When empathy hurts: Modelling university students’ word of mouth behaviour in public vs. private universities in Syria

This study examines and compares word of mouth (WOM) behaviour among university students in Syria. To date, little is known about this important phenomenon which is surprising given the deregulated education market in Syria that allows for private universities to compete for students alongside public universities. Using a mixed methods research design and structural equation modelling, our results show faculty individualised attention and student satisfaction were found to be positively related to university image. Further, student satisfaction and university image were found to be direct sources of students’ positive WOM behaviour. We found a moderating effect of university ownership type on university image. Interestingly, we identified six themes showing how support staff empathy could be seen as a source of low student satisfaction. These were defined as deception/credibility/soft‐soapers/suspiciousness: when support staff coax something out of students; confusion/role conflict: resulting from the diverse roles played by support staff while interacting with students; unfairness: when a student notices discrimination in the level of empathy between their peers; privacy: when support staff empathy can be perceived as a kind of intrusion; self‐congratulatory: when a support staff member shows off or praises their empathy; and support staff/student ratio: when this ratio is seen to be small, the empathy effect reverses.     

Effect of telenursing on aging perception of Iranian older adults

Background and purpose: The perception of aging is one of the independent predictors of functional disability and mortality in the aged ones, this study was conducted to compare the follow-up of a training program with the use of two in-person and telenursing methods on the perception of aging of the elderly, covered by the comprehensive health centers in Ahvaz city.

Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental study involved systematic random sampling conducted on 60 elderly persons (aged 60–75 years) who were referred to in Ahvaz. A training program was conducted for all elderly persons for 3 weeks (three sessions per week), which was accompanied with 2 months of six follow-ups for the telephonic follow-up group (Tele-nursing), and two follow-ups for in-person follow-up group. The data were collected with the use of demographic form, Abbreviated Mental Test (AMT), and The Brief Aging Perceptions Questionnaire (B-APQ). Elderly completed the questionnaire at the beginning of the study and 8 weeks later. The data were subsequently analyzed with SPSS software; and P values less than 0.05 were considered significant.

Results: Based on the results, the mean score of perception of aging increased in the study groups after the intervention. This increase was statistically significant only in the intervention group.

Discussion and Conclusion: The telephonic follow-up was more effective on Increasing the perception of aging compared with the in-person follow-up. Therefore, using this method is recommended for the elderly.     

Renovation of Adult Education by the New Media

In most developing countries, that are confronted, as we know, with so many complex problems, no one can deny that the most important are those of education and training.     

Students＇ mental health： Personal and university determinants

The present study was to examine the effects of personal and university bounded factors in students mental health in north of Fars province, Iran. The effects of these factors on university students＇ psychopathology within a survey design were investigated among 300 participants--94 males and 206 females, who were selected through random sampling method and the degrees of their mental health, were measured by SCL-90-R checklist. Overall findings supported that gender, marital status, socioeconomic status as personal factors, and type of university as within university factor would influence students＇ mental health. So males, married, and students with moderate and high socioeconomic status had more significant better mental health situation than females, singles and those with low socioeconomic status. Finally, ethnicity, dormitory and non-dormitory residence, native or non-native being, discipline, school and faculty, and academic performance variables were not effective on students＇ mental health significantly. Here, it was suggested an explanatory triangle model for university students＇ mental health explanation with respect to gendered and socio-cultural contexts and their implications in clinical and educational settings.     

What do they like? Communication preferences and patterns of older adults in the United States: The role of technology

ABSTRACT

With the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs), there are increasingly more Internet-based communication methods available for older adults besides traditional methods (e.g., in-person or landline phone). However, older adults’ preferred communication methods remain under-investigated. The purpose of this study is to explore the communication preferences and patterns of older adults in the United States, with emphasis on technologically-mediated environments. In this study, 17 semistructured interviews were conducted with participants from a midwestern state in the United States. The goal was to examine older adults’ communication patterns and preferences with family members and friends, as well as their views about the impacts of modern technology on communication. Three themes (communication preferences and reasons, communication barriers, and the impacts of technology) were generated from the interviews. The findings showed that although face-to-face communication is the most preferred method, telephone communication is the most commonly adopted method. Interviewees also shared different opinions regarding Internet-based communication. The current study illustrated the importance of understanding the preferences and patterns of older adults’ communication needs and desires.     

Science Letters: Low-cost fault tolerance in evolvable multiprocessor systems: a graceful degradation approach

The evolvable multiprocessor (EvoMP), as a novel multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC) machine with evolvable task decomposition and scheduling, claims a major feature of low-cost and efficient fault tolerance. Non-centralized control and adaptive distribution of the program among the available processors are two major capabilities of this platform, which remarkably help to achieve an efficient fault tolerance scheme. This letter presents the operational as well as architectural details of this fault tolerance scheme. In this method, when a processor becomes faulty, it will be eliminated of contribution in program execution in remaining run-time. This method also utilizes dynamic rescheduling capability of the system to achieve the maximum possible efficiency after processor reduction. The results confirm the efficiency and remarkable advantages of the proposed approach over common redundancy based techniques in similar systems.     

The Assessment of Oxidative Stress on Patients with Chronic Renal Failure at Different Stages and on Dialysis Patients Receiving Different Hypertensive Treatment

The aim of this study is to evaluate the oxidative stress in predialysis, hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis patients and to test the effects of antihypertensive drugs and volume control on oxidative stress parameters. The study was composed of five groups as follows: control group (n = 30), predialysis group (n = 30), peritoneal dialysis group (n = 30), hemodialysis group, (normotensive with strict volume control, n = 30), hemodialysis group (normotensive with medication, n = 30). Plasma malondialdehyde (MDA), erythrocyte superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx) and routine biochemical parameters were studied in all patients. Hemodialysis patients with strict volume control (HD_vc) had lower levels of MDA than other patient groups (p < 0.001), and CAT, SOD values had highest level other patient groups (p < 0.001). The treatment of hypertension with strict volume control in chronic renal failure patients causes less damage to the antioxidant capacity.     

中国足协处罚权研究

中国足协的处罚权是其参与体育治理的重要手段,相较于法定性强、形态有限的行政处罚, 更具专业性和针对性。为了保障其良性运转,维护相对人的诉讼权利,司法权的适度介入已成为理论界的共识。但我国传统的行政主体理论不能回应这种社会公权力发展的现实需要,并对其作出合理解释。因此,亟需重构我国的行政主体理论,赋予中国足协行政主体地位,构建司法审查规则,即法院审查足协处罚权时应当遵循仲裁优先原则、穷尽内部救济原则、法律审查原则;在审查范围上,除了审查足协处罚行为,还应当附带审查处罚规则。