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Purpose: Lifelong learning has become one of the most interesting areas of research. Hence, the current study was aimed at developing and validating a tool that helps to study how well people working in higher education institutions are engaged in lifelong learning. Design/methodology/approach: A review of theories in the literature and experts' consultation were used to develop a pool of items and validate the self-assessment instrument for measuring lifelong learning. The study employed factor analytic methodologies such as principal component analysis, varimax rotation and exploratory factor analyses. Findings: The study yielded a reliable and valid lifelong learning measurement scale made up of 18 items and four underlying factors that are theoretically supported. Originality/value: The significant information is that, the current study aimed at developing a tool that could help to measure the engagement in lifelong learning of higher education institutions workers. The study found this tool to be important because lifelong learning is considered essential for personal and professional growth, and having a sound way to measure it can help individuals and organizations identify areas for improvement.

The study's main purpose is to evaluate the planning practices of the Ethiopian Integrated Functional Adult Education (IFAE) programme and to draw lessons that can be learned for future adult education programmes. The study used an explanatory sequential mixed methods research design and involved 224 participants. Data were collected using questionnaires and interviews and analysed by descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. The study found that IFAE's planning practices are characterised by four shortcomings: insufficient consideration of learner needs assessment; insufficient consideration in defining the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder throughout the programme; inability to determine what actions should be carried out when and how; and inadequate allocation of resources required for the programme. In addition to these limitations, the study identified factors that hinder IFAE planning, including inadequate stakeholder participation, lack of qualified personnel, social and cultural sensitivities, adaptability and scalability problems, and budget constraints. Therefore, addressing these deterrents through the active participation of stakeholders such as educators, adult learners, and government representatives is critical to designing effective adult education programmes. By incorporating these insights, future initiatives can reach more learners and create a better future for all. Finally, a detailed discussion and conclusions are provided.

In this age of information exchange, where nations' multiculturalism is prominent, developing a positive attitude towards local people's knowledge and wisdom regardless of gender, faith, age, and other social class is prominent. This is because countries need to have a diverse population that embraces diverse indigenous knowledge systems and practices to be successful in their overall development activities. Indigenous knowledge is the basis of any form of education in which beautiful social connections and communication, as well as manifestation of everyday life, are established. It is known that indigenous knowledge needs to be developed. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate how indigenous knowledge systems and practices are integrated into adult education programs to bring about sustainable social development. It has been found that several indigenous knowledge systems and practices have made a great contribution to establishing indigenous education, which in turn supports area development. Therefore, it can be concluded that the inclusion of indigenous knowledge into adult education programs, has to grow for it to become a developmental policy agenda and intervention.

E-learning anxiety plays a key role in students' success in online courses. One of the factors that may affect students' e-learning anxiety is computer self-efficacy (CSE). However, the role of CSE in high school students' e-learning anxiety has remained unexplored in the Iranian context. Therefore, the present mixed-methods study purports to explore the role of CSE in Iranian high school students' e-learning anxiety. To this end, for the quantitative part, 410 female high school students were selected, as well as for the qualitative part, 30 female high school students were selected using a random sampling method. The required data were collected using a computer self-efficacy questionnaire, an anxiety in online classes questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analyzed through a Pearson correlation analysis, a multiple-regression analysis, and a content analysis. Results revealed a strong negative correlation between the students' CSE and e-learning anxiety. Further, the findings documented that the factors of CSE (i.e., beginning skills, mainframe skills, and advanced skills) determined the high school students' e-learning anxiety. Moreover, the complementary qualitative findings yielded four overarching themes: 'promoted digital literacy', 'increased problem-solving', 'increased learning satisfaction', and 'enhanced self-regulated learning'. Finally, a range of implications is suggested for different stakeholders.

Mucormycosis, a life-threatening fungal infection that primarily affects immunocompromised individuals.The protein family commonly observed in the fugus responsible for causing Mucormycosis. The attachment of spores to host cells surface, facilitated by a protein CotH, is a critical step for the invasion and progression of the disease. Therefore, CotH inhibitors have emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy for treating mucormycosis.This study presents a novel therapeutic target and ligand for controlling the growth of Mucorales. First, to identify potential CotH inhibitors, we surveyed a library antifungal compounds elaborated in AYUSearch database. Next, using machine learning-based algorithms we screend 20 potentials ligands, followed by structure-based molecular modelling and molecular trajectory analysis to identify the three most promising chemical constituents. In-vitro tube assays on selected Mucorales determined the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) for screened chemotypes. The MIC assay revealed that Bacoside inhibits the growth and sporulation at 5 mg/ml concentrations, emerging as a probable CotH inhibitor. Further, the compound's toxicity was evaluated by adding it to the feed of C.elegans, and the finding suggests that the bacoside is reasonably safe at the studied concentration. The findings project bacoside A as a potential anti-mucorale lead compound that can be further validated with preclinical and clinical studies.

Since its inception in 1949, over 1,500 studies have investigated the validity of the GRE General Test to predict its performance criteria in higher education (Klieger, Bridgeman, Tannenbaum, & Cline, 2016). The present review paper sought to examine the predictive validity of the GRE General Test. Factors affecting the predictive validity (e.g., range restriction, compensatory selection, criterion unreliability, substantive and artifactual moderators, bias in testing, coaching effects, socioeconomic status (SES), gender, and a host of other intervening factors such as motivation, communication skills, etc.) have been discussed. A brief overview of GRE revised General Test format is also presented. After an account of the related review of the literature, a critical commentary on the predictive validity of the GRE General Test has been discussed with an emphasis on the role of criterion unreliability and SES factor effects.

Although the erstwhile colonies in the Third World are free from the colonial occupation, the imperialist hegemony continues, to be resisted in the societies. For, such enterprise has provided the pretext for the concepts of ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ followed by occupation, a reign of violence and terror loosened upon the natives. This paper aims to study Red Birds (2018) a novel by Mohammed Hanif to highlight the plight of the ‘Other’ with their aggressive vitality and fervor of resistance to counter the imperialist agenda-hegemony. As qualitative research, it employs the postcolonial method, while seeking theoretical insights from the arguments of Orientalism by Edward Said, and the theory of hegemony by Antonio Gramsci to be interpretive in nature to analyze the text. It explores how the text, gleaned selectively from the novel offered, like Orientalism a fabric of textual analyses that is highly critical of the Eurocentric notions and hegemony of the Western world. It underlines the ways and practices sketched by the novel through the troubling encounter of the characters from the East to the West to offer a subversive narrative to the failure of the efforts and narratives of the West. For better analyses of the text to underline the American neo-imperialism and the native dreams of subversion, it takes to the tone of Gramscian precepts to conclude that the powerful subjugates through hegemony–the geo-political method used to gain indirect imperial dominance which is maintained mainly through ideology instead of using means like economic force, or coercive strategies.

This research seeks to illustrate how the COVID-19 epidemic has affected students' motivation, engagement, and learning. Students had learning difficulties during the pandemic, as demonstrated by their nonattendance in online courses and their inability to turn in homework on sites such as Google Classroom. Acknowledging these difficulties, the instructor made house calls to collect information for this study. By exposing 100 ninth-grade students to several, the researcher addressed learning loss. The study used a case study methodology and included both qualitative and quantitative data. Google Forms was used to conduct both closed- and open-ended surveys for data gathering. According to the results, just 20.6% of students reported having no learning loss during the pandemic, compared to 79.4% who reported having it. Students' trust in their learning experiences throughout the pandemic was divided into three categories: great certainty (33.4%), certainty (46%), and uncertainty (20.6%). Furthermore, based on their comments on Google Forms, the data revealed that 52.5% of students thought their learning experience was bad, 28.2% thought it was extremely weak, and 19.6% thought it was strong.

The main purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) armed violence on educational institutions, students' educational attainments, and the role of actors playing in school governance and redirecting the education process. This study was positioned to yield preliminary evidence which can serve as input for concerned bodies when designing intervention programs in the study area that aims to give a response to the spoiled education system brought by the violence. In doing so, a convergent mixed-method research design was used. The study sample was bounded to n = 398 participants. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected simultaneously, and the analysis was drawn upon both strands in search of patterns. As a result, the following findings were obtained. The TPLF armed violence instigated the destruction of school infrastructures and generated substantial impediments to the supply of schooling. As a result, students' educational attainment and learning outcomes were significantly lowered as compared to before the violence. As well, students' dropout rate, out-of-school students' rate, and related educational wastage have been amplified. This, in turn, requires sound school governance and the active participation of all actors including parents and the local community at large be part of the solutions for those educational issues hampered by the TPLF violence. In the end, possible conclusions and suggestions were made.

The use of social media within the educational research space has recently received attention for determining interactions within educational contexts. Multidimensional constructs such as student engagement and the learning environment that affect learning have also been pronounced recently. However, the place of social media use within the psychosocial learning environment and dimensions of student engagement in the context of higher education in Ethiopia remain less understood. This article sought to examine the mediating role of social media use by placing it within the formal psychosocial learning environment through moderation. Using a correlational design, 403 randomly selected undergraduate students are involved to examine the direct and indirect effects of psychosocial learning environments and social media use on student engagement employing structural equation modeling, particularly path analysis. Results indicate that social media use mediates the relationship between the learning environment and affective, cotgnitive, behavioral, and agentic engagement. Moreover, social media use appears to be as statistically and positively significant as the dimensions of the learning environment. This finding suggests that social media use can be positioned as a formalized aspect of the psychosocial learning environment rather than an informal and ancillary alternative. These findings challenge the traditional belief that social media is a random, unplanned and optional element of the learning environment. As such, these findings are useful because they inform higher education teachers and administrators to formalize the role of social media use in the designing of structured learning environments in higher education institutions.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of the flipped classroom model on students' self-efficacy and the difference in self-efficacy between males and females using this model. In order to accomplish this, 66 advanced participants were selected from a private English language institute. They were divided into two equal groups, namely experimental (flipped classroom) and control (traditional) group. The students' self-efficacy was scored before and after the intervention with the Self-Efficacy Survey. The results indicated an increase in their average self-efficacy score with the flipped classroom while the traditional classroom decreased their average score. When the genders were analyzed separately, the males demonstrated a decrease in self-efficacy while the females indicated an increase while utilizing the flipped classroom. In light of these results, some recommendations have been made.

Within the vibrant yet complex ecosystem of higher education institutions, nurturing a culture of employee voice is critical for driving innovation, fostering engagement, and optimizing decision-making. However, it's still a complex task to identify the main factors influencing voice behaviour. This study ventures into this fertile ground, examining the mediating role of leader-member exchanges in the structural relationship between perceived organizational justice and employee voice behaviour in higher education. A correlational study design was used. A total of 361 participants were involved in the study. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed using structural education modelling (SEM). The study found that both perceived organizational justice and leader-member exchange have a significant direct influence on employee voice behaviour, suggesting that both variables are important factors in predicting employee voice behaviour. Despite these effects, the contribution of leader-member exchange was found to be more impactful than perceived organizational justice. When the leader-member exchange is entered as a mediating variable in the structural model, the indirect effect of organizational justice becomes large. This suggests that when employees perceive their organization as fair, they are more likely to form positive relationships with their leaders and, as a result, these relationships lead to greater employee voice behaviour. Therefore, it can be concluded that higher education institutions are recommended to create a fair and equitable working environment strengthened by strong relationships between leaders and employees, as this directly contributes to improving employees' ability to express their thoughts and opinions for the benefit of the institutions.

Background: Perinatal asphyxia refers to an impairment of the normal oxygenation during birth and the ensuing adverse effects on the neonate. Low Apgar score is commonly used to as an indicator of asphyxia, but it may not be available in all newborns, especially in extramural babies. Also, Apgar score alone does not predict neurologic outcome as it is influenced by various factors. So, the present study was conducted to find correlation between Apgar score and urinary uric acid to creatinine ratio in babies with perinatal asphyxia. Methodology: The present study was an observational case control study conducted in tertiary care hospital in southern part of Gujarat state. We recruited 56 babies with moderate to severe asphyxia and compared them with 56 babies without asphyxia. Uric acid (UA) to creatinine (Cr) ratio was calculated on spot urine samples within 24 hours of birth and a Receiver Operator Curve (ROC) was plotted. Results: Mean UA/Cr ratio among cases was 2.58±1.15 as compared to control group where the ratio was 0.71±0.21 (p < 0.00001). Using the ROC curves, cut off of UA/Cr of 1.24 was found to have a sensitivity of 94.6% and specificity of 98.2%. Area under the curve was 98.8%. A significant negative linear correlation was found between urinary UA/Cr ratio and the Apgar score (r = -0.7188, p < 0.001) among cases. Conclusions: Urinary uric acid to creatinine ratio is a useful marker to diagnose perinatal asphyxia when Apgar scores are unavailable and also to judge the severity of asphyxia.

Abstract In nature, terpene nucleosides are relatively rare, with 1-tuberculosinyladenosine (1-TbAd) being an exclusive feature of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). The convergence of nucleosides and terpene pathways in the Mtb complex appears to have emerged late in its evolutionary history. 1-TbAd (PDB ID: 3WQK) is a prominent chemical marker for Mtb and may contribute to its virulence-related properties when exported extracellularly. We gathered a comprehensive set of 270 phytochemicals from diverse Ayurvedic texts and treatment traditions. Subsequently, we conducted structure-based molecular docking analyses to identify compounds exhibiting the strongest binding affinity for 1-TbAd, highlighting their potential as drug candidates. These selected compounds were further subjected to an in-vitro growth inhibition assay against the reference strain Mycobacterium tuberculosis h37rv. Among the candidates, Asiaticoside A (ASA) emerged as a promising candidate from the pool of 270 compounds. To assess the impact of ASA on 1-TbAd expression, we employed a PCR-based mRNA expression assay, revealing ASA's ability to downregulate 1-TbAd expression in extensively drug-resistant MTb strains. Remarkably, the conventional drug rifampin showed no such effectiveness in our experiments. We further conducted molecular dynamic simulations to explore the interaction between ASA and 1-TbAd in a cellular-like environment, confirming the stability of their interaction. Also, we predicted ASA's stability toward causing inducing the random mutations in the target gene. With this, we propose a novel target and its modulator to treat extensively drug-resistant MTB. Graphical Abstract

AbstractThe use of social media within the educational research space has recently received attention for determining interactions within educational contexts. Multidimensional constructs such as student engagement and the learning environment that affect learning have also been pronounced recently. However, the place of social media use within the psychosocial learning environment and dimensions of student engagement in the context of higher education in Ethiopia remain less understood. This article sought to examine the mediating role of social media use by placing it within the formal psychosocial learning environment through moderation. Using a correlational design, 403 randomly selected undergraduate students are involved to examine the direct and indirect effects of psychosocial learning environments and social media use on student engagement employing structural equation modeling, particularly path analysis. Results indicate that social media use mediates the relationship between the learning environment and affective, cotgnitive, behavioral, and agentic engagement. Moreover, social media use appears to be as statistically and positively significant as the dimensions of the learning environment. This finding suggests that social media use can be positioned as a formalized aspect of the psychosocial learning environment rather than an informal and ancillary alternative. These findings challenge the traditional belief that social media is a random, unplanned and optional element of the learning environment. As such, these findings are useful because they inform higher education teachers and administrators to formalize the role of social media use in the designing of structured learning environments in higher education institutions.

AbstractWhen considering staff engagement in higher education, scrutinizing the issues of nurturing a healthy workplace environment as well as valuing lifelong learning and professional development opportunities cannot be overstated to enhance both personal and institutional effectiveness. In this sprite, the main objective of this study is located to estimate the mediating role/effect of staff involvement in lifelong learning on the structural relationship between workplace environment and staff engagement in higher education context. A correlational research design was employed in the process. Data was collected from a total of 280 participants through a questionnaire and the collected evidence was analyzed using structural equation modelling (SEM). Results indicated that both workplace environment and lifelong learning have significant and direct effects on staff engagement. In addition to the direct effects, when lifelong learning entered the structural model as a mediator variable, the workplace environment has still a significant indirect effect on staff engagement through the mediating role of lifelong learning.This suggestes that lifelong learning had is a partial mediation role in the relationship between these two variables. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that higher education institutions should secure a welcoming workplace environment where staff demands both learning and employment are likely to be met and satisfied, which will ultimately result in positive outcomes.

AbstractThe main purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) armed violence on educational institutions, students’ educational attainments, and the role of actors playing in school governance and redirecting the education process. This study was positioned to yield preliminary evidence which can serve as input for concerned bodies when designing intervention programs in the study area that aims to give a response to the spoiled education system brought by the violence. In doing so, a convergent mixed-method research design was used. The study sample was bounded to n = 398 participants. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected simultaneously, and the analysis was drawn upon both strands in search of patterns. As a result, the following findings were obtained. The TPLF armed violence instigated the destruction of school infrastructures and generated substantial impediments to the supply of schooling. As a result, students’ educational attainment and learning outcomes were significantly lowered as compared to before the violence. As well, students’ dropout rate, out-of-school students’ rate, and related educational wastage have been amplified. This, in turn, requires sound school governance and the active participation of all actors including parents and the local community at large be part of the solutions for those educational issues hampered by the TPLF violence. In the end, possible conclusions and suggestions were made.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of using authentic materials on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' reading comprehension, reading motivation, and reading anxiety. In this study, 58 Iranian male EFL learners were selected and randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. Both groups were pretested through a reading comprehension test and the motivation for reading questionnaire (MRQ) to test their reading comprehension ability and reading motivation. Having participated in a period of 20 sessions in which the experimental group received treatment of exposure to authentic materials and control group to simplified materials, the students took a posttest of the reading comprehension test and completed the MRQ. Additionally, to test students' reading anxiety, the two groups completed Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) in two pre- and posttest assessments. The scores obtained were analyzed using one-way analysis of covariance and paired samples t-tests. The results indicated that authentic materials enhanced Iranian learners' reading motivation and their reading comprehension ability. In addition, the findings suggested that the use of authentic texts significantly improved EFL learner's anxiety in the experimental group. The implications of the study are discussed.

The present investigation aimed at studying emotional terms (ETs) in Persian and English bed-night stories for children by adopting a contrastive analysis approach within two phases. Emotional terms were categorized into two theoretical models (tokens and types) in phase one of the study, and in the second phase, the effect of teaching emotive narratives on learners' pragmatic knowledge of controlling emotions was scrutinized. To this aim, 30 English bed-night stories (15 in English and 15 in Persian) with similar lengths and difficulty levels were selected randomly. In the first phase of the study, the frequency of occurrence of emotional terms (ETs) in English and Persian English bed-night stories were compared. The results indicated that there were not statistically significant differences between the two groups of stories in terms of the emotion tokens utilized in both languages. Nevertheless, there was a major disparity in the number of ETs found in English and Persian bed-night tales concerning various types of emotions. During the second phase of the study, a group of 25 EFL learners were explicitly taught emotive English bed-night tales. A pre-test post-test design using a Discourse Completion Test was used to seek the efficacy of teaching ETs on the learners' pragmatic knowledge of controlling emotions. Findings showed that teaching emotive narratives enhanced students' pragmatic knowledge of emotions significantly. In light of the findings of the study, a number of conclusions are drawn and the implications are discussed.

Background: Stress is the physiological and psychological response to internal or external stressors. The COVID 19 outbreak caused a sudden shutdown of conventionally designed medical teaching and new digital e-learning methods emerged which invariably affected the psychology of medical teachers. Aims and Objective: To study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and distance teaching on the psychological status of medical teachers. Materials and Methods: A total of 322 medical teachers were included in the study; an online survey was conducted through a social media platform between April and May 2021. The online consent was obtained from all the participants. Participants were asked to complete a modified validated Google Form questionnaire with perceived stress scale (PSS-10) which is a classic stress assessment instrument. Results: The PSS-10 score was significantly high in the medical teachers who were using digital online e-learning methods first time during this COVID 19 pandemic lockdown. Male teachers reported more stress as compared to female teachers. Conclusion: Higher perceived stress among medical teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic should be acknowledged and strategies to mitigate it should be recommended. Proper counseling services should be available to support the mental health and well-being of faculty.

Ensuring second language (L2) learners have an adequate breadth and depth of L2 vocabulary knowledge is a key pedagogical objective in L2 learning contexts. For this reason, establishing guiding principles that successfully enhance the efficacy of L2 vocabulary knowledge development is of strong importance. The current study investigated the value of applying principles from the Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) as part of a reading comprehension task among 40 intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) students. Half of the group undertook a high involvement reading task, whereas the other half undertook a low involvement reading task. After the reading task, an unannounced Vocabulary Knowledge Scale test was administered to measure incidental vocabulary gains. Results showed the high involvement group remarkably outflanked the low involvement groups in terms of the target words learned from the reading task. A delayed post-test indicated that the retention of target word knowledge was more robust among the high involvement group, but that this difference did not maintain a level of statistical significance after 2 weeks. We conclude with suggestions about how EFL/ESL instructors can apply the principles of the ILH in efforts to systematically enhance learners' L2 vocabulary knowledge.

This paper presents the findings of a study which aimed at exploring the washback of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) English examinations on English teaching and learning practice at secondary schools in Bangladesh. For this purpose, a qualitative research (employing interviews with English teachers, FGDs with students and classroom observations protocol) was conducted in 12 secondary schools. The results from data analysis indicate that the SSC English tests had strong negative washback on English teaching-learning practice at secondary schools resulting from a lack of a congruence between the objectives of the curriculum and the format of the tests, teachers' lack of adequate understanding about the curriculum and present assessment system, respondents' negative attitudes towards the test, and pressure from the schools and the parents to ensure good grades in the final examination. Consequently, teachers and learners adopted such teaching and learning approaches which are highly examination-oriented. The study puts forward some suggestions on how positive washback could be generated. The findings of the study have implications for the decision makers, designers of curricula, assessment and testing, teachers, and teacher trainers involved in the Bangladeshi educational system and elsewhere.

This study investigated the impact of spaced and massed instruction on foreign language reading motivation and reading attitude among Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners. To fulfil this objective, 60 Iranian participants were chosen among 120 students based on the results of Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). The selected pre-intermediate participants were then divided into two equal experimental groups: spaced group and massed group. Afterwards, the researcher measured the participants' reading motivation and reading attitude by administering a reading motivation questionnaire and a reading attitude survey as a pre-test. Then, both groups received the treatment. During the treatment phase of the study, the massed group was taught the reading comprehension in an intensive 60-minute session, while the spaced group was taught in three short sessions (twenty-minute session). After the instruction, a reading motivation questionnaire and a reading attitude survey as a post-test were carried out to both groups and finally the data were analyzed by running paired and independent sample t-tests. The outcomes demonstrated that there was a significant difference between the post-tests of spaced and massed groups. The findings indicated that the spaced group significantly out performed the massed group (p < 0.05) on the reading motivation and reading attitude post-test. The implications of this study make teachers know that teaching through spaced periods can produce better outcomes than teaching through one massed session.