1,720,954 research outputs found
Design and evaluation of a mobile application interface for stokvel groups: an Eastern Cape case study
Full text linkThis dissertation investigates the potential use of mobile applications to facilitate the management of Stokvels - informal savings groups - in rural South African communities. Amid challenges like mismanagement, lack of transparency, and constraints posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, digital solutions may offer effective remedies. The research seeks to comprehend the functioning of Stokvels, explore the activities that foster social capital, and design a user-friendly mobile application prototype through usability testing and qualitative thematic analysis of focus group data. The study adopts a user-centred approach involving initial requirement gathering, artefact creation for usability testing, and high-fidelity prototype evaluation. Data was collected through a focus group from the Imijelo Yophuhliso Foundation, and a WhatsApp chatbot prototype was tested and refined iteratively. Key findings revealed that users needed a comprehensive platform for record-keeping, improved communication channels, and an efficient loan request system. Despite the existing digital divide, a readiness to adopt technology was evident. Usability testing of the prototype yielded a 100% task completion rate, pointing to a solid foundational design, but also identified areas for improvement. Activities fostering social capital, like shared group identity, progress monitoring, effective communication, shared financial responsibility, and mutual aid, were identified as critical for integration into the mobile application. The study contributes significantly to the literature on digital financial inclusion, usability testing, and the role of mobile technologies in poverty alleviation. However, limitations such as language barriers, a short research timeframe, and a focus on a specific type of Stokvel warrant attention for future research. This study holds implications for similar communities in South Africa and other parts of Africa and researchers interested in digital adoption in informal institutions in low-income areas
Design and evaluation of a mobile application interface for stokvel groups: An Eastern Cape case study.
Full text linkThis dissertation investigates the potential use of mobile applications to facilitate the
management of Stokvels - informal savings groups - in rural South African communities. Amid challenges like mismanagement, lack of transparency, and constraints posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, digital solutions may offer effective remedies. The research seeks to comprehend the functioning of Stokvels, explore the activities that foster social capital, and design a user-friendly mobile application prototype through usability testing and qualitative thematic analysis of focus group data. The study adopts a user-centred approach involving initial requirement gathering, artefact creation for usability testing, and high-fidelity prototype evaluation. Data was collected through a focus group from the Imijelo Yophuhliso Foundation, and a WhatsApp chatbot prototype was tested and refined iteratively. Key findings revealed that users needed a comprehensive platform for record-keeping, improved communication channels, and an efficient loan request system. Despite the existing digital divide, a readiness to adopt technology was evident. Usability testing of the prototype yielded a 100% task completion rate, pointing to a solid foundational design, but also identified areas for improvement. Activities fostering social capital, like shared group identity, progress monitoring, effective communication, shared financial responsibility, and mutual aid, were identified as critical for integration into the mobile application. The study contributes significantly to the literature on digital financial inclusion, usability testing, and the role of mobile technologies in poverty alleviation. However, limitations such as language barriers, a short research timeframe, and a focus on a specific type of Stokvel warrant attention for future research. This study holds implications for similar communities in South Africa and
other parts of Africa and researchers interested in digital adoption in informal institutions in low-income areas
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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