The effect of student teaching experience on preservice elementary teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs for technology integration in the UAE

This study examines the effect of the student teaching experience on preservice elementary teachers?? self-efficacy beliefs and the sources of their beliefs about technology integration in teaching in the UAE. The participants were 62 pre-service elementary teachers at the United Arab Emirates University. Pre- and post-survey was administered to examine participants?? self-efficacy beliefs for technology integration prior to and at the end of the teaching experience. Additionally, a purposeful subset of the sample (n?=?16) were interviewed based on their high self-efficacy belies to explore the sources of the high self-efficacy beliefs. Results showed a significant effect of student teaching experiences on participants?? judgment of their self-efficacy about technology integration. Mastery experience and vicarious experience reported to be the most influential sources of self-efficacy to integrate technology among preservice elementary teachers.     

The changing academic environment and diversity in students' study philosophy,beliefs and attitudes in higher education

Student populations in higher education in Australia and elsewhere in the developed world have experienced significant diversity over the past two decades. The existing literature has provided limited clarity about the effects of this diversity on the dimensions underpinning students' study philosophy domain. Based on a large data set from a leading Australian university, this paper analyses students' study philosophy, beliefs and attitudes towards teaching and learning. Factor analysis explored themes (or dimensions) within the survey. Multivariate analysis of variance used these dimensions as dependent variables with age, sex, ethnicity, study discipline, study level, academic performance and sex/ethnicity interaction as grouping variables to identify significant sources of variations. Deep learning, expediency and responsibility reflected the students' study philosophy domain. Deep learning and responsibility varied with ethnicity and academic performance. Expediency differed according to ethnicity, study discipline and academic performance. Students in business-related disciplines displayed greater expediency than peers elsewhere, treating education like any other commodity. The contribution of this study lies in its rigorous analysis of the impact of the diversity of the student population on the study philosophy domain, compared to the existing literature.     

E-learning services acceptance in higher educational institutes: A case study in Brunei

This research studies on the e-learning services acceptance in higher education institutions in Brunei Darussalam. This research has seven hypotheses, relating to independent, intermediary, and dependent variables. The independent variables include lecturer’s characteristics, design of learning contents, teaching materials, and playfulness; while the intermediary variables are perceived benefits and perceived ease of use. On the other hand, the dependent variable in this research is the intention to use e-learning. Multiple regression analysis were conducted to test the hypotheses proposed. Data analysis from this research has confirmed that the lecturer’s characteristics, teaching materials, perceived ease of use and the intention to use e-learning corresponds to the perceived benefits. Meanwhile, the design of learning content and the intention to use e-learning are positively related to the perceived ease of use and lastly, the variable playfulness is positively related to the intention to use e-learning.     

The moderating effect of experience on the intention to adopt mobile social network sites for pedagogical purposes: An extension of the technology acceptance model

With numerous benefits of utilising mobile social network sites (SNSs) for learning purposes, limited studies have been conducted to determine the factors that influence the adoption of mobile SNSs in facilitating learning. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study is to explore the determinants of students’ behavioural intention to use mobile SNSs for their pedagogical purposes by utilising an extended version of Technology Acceptance Model. Furthermore, the moderating effect of users’ experience on their behavioural intention was investigated. Using a structured questionnaire, data were collected from 600 students from top-five public universities of Malaysia. The results revealed perceived task-technology fit as the great predictor of users’ intention and perceived usefulness. Although the moderating impact of students’ experience on the model found to be positive, it was not supported in this study. The contributions of this study both to the literature and practice are discussed.     

Effect of seedling age and water depth on morphological and physiological aspects of transplanted rice under high temperature

INTRODUCTION Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most im-portant crops in Pakistan. It is the third largest crop interms of area and production after wheat and cotton.Although rice in Pakistan is consuming large acreage,Pakistan is still far behind other rice producingcountries. The average yield is very low (2 t/ha) ascompared to Egypt (8.4 t/ha) and USA (6.6 t/ha).There are many reasons for this low yield. The mostimportant are high temperature (40?50 °C), low hu-midity at …     

Librarians’ perceptions of knowledge management in developing countries: A case with Indian academic libraries

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine librarians' perceptions of knowledge management, including its concept, potential applications, benefits and major challenges of its applications in Indian academic libraries. A structured questionnaire, containing both open and close-ended questions, was sent by postal mail to 30 librarians of academic libraries in India of which 15 questionnaires were returned. Respondents were asked to define knowledge management and answer questions on its potential applications, benefits and major challenges of implementation in academic libraries. Respondents were also allowed to specify their own views on the subject. The findings of the study show that the levels of understanding of KM concepts among librarians are varied and most of them view KM as the management of information resources, services and systems using technology or specific processes for the capture and use of explicit knowledge, rather sharing and using tacit knowledge. They have positive attitudes towards the applications of knowledge management into academic library practice, and not only because this can bring academic libraries closer to their parent organization, but also because it may help them to survive in an increasingly challenging environment. Although, librarians in the present study acknowledged that they are involved in the practices of knowledge management but these were perceived as basic information management activities. Lack of understanding of knowledge management concepts and its benefits, knowledge sharing culture, top management commitment, incentives and rewards, financial resources and information technology infrastructure are perceived as the major barriers for incorporating knowledge management into academic library practice.     

Exploring the utility of action research to investigate second‐language classrooms as complex systems

Action research is geared to changes for the better and has the potential to assist teachers to extend their teaching skills and develop a deeper understanding of themselves, their classroom and their learners. However, in the area of applied linguistics, the viability of action research has been seriously questioned. In this article, we argue that adopting a complexity‐theory perspective, which requires teachers to be dynamic and complex in their approach, helps in identifying action research as a suitable research tradition for investigating second‐language classrooms and in turn using it widely to invigorate the field of applied linguistics. Our argumentation is supported by the fundamental links between action research and complexity theory as an emerging paradigm in education. Although the case made in this article concerns second‐language classrooms, the conclusions reached may well apply to any classroom that shares some commonalities with second‐language classrooms.     

An extended discrete particle swarm optimization algorithm for the dynamic facility layout problem

We extended an improved version of the discrete particle swarm optimization （DPSO） algorithm proposed by Liao et al.（2007） to solve the dynamic facility layout problem （DFLP）. A computational study was performed with the existing heuristic algorithms, including the dynamic programming （DP）, genetic algorithm （GA）, simulated annealing （SA）, hybrid ant system （HAS）, hybrid simulated annealing （SA-EG）, hybrid genetic algorithms （NLGA and CONGA）. The proposed DPSO algorithm, SA, HAS, GA, DP, SA-EG, NLGA, and CONGA obtained the best solutions for 33, 24, 20, 10, 12, 20, 5, and 2 of the 48 problems from （Balakrishnan and Cheng, 2000）, respectively. These results show that the DPSO is very effective in dealing with the DFLP. The extended DPSO also has very good computational efficiency when the problem size increases.     

Genetic Polymorphism of CYP2C9 Among Sistani Ethnic Group in Gorgan

Cytochrome P450 2C9 (CYP2C9) is involved in metabolism of many important drugs and its genotype variations is thought to affect drug efficacy and the treatment process. The aim of this study was to assess the distribution of CYP2C9 allele and genotypic variants in Sistani ethnic group, living in Gorgan, South East of Caspian Sea and North East of Iran. This study included 140 Sistani, referred to the health center of Gorgan. CYP2C9 genotyping was carried out by polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism technique. The allele frequency of CYP2C9*1, CYP2C9*2 and CYP2C9*3 was 76.1, 16.1 and 7.8%, respectively. The frequency of CYP2C9*1/*1, CYP2C9*1/*2, CYP2C9*1/*3, CYP2C9*2/*2, CYP2C9*2/*3 and CYP2C9*3/*3 genotypes was 53.9, 22.1, 11.4, 2.9, 4.3% and nil, respectively. In this study the genotypic variations of the CYP2C9 allele among the Sistani ethnic group was investigated and great differences were observed in comparison to other populations. Our findings suggest that different genotypes of CYP2C9 may influence the pharmacokinetics of some drugs. More studies on the pharmacokinetic effects of CYP2C9 genotypes may help physicians choose optimal dosage of some drugs for treatment and prevention of their side effects. Since different ethnic groups from all over the world use medications, it suggests to investigate the pharmacokinetic effects of CYP2C9 genotypes in different populations.