some shift back towards a re-valuation of traditional liberal values. The analysis contributes a historical perspective on how higher education can suggest markers to understand shifts in the value of a degree, and also draws on literatures that use institutional materials to examine public discourses of value.

The objective of this paper is to show the added value of using tools such as eyetracking, galvanic skin response, facial coding and others in the field of market research and user experience research. We will present 3 case studies in which these tools have been used successfully. We will give an overview of the background, the objectives, methods and results and how the neuro-tools provided additional insights into consumer behaviour, which would otherwise not have been possible. In this paper we will specifically show cases from packaging design, advertising research and user experience research thus only covering a small part of possible application areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper used graduation statistics of the Namibian secondary higher education over two decades to determine linkages to human capital of the youth and its multiplication into economic development. The paper assessed the effect of regional differences to show historic educational discrimination and why the education reform was required to correct the skewed past. It was hypothesized that the educational reform would result into improvements of the academic levels within the disadvantaged regions and anticipated that the correction will partly have negative effects on the previously advantaged regions. By applying panel data, the paper attempts to simultaneously address the complex relationships of development, education, and the underlying causalities within the economic system of Namibia. Concepts in the testing of socio-economic components are done by looking at confounding logics, stochastics, and the use of latent variables to determine linkages by using the canonical correlation method. This approach could be extended in future as guide for decisions on education. Our study shows that the implementation of the Namibian education reform resulted into increased enrolment numbers, but unfortunately also into the declining of academic levels, combined with the narrowing of learners' outputs. The reform response in the previously disadvantaged regions was slower than expected. Findings of the longitudinal data show that education levels in Namibia partly contributed towards human capital formation to multiply into economic development. The study shows that the method of analyzing linkages between cause and effect by means of causality provides advantages for analysis. The results confirm findings that human capital formation has a positive effect on the country's economic status, but for efficacy analysis of policy, we need regional information.

Deploying systems-theoretical conceptuality, this paper improves understanding of the organisational consequences of the intensified societal engagement of a research university. Aligning its work with Luhmannian organisational analysis, it addresses the dynamic interplay between two modes of administrative decision-making communication, namely, the traditional professional administration and the New-Public-Management-oriented (NPM) managerial techniques. Our research observes how the politico-economic conditions of the society translate into the university's decisions concerning an initiative to engage in start-up entrepreneurship. The article contributes to higher education literature by showing that the university's professional administration is a discrete organisational function internally differentiated into specialised administrative branches, each of which operates according to a sense-making regime associated with its primary societal system reference, such as education, science and the economy. The article also demonstrates the structurally conditioned differences in branch-specific temporalisations of the entrepreneurial initiative during decision-making. Inspired by the Luhmannian view on temporality, we demonstrate how administrative decisions synchronise the varied structural time horizons within the university's professional administration. Focus on temporality in decision-making thus allows us to see how the NPM-inspired managerial techniques are operationalised in administrative communication at universities. Consequently, the paper argues that university administration is a complex dynamic entity, which varyingly aligns itself to national policy scripts, and only selectively enacts features of a global trend known as NPM.

The emergence of agreements between private pathway colleges and public English-medium institutions represents a new development in internationalization that further challenges the public higher education landscape. While these institutional arrangements are controversial and often criticized, university senior administrators have been successfully able to advocate for and authorize them. This paper takes a closer look into the reasoning that administrators use in order to legitimize formal agreements with private pathway colleges in Canada. Drawing from the sensemaking literature within organizational theory, the following strategies are traced and analyzed: 1) normalization, 2) authorization, 3) rationalization, 4) moralization, and 5) narrativization. Through content analysis of 50 institutional documents, supported by nine semi-structured interviews with senior administrators representing two public universities and one private provider in Canada (Navitas), the paper demonstrates how neoliberal ideologies in internationalization are actively enacted in public spaces by administrators representing the public higher education sector.