Public University Modes of Communications: A Study of Student Preferences

While there has been a plethora of research in higher education concerning how instructors communicate directly with students in their classes, there has been a paucity of work regarding the subject of the present study, which is how do - and how should - universities most effectively communicate with current students bout non-instructional information and news. The present study took place at a publicly-funded, regional state university in the Southeast United States and incorporated an extensive email sampling of students. The findings showed that today’s largely Gen Z students have important communication preferences that need to be taken into consideration by university leaders as they consider how to best communicate non-instructional messages to them. The study has important implications for university leaders to consider as to how to most effectively make use of text and email, as well as social media platforms, in their communications strategy for non-instructional matters and university news.

The use of mobile phone functionalities by patients with asthma and their desire to use for self-care purposes

Background Mobile health (mHealth) has good potential for promoting self-care in patients suffering from chronic diseases. The patients' positive attitude toward this technology is a key factor for the successful implementation. The present study was conducted to investigate the asthma patients' use of mobile phone functionalities and their desire to receive self-care services through this technology. Methods This survey study was conducted in Iran in 2018. The study population consisted of 146 patients suffering from asthma. The data collection tool was a questionnaire containing items on the demographic characteristics of patients, current use of mobile phone functionalities, and desire to use them for receiving self-care services. Data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics. Results Out of the 160 questionnaires distributed, 146 (91.25%) were completed. The majority of the participants had smartphones (84.9%). Less than half of the participants occasionally used mobile phone functionalities including mobile phone calls (42.5%) and mobile Internet (40.4%) to receive asthma-related information. A significant number of the participants had never used smartphone applications (72.6%) and E-mail (66.4%) to receive asthma-related information. The participants had their greatest use of Internet search, followed by social media, to receive information about asthma symptoms, allergenic and irritating substances, medicinal therapy, and how to use therapy aids. The participants were most willing to use social media for receiving asthma information, communicating with other patients, receiving reminders about doctor's appointment, and receiving warnings about the lack of asthma control. Conclusion In Iran as a developing country, asthma patients use Internet search mostly to receive instructional information and are willing to use social media rather than other mobile phone functionalities to receive self-care services. These patients believe that mobile phones are appropriate for receiving instructional information and reminders.

Using Social Media to Recruit Youth Who Use Electronic Cigarettes

Objective: Research is needed to inform effective regulatory policy that can help curb electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use among youth. However, several challenges interfere with studying e-cigarette use among youth. Social media may provide an outlet to overcome these challenges. Our objective was to provide instructional information on tested methods for using social media to study e-cigarette use among youth. Methods: We developed 13 advertisements that were used to recruit e-cigarette users 14-24 years old who lived in the United States. We measured the effectiveness of the advertisements and quality of the resulting data. Results: The advertisements reached 422,228 adolescents and young adults, 408 completed the survey, and 212 (52%) passed the quality check measures. The average cost per click was $0.36. Conclusions: Based on the current study, key recommendations for behavioral scientists interested in conducting e-cigarette research among youth include: (1) developing and testing multiple advertisements with the target audience; (2) advertising on social media platforms most commonly used by the target group; (3) tailoring (ie, age and interest) message options; and (4) using multiple types of data quality assurance items.

Geometric Quality Assessment of Chang’E-2 Global DEM Product

The Chang’E-2 digital elevation model (DEM, named CE2TMap2015), which is the highest resolution DEM product in China, was released with global coverage of the lunar surface. A detailed geometric quality assessment of the product is desirable for wider applications by users. A novel procedure for evaluating DEM geometric quality, which investigates both the global geometric uncertainty and local gross errors, is proposed in this paper. First, the DEM was divided into regular blocks and matched with the reference DEM. Then, the characteristics of errors were investigated using the statistical information of the matched tie points. Next, the local outlier factor (LOF) algorithm was performed to locate the gross errors. In our experiment, CE2TMap2015 was evaluated using the proposed method, with SLDEM2015 as the reference DEM. The results show that there were widespread geometric inconsistencies with an area-weighted average of 183.1 m horizontally (with the standard deviation being 101.2 m) and 2.3 m vertically (with the standard deviation being 15.4 m). Gross errors were detected automatically and were excluded in the statistical analysis. The periodic errors were extracted in the frequency domain using a Fourier transform. Our research results provide instructional information for the utilization of CE2TMap2015 by world-wide users. The proposed method can be used in the assessment of other planetary DEMs.

Picture boards as demonstrator aids for pre-practical briefings.

Picture boards as a visual support aid for in-lab demonstrator briefings were deployed for a single experiment in both the first and second year undergraduate practical classes. The boards are easy to create and provide an alternative, more accessible and ‘presentation friendly’ perspective of the laboratory manual associated with an experiment. The use of the boards during instructor briefings helped generate confidence and familiarity with the experiments to be performed and this type of demonstrator briefing was preferred to the traditional, more verbal style being used in other experiments. Utilization of the picture boards was also proven to help the students to process the pre-experimental and instructional information associated with the laboratory manual and practical operations.