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The introduction of tobacco excise taxation in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries: a step in the right direction of advancing public health
No full textThe Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries relied, until recently, solely on import duties for tobacco products. The agreement for the introduction of an excise and value added tax (VAT) in 2016 and 2017, respectively, in most GCC countries, was a major breakthrough for public health. There is, however, ample room for improvement.22173
Tricks with the BoD model and an application to the e-Government Development Index
No full textIn this paper we examine the implications of the ideal and the anti-ideal decision-making units on the Benefit-of-the-Doubt (BoD) model. In particular, we verify that, in the presence of an ideal (anti-ideal) decision-makingunit, the efficiency scores of the BoD (inverted BoD) model can be obtained without solving the relevantlinear programming problems. In this case, it suffices to choose the largest (smallest) of the element-wise divided component indicators of the evaluated decision-making unit by those of the ideal (anti-ideal) decision-making unit. We then illustrate one practical use of this simple enumeration algorithm by providing empirical results for a BoD-based e-Government Development Index within a traffic-light reporting system.8110095
TRINE: TELEPRESENCE ROBOTS IN EDUCATION
No full textThe shift to the virtual world through activities such as gaming, e-sports, streaming and time spent on social networks continues. Next to the leisure sector, current developments around COVID-19 caused a massive increase in the use of online educational resources in 2020/2021. However, not all of the schools and universities in the EU were well prepared for this "digital only" scenario: based on the e-learning ranking by the Center for European Policy Studies, Austria is on the 10th place, Germany on the 27th place with regards to the logistical and didactical preparedness for distance learning.In the digital education of the future there is the vision of seamless virtual and physical access for every home and between each home and the school, as well as its inhabitants such as educators, students and parents. Among the increasing number of available teleteaching tools, the use of telepresence robots (TR) has particular potential. TR can compensate the lack of mobility of students for various reasons (i.e. distant residency, bad weather conditions, disabilities or illness, force majeure conditions such as epidemics) and enables them to study in a social environment, where they can take an active part in the class on a peer-to-peer basis. The technology also enables distant educators from remote areas or other countries to be present in class. Compared to common teleteaching methods such as video conferencing solutions, the advantages lie in the possibility to actively control the robots and thus also to occupy the physical space. Telepresence robots thus not only enhance the feeling of social presence, but also enable interactions with the environment that are otherwise impossible. The use of telepresence robots in education as an innovative practice in a digital era inherits positive effects on inclusion, it fosters 21st century skills such as collaboration and communication and finally it reduces the environmental impact of educational routines.This paper is thus concerned with the use of telepresence robots in educational institutions at the upper secondary and higher education levels, such as in classrooms and other (e- )learning settings. A better understanding of TR will be gained through a use case in terms of a hybrid course start for students at Danube University Krems. A mix of quantitative (online-questionnaire) and qualitative methods (virtual focus group) will be used to evaluate the risks and challenges as well as the opportunities of using telepresence technologies in hybrid learning settings by questioning the participating students. It is envisioned that our findings will support the adoption of digital technologies and resources for hybrid learning settings next to raising awareness of the importance of media literacy and social competences in the context of distance education.165146522INTED2022 Proceeding
Ζητήματα ηθικής στην καταλογογράφηση, ευρετηρίαση και ταξινόμηση του 21ου αιώνα
No full text4ο Πανελλήνιο Συνέδριο Δημοτικών Βιβλιοθηκών: Οι Δημοτικές Βιβλιοθήκες μετασχηματίζονται: Προοπτικές και προκλήσει
Aggregating Farrell efficiencies without value data: The case of hospitals
No full textThis paper provides an alternative approach for computing aggregation weights for Farrell-type efficiencies when value (revenue or cost) data are not available. This alternative approach relies on Shannon entropy, which has a central role in information theory, and provides an objective weighting that fully exploits the information of the data at hand. Its main advantages are that it is easy to implement and it is readily applicable in all cases. We illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach by analyzing aggregate performance measures (i.e., technical efficiency, scale efficiency and capacity utilization) for public hospitals in Greece. Compared with simple average measures, we found aggregate measures to be lower for technical inefficiency and higher for scale inefficiency and capacity utilization. We also found that Greek public hospitals with above average size tend to have below average technical inefficiency and vice versa while those with above average size tend to have above average scale inefficiency and capacity utilization rate and vice versa.8410139
An alternative ranking of DMUs performance for the ZSG-DEA model
No full textThe Zero-Sum Gains Data Envelopment Analysis (ZSG-DEA) model was developed to evaluate the performance of Decision Making Units (DMUs) under output interdependency, which is evident when the total (over DMUs) observed output is a priori fixed. In this paper, we take a closer look at the derivation and interpretation of the ZSG-DEA efficiency scores and we explain why these are not really comparable across DMUs. Moreover, we verify that DMUs' ranking based on their ZSG-DEA efficiency scores is in fact incompatible with output interdependency, which requires total potential output of DMUs to be equal to their total observed output. Then, we propose an alternative metric of DMUs’ performance that is both consistent with output interdependency and comparable across DMUs. This metric is used for classifying DMUs into three (high, average or low performance) groups and for ranking them within these groups. To illustrate its empirical applicability, we use data from the Olympic Games, where output interdependency is clearly evident since the total number of awarded (gold, silver, and bronze) medals is a priori fixed.8110117
Augmented Reality and Gamification in Education: A Systematic Literature Review of Research, Applications, and Empirical Studies
No full textThis study scrutinizes the existing literature regarding the use of augmented reality and gamification in education to establish its theoretical basis. A systematic literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement was conducted. To provide complete and valid information, all types of related studies for all educational stages and subjects throughout the years were investigated. In total, 670 articles from 5 databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, IEEE, and ERIC) were examined. Based on the results, using augmented reality and gamification in education can yield several benefits for students, assist educators, improve the educational process, and facilitate the transition toward technology-enhanced learning when used in a student-centered manner, following proper educational approaches and strategies and taking students’ knowledge, interests, unique characteristics, and personality traits into consideration. Students demonstrated positive behavioral, attitudinal, and psychological changes and increased engagement, motivation, active participation, knowledge acquisition, focus, curiosity, interest, enjoyment, academic performance, and learning outcomes. Teachers also assessed them positively. Virtual rewards were crucial for improving learning motivation. The need to develop appropriate validation tools, design techniques, and theories was apparent. Finally, their potential to create collaborative and personalized learning experiences and to promote and enhance students’ cognitive and social–emotional development was evident.1213680
Augmented Reality Applications for Urban Cultural Heritage Sites: An Overview
No full textAugmented Reality applications have become thenewest technology used in the Cultural Heritage domain. Theseapplications can be used in education and tourism. Variousmethods and software tools provide the means of designing suchapplications. This study provides an overview of the most recentAugmented Reality projects in Cultural Heritage sites in urbanenvironments, comparing tracking methods, devices, themes, andsettings used in each project. The most frequently used trackingmethod is camera-based, with handheld devices being almostentirely preferred in such projects. There is an even distributionof themes, while outdoor scenarios are the preferred setting.3223242022 International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT
Cognitive functioning in non-clinical burnout: Using cognitive tasks to disentangle the relationship in a three-wave longitudinal study
No full textBurnout is often characterized by cognitive deficits and it has been associated with depression and anxiety. However, it is not clear whether cognitive impairment is a burnout consequence or employees with poor cognitive skills are more prone in developing burnout. Moreover, the exact nature of the association between burnout and depression, and burnout and anxiety is still unknown. Depression and anxiety are also related to cognitive impairments but their prospective associations are not fully understood. The aim of the present three-wave longitudinal study was to investigate the causality between cognitive functioning, burnout, depression, and anxiety among non-clinical burnout employees. The cause-effect associations of burnout with depression and anxiety were also explored. Perceived family support as a protective factor against cognitive decline, burnout, depression and anxiety was examined as well. A wide range of cognitive tasks tapping different cognitive domains were administered to employees of the general working population. Burnout, depression, anxiety, and perceived family support were assessed with self-reported questionnaires. Present results suggest that visuospatial functioning deficits are a burnout consequence and they indicate the role of automatic processing skills and executive functions in burnout onset. Additionally, current findings support that burnout is differentiated from depression and anxiety but it is reciprocally associated with the two psychological phenomena. Lastly, current results support the inclusion of perceived family support as an intervention to help individuals who suffer from mental health and cognitive difficulties.1
Digital Transformation in Healthcare 4.0: Critical Factors for Business Intelligence Systems
No full textThe health sector is one of the most knowledge-intensive and complicated globally. It has been proven repeatedly that Business Intelligence (BI) systems in the healthcare industry can help hospitals make better decisions. Some studies have looked at the usage of BI in health, but there is still a lack of information on how to develop a BI system successfully. There is a significant research gap in the health sector because these studies do not concentrate on the organizational determinants that impact the development and acceptance of BI systems in different organizations; therefore, the aim of this article is to develop a framework for successful BI system development in the health sector taking into consideration the organizational determinants of BI systems’ acceptance, implementation, and evaluation. The proposed framework classifies the determinants under organizational, process, and strategic aspects as different types to ensure the success of BI system deployment. Concerning practical implications, this paper gives a roadmap for a wide range of healthcare practitioners to ensure the success of BI system development.13524