Meeting the demand for qualified teachers is a major challenge for private schools amid increasing competition and rising expectations for educational quality. This study examines the determinants of teacher demand in private senior high schools in Jambi City, Indonesia. Using quantitative methods, data were collected from 30 private senior high schools and analyzed with Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression. The results indicate that school finances, school productivity, school quality, and technology utilization have a significant positive effect on the demand for teachers. In contrast, teacher wages/honoraria and school facilities do not exert a statistically significant individual effect. Collectively, however, the examined variables significantly influence teacher demand, and the final regression model explains approximately 79% of the variance in teacher demand. Policy implications for meeting teacher needs in private senior high schools include: (1) enhancing the quality of academic services and graduate outcomes; (2) improving the professional and efficient deployment of teaching staff; and (3) leveraging technology to strengthen competitiveness in the education sector.

This book provides educators (including but not limited to those at university level) with data-driven insights into video-mediated interaction. Drawing on extensive research on classroom interaction from a variety of theoretical and analytical perspectives, including four years of observing online university courses that began during the Covid-19 pandemic, the author provides deep insights into video-mediated interaction by comparing direct classroom observations with data provided by teachers and students via online questionnaires. The book clarifies how the newly experienced classroom contexts differ from traditional online and blended classes, then draws on the extensive experience of video-mediated instruction in terms of teacher-learner, learner-content, and learner-learner interaction to decipher what can be challenging and promising about interacting via a screen, specifically addressing multimodal interaction. It also provides practitioners with data-driven suggestions from the perspective of teachers and learners for improving teaching and learning in modern video-based educational contexts that are consistently different from the pre-pandemic idea of e-learning. This book will be a valuable resource for researchers in Applied Linguistics, Language Education and Higher Education more broadly, teachers in higher education institutions worldwide, and teacher education and training and institutional bodies responsible for improving teaching facilities.

Background: Nosocomial infections are one of the leading causes of neonatal mortality, especially in Low and Middle-Income Countries. While maternal UTIs and ICU stays are well known risk factors, this study looks at hospital surfaces as well as the bacteria present on mothers’ and workers’ hands to identify additional sources of infection for nosocomial infections in newborns at hospitals in Yerevan, Armenia. Methods: This observational study was conducted at the Research Center of Maternal and Child Health Protection in Yerevan, Armenia, during 2020-2024. Microbial culture samples were taken from departments related to neonates as well as high traffic areas in the hospital (n=1099). Samples from healthcare workers (n=118) and mothers (n=107) were taken from palms, fingertips, and nails. All samples were appropriately cultured and data analysis included ttests, χ² tests, and logistic regression. Results: Most of the sampled surfaces were negative for microbial growth (n=1009 (84%)), but 98% of positive cultures could be accounted for by S. aureus, Enterobacter spp., and E. coli. The maternity hospital had the greatest number of positive samples (26.5%). 52.8% of samples from healthcare workers showed growth of S. aureus, Enterobacter spp., and E. Coli. 53.3% of samples from mothers’ hands showed growth, with 5% of samples also growing Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The presence of artificial nails and jewelry on mothers’ hands showed a statistically significant increase in bacterial growth. Conclusion: This study highlights the need for continued microbiological surveillance and hand hygiene stewardship to understand local epidemiological trends and decrease rates of neonatal infections in Armenia.

This article argues that rather than advancing academic freedom, decolonisation impedes access to a wide range of possibilities accessible to African scholars. Decolonisation, it is often argued, has the prospect of guaranteeing more academic freedom for African scholars. With curbing the ills of epistemic injustice and violence, epistemicide, etc. as its focal point, decolonisation is ideologically resistant; it discriminates against knowledge from certain quarters historically linked to colonialism. Using the Sartrean existentialist framework of freedom, the article argues that true intellectual freedom consists neither in discriminating against other intellectual traditions nor in undoing the past intellectual injustice. Rather, it consists in creatively transcending the facticity of the past, using all means possible. In transcending colonial facticity, the article argues, African scholars must be enabled to freely choose from a range of available choices regardless of their cultural origins or authorship. The article concludes that epistemic decolonisation can only lead to intellectual isolationism, but isolationism does not promote the culture of academic freedom.

In the past and in recent times, scholars and tertiary institutions in Nigeria have been constantly rated poorly in the global ranking of scholars and tertiary institutions through citation criterion in-spite of the nation’s abundance of human and natural resources that ought to have warranted even competition of the Nigerian scholars with their counterparts in tertiary institutions in developed nations. Among other things, this article employs data from secondary background to identify factors responsible for the poor ranking of scholars and how Nigerian scholars can make their publications visible and accessible to other researchers globally in order to enhance citation.

Smart Grid (SG) is regarded as complex electrical power system due to massive integration of Renewable Energy Resources and Distribution Generations. The implementation of adjustable speed drives, advance power electronic devices, and electric arc furnaces are incorporated in SG (the transition from conventional power system). Digital Signal Processing (DSP) is key tool for SG deployment and provides key solutions to a vast array of complex SG challenges. This Survey provides a comprehensive study on DSP interactions within SG. The prominent challenges posed by conventional grid, such as: (a) monitoring and control, (b) Electric Vehicles infrastructure, (c) cyber data injection attack, (d) Demand Response management, (e) cyber data injection attack, (f) voltage unbalance, (g) over- and inrush-currents, (h) frequency drifts, (i) islanded detection, and (j) Power Quality (PQ) are thoroughly investigated in this survey. We provided brief overview of: (a) performance degradation of electrical parameters without DSP, (b) critical analysis of recently developed methodologies, and (c) main techniques applied to SG. Further, we investigated Digital Filters (DFs) and their algorithms for: (a) optimized performance, (b) PQ enhancement, (c) DSP schemes to control power disturbances, and (d) islanding detection. Finally, the survey critically analyses the effects of harmonics on PQ within SG.

This report acquaints the reader with extra two new shear-horizontal surface acoustic waves (SH-SAWs). These new SH-SAWs can propagate along the free surface of the transversely isotropic (6 mm) magneto electro elastics. These (composite) materials can simultaneously possess the piezoelectric, piezomagnetic, and magnetoelectric effects. Some competition among these effects can lead to suitable solutions found for three possible coupling mechanisms: Here, the mechanically free solid-vacuum interface was treated. This report discovers the twelfth (thirteenth) new SH-SAW for the magnetically closed (electrically open) case and continuity of both the normal component of the electrical (magnetic) displacement and the electrical (magnetic) potential when (magnetic) works. The propagation velocities were obtained in explicit forms with contribution of the vacuum material parameters. The discovered waves were then graphically studied for the purpose of disclosing the dissipation phenomenon (the propagation velocity becomes imaginary) caused by the coupling with the vacuum properties. The obtained results can be useful for further investigations of interfacial (plate) SH-waves, constitution of technical devices, non-destructive testing and evaluation, and application of some gravitational phenomena.

Civic participation is “working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes.” Moreover, civic engagement includes initiatives whereby individuals actively participate in undertakings of personal and public concern that are enriching on the individual level while being socially beneficial to the community as an entirety, simultaneously. Furthermore, it is only evitable that civic engagement and community service as a discipline are at the heart of the promotion of larger notions on a more regional or international scale, and that they are also one of the major catalysts towards instilling a culture of responsibility and peace in people of all ages, through active participation in their own fate, as well as in the fate of their community. In the areas of Peace, and Environment, this reality is illustrated in a number of manners. Whether this is in the areas of active participation within civil society/NGOs whereby these notions are part of their mandates, or whether this is in the areas of instilling a culture of peace and sense of responsibility in raising awareness and concern through education.

With the massive increase in global development with increasing population and thereby huge infrastructure requirements, enormous quantities of concrete are being used worldwide. This massive usage of concrete has resulted into increased demand of cements, coarse and fine aggregates along with associated chemicals. Use of fly ash as supplementary cementing material has now widespread usage of this waste generated from coal fired power stations. Huge growth of granite mining and processing industry due to its enormous use presently in the building and infrastructure works is creating millions of tons of granite processing industry waste with no beneficial use have further added to existing environmental issues and disposal problems. This study investigates the use of granite processing waste as plasticiser in high strength self-consolidating concrete along with fly ash. For this investigation, 10% replacement of Portland cement with fly ash and 20% replacement of sand with granite waste powder was used for producing high strength self-consolidating concrete. Two compressive strengths of 50 and 75MPa were investigated for mechanical properties and durability aspects. Compressive strengths of high strength self consolidating concrete containing 10% Portland cement replaced with fly ash and 20% sand replaced with granite waste were observed to be higher by about 10 to 18% than the control specimen. Higher elastic moduli and reduced permeability were observed along with enhanced sulphate and acid resistance. Better strengths and improved durability of such high strength self-consolidating concrete make it a more acceptable material for major construction projects thereby reducing the burden on environment and use of such waste product for a useful purpose promoting sustainable construction.

Introduction: The goal of the present research was to examine variations in Visual Memory (VM), hormonal, genomic, and brain anatomic changes, in the male rhesus macaques exposed to ELF/MF. Method: Four monkeys were exposed to two different ELF frequencies i.e.: (Control)and 12-HZ (Experiment) with 0.7 (magnitude) for four hours/day for 30 consecutive days. Before and after the exposure (VM)test was conducted using a coated devise on a movable stand. 10 ml of the animals’ blood was obtained from their femoral vine and was used to evaluate their melatonin concentration. Blood lymphocytes were used for assaying the expressions of glucocorticoid receptor (GR) genes before and after ELF exposure. Anatomical changes of Amygdala volume were carried out using MRI pictures. Results: Results indicated that VM in primates increased significantly at the 12HZ frequency. Plasma cortisol also was decreased in these animals. However, these factors did not change in the control group animals . At last, expression of the GR receptors decreased at the 12Hz frequency. However, amygdala volume did not increase significantly in the animals exposed to both frequencies. Conclusion: In short, these results indicated that ELF may have a beneficial value for memory enhancement as indicated by the fact that exposure to the 12 HZ ELF can enhance visual memory. This may be due to an decrease in plasma cortisol, and/or expression of GR receptors. Moreover, direct involvement of the amygdala in this regard cannot be recommended.

Introduction: Today, variable-frequency high-intensity electromagnetic fields are considered important factors in the humans’ surroundings and have captured the attention of research centres due to their possible adverse effects on humans. The human brain is one of the most complicated systems in the universe, and the online analysis of this system is carried out through electroencephalography (EEG). Numerous studies have been carried out on stress and attention based on EEG data. In this study, a comparison was drawn between the brain waves of men living near high-voltage transmission towers and those of people living outside of these zones. The levels of stress and attention were also assessed based on the brain activity of the participants. Method: First a general questionnaire was completed by the volunteers and the predisposed samples were included in the research following the screening process. Two 10-member groups of 27-year-old adult men were selected for the research. In one of the groups, the participants were not exposed to high-voltage electric fields. In other words, their workplaces, homes, and activity zones were not in the vicinity of transmission towers or under them. The homes of the members of the second group were located beneath or near high-voltage transmission towers (at a maximum distance of 20 meters). Using a 14-channel Emotiv system the brain waves of each participant were recorded 5 times over two days in the eyes-open resting state while the participants were looking at a white screen (10 records of data were obtained per person). The saliva samples of each participant were also obtained to assess the basal cortisol hormone. Afterwards, the data was analysed using MATLAB. Findings: The mean stress and attention indices were obtained based on the data on each person and the mean data of each group was compared to that of the other group. The mean cortisol level was also calculated for each person and a comparison was made between the data on each group. The investigation and comparison results proved that the mean attention indices of people exposed to high-voltage electric fields were lower than those of the ordinary people. On the other hand, the mean levels of basal stress and salivary cortisol hormone were higher in the people exposed to high-voltage electric fields than the ordinary people. Conclusion: Given the variations of the mean indices of stress and attention in the EEGs and salivary samples of the participants it could be stated that exposure to high-voltage electric fields (at one’s workplace or home) can increase basal stress and reduce attention. As a result, self-efficacy decreases over time.