Does Facility Based Sexual and Reproductive Health Services Meet the Needs of Young Persons? Views from Cross Section of Ghanaian Youth

The focus on facility based health setting to provide sexual and reproductive health to the youth has been tested in several settings and achieved varying results. This study examined whether facility based sexual and reproductive health services met the needs of Ghanaian youth. Adopting the descriptive cross sectional design, 170 youths between the ages of 10 and 24 were sampled. A three-stage stratified random sampling technique was adopted. The results of the study are presented using descriptive statistics. The study established that a total of 55.8% (95/170) of the youth had utilized at least one or more of a sexual and reproductive health service in life time. However, only 45.2% (43/95) of youth used or accessed sexual and reproductive health services from a facility based setting. Facility based sexual and reproductive health service provided specifically for the youth is very limited. This calls for the provision of out-of health facility services located within the communities and at strategic places while ensuring confidentiality to the youth. More rigorous research is recommended on a national scale to examine youth preference for the type of facility based and out-of-facility based sexual and reproductive health services to meet the needs of young people.

A survey of the information needs of visually impaired library users

Purpose:The research aims to investigate the information needs of visually impaired library users in China in order to increase our understanding of these users and help the Chinese public libraries improve their services for them.Design/methodology/approach:A questionnaire survey was used to study the library users’ information needs.Eleven large public libraries in different areas of China,which were pioneers in implementing services for visually impaired people,were chosen to conduct the survey.Data analysis was based on 97 valid questionnaires retrieved.Findings:Radio and television were still the preferred sources of information for visually impaired users.In information seeking,they had a strong preference for obtaining information in the most convenient way,and accessing a vast amount of information,which was updated quickly.They paid more attention to the information closely related to their work and life.Their purposes of seeking information were mainly for learning,relaxation and intercommunication.Visually impaired users felt some barriers in their access to library services such as a lack of time or a sighted companion who can come along for the trip to the library.Moreover,it was difficult for them to use the Internet to search for information,because many websites do not support the auxiliary software designed especially for visually impaired users or the websites offer only a paid subscriber service.Research limitations:A majority of the respondents were young and middle-aged people and engaged in work.The sample size needs to be enlarged,and different groups of users such as old people and students should be included to yield more useful results.Practical implications:The survey results provide insights into the information needs of the Chinese visually impaired library users.Meanwhile,the research can serve as a reference source for the future studies of the service for visually impaired library users.Originality/value:So far,few studies were conducted to investigate the information needs of visually impaired library users in China.

ELT Materials Design of a Speaking Unit based on Needs Analysis

In this article,the authors design a speaking unit based on needs analysis following Hutchinson and Waters'(1987) model.First,the rationale in designing this unit is introduced,which involves the teaching approach adopted and relevant theories in organizing the materials.Then,the teaching plan of this speaking unit is provided and some activities are designed to create an authentic and optimal situation for students to practice their speaking skill.

Design and Application of Coordinator App Based on Needs Survey

The clothing industry is booming,and clothing prices are more affordable today.People's requirements for clothing are no longer limited to the question of enough clothing to wear.In order to solve the main problem that consumers have a lot of clothes but don't know how to match and look good,this article aims to design a matchmaker application(app)-Coordinator app.Through analyzing the current situation of existing apparel matching apps and typical case,the paper summarizes the existing clothing,the advantages and disadvantages of matching apps,and the combine with user needs survey feedback,to design the main four modules required by the Coordinator app which are elaborated and displayed separately.

Analyzing the Factors Affecting the Users＇ Success in Web Based Education： A Data Mining Approach

Corporations focus on web based education to train their employees ever more than before. Unlike traditional learning environments, web based education applications store large amount of data. This growing availability of data stimulated the emergence of a new field called educational data mining. In this study, the classification method is implemented on a data that is obtained from a company which uses web based education to train their employees. The authors＇ aim is to find out the most critical factors that influence the users＇ success. For the classification of the data, two decision tree algorithms, Classification and Regression Tree （CART） and Quick, Unbiased and Efficient Statistical Tree （QUEST） are applied. According to the results, assurance of a certificate at the end of the training is found to be the most critical factor that influences the users＇ success. Position, number of work years and the education level of the user, are also found as important factors.

A study of changing information needs of contemporary public library users in China

Public libraries should be vigilant and responsive to the ever changing information needs of their clientele functioning in a society undergoing through rapid change due to technological innovations. China is currently experiencing a social and technological transformation of great magnitude in terms of metamorphosing itself from a traditional society to one that is driven by information technologies. Our research study, taking this proposition into account, did a questionnaire survey on 954 library information users at five major public libraries. This research study has discovered that the information needs of public library users today reflect some of the peculiar characteristics of their society in changing times which is driven largely by the rapid development and application of new information technologies. It shows that there is a newly added demand emphasis on certain categories of library resources and services by the Chinese reading public. Our research findings have identified such needs basically in the following five functional areas of public libraries, namely, 1) Increased demands for economic resources, 2) rising expectations for more effective and efficient library services, 3) a convenient location and an amicable environment congenial to learning, 4) a suitable place for engaging in intellectual dialogues and in socialization, and 5) a few other technological amenities and information technology-based digital resources and facilities in addition to a rich repository of library materials in print format. Finally, our paper concludes its discussion with a few observation remarks about the changing trend of public libraries' visions, missions and operations vis-à-vis a contextual background of the ever heightened public expectations for getting quality information services in a timely manner in order for them to function effectively in an information-oriented society such as that of ours today.

Factors influencing user adoption of location based service:From the expanded TAM perspective

Purpose:This study intends to examine the factors influencing user adoption of location based service(LBS).Design/methodology/approach:This paper develops the research model for user adoption of LBS with the technology acceptance model(TAM) as the theoretical foundation.Using a questionnaire and sampling method,empirical data was collected from 386 participants.Structured equation modeling was used to test the validity of the proposed model.Findings:The results show that I) perceived ease of use.perceived usefulness and perceived playfulness were direct determinants of behavioral intention,and perceived ease of use has the greatest impact of the three;2) emergency,ubiquity,technology maturity and social trust all have positive and significant impacts on perceived ease of use;3) emergency and social trust significantly influence perceived usefulness positively:4) individualization and social impact significantly affect perceived playfulness positively.Research limitations:Subjects were from China’s mainland,which limits the generalizability of the research findings.The interaction effects of age,gender and user experience were not included.Practical implications:This study offers LBS operators,marketers and application developers insights into the way to attract more users by increasing perceived usefulness,ease of use and playfulness of LBS.Originality/value:Location based service is still a relatively new concept and there were few theoretical and empirical studies that examine user adoption of the serv ice.This study contributes to existing LBS adoption studies by modifying and extending TAM and meanwhile the empirical study will help the research community gain a deeper understanding of the factors affecting user adoption of LBS.

Course Design of College English Listening with Content-based syllabus

本文基于对非英语专业学生进行的问卷调查,根据发现的听力问题进行分析,然后按照基于内容的教学大纲进行了有针对性的听力课程设计。

Customization Product Design Based on User's Emotion and Needs

The paper presents a design method that ensures the ingenuity of the product form as well as the whole and exact expression of user’s needs. The key idea is to establish an automatic design system which can transform the user’s language needs into the product features in real-time. A rifle was taken as a research instance and soldiers were chosen as evaluation customers. The theory of fuzzy set and semantic difference are adopted to evaluate the relationship between user’s needs and product features as well as their alternatives. FAHP (fuzzy analytic hierarchy process) is utilized to judge the user’s satisfactory forms. This method can also be applied to other product form designs.

Implementing the Node Based Smoothed Finite Element Method as User Element in Abaqus for Linear and Nonlinear Elasticity

In this paper,the node based smoothed-strain Abaqus user element(UEL)in the framework of finite element method is introduced.The basic idea behind of the node based smoothed finite element(NSFEM)is that finite element cells are divided into subcells and subcells construct the smoothing domain associated with each node of a finite element cell[Liu,Dai and Nguyen-Thoi(2007)].Therefore,the numerical integration is globally performed over smoothing domains.It is demonstrated that the proposed UEL retains all the advantages of the NSFEM,i.e.,upper bound solution,overly soft stiffness and free from locking in compressible and nearly-incompressible media.In this work,the constant strain triangular(CST)elements are used to construct node based smoothing domains,since any complex two dimensional domains can be discretized using CST elements.This additional challenge is successfully addressed in this paper.The efficacy and robustness of the proposed work is obtained by several benchmark problems in both linear and nonlinear elasticity.The developed UEL and the associated files can be downloaded from https://github.com/nsundar/NSFEM.

ID-Based User Authentication Scheme for Cloud Computing

In cloud computing environments, user authentication is an important security mechanism because it provides the fundamentals of authentication, authorization, and accounting （AAA）. In 2009, Wang et al. proposed an identity-based （ID-based） authentication scheme to deal with the user login problem for cloud computing. However, Wang et aL＇s scheme is insecure against message alteration and impersonation attacks. Besides, their scheme has large computation costs for cloud users. Therefore, we propose a novel ID-based user authentication scheme to solve the above mentioned problems. The proposed scheme provides anonymity and security for the user who accesses different cloud servers. Compared with the related schemes, the proposed scheme has less computation cost so it is very efficient for cloud computing in practice.

Study on the System Design of Multiple Expert Systems Integrated Decision Support System

There has been an increasing interest in integrating decision support systems (DSS) and expert systems (ES) to provide decision makers a more accessible, productive and domain-independent information and computing environment. This paper is aimed at designing a multiple expert systems integrated decision support system (MESIDSS) to enhance decision makers' ability in more complex cases. The basic framework, management system of multiple ESs, and functions of MESIDSS are presented. The applications of MESIDSS in large-scale decision making processes are discussed from the following aspects of problem decomposing, dynamic combination of multiple ESs, link of multiple bases and decision coordinating. Finally, a summary and some ideas for the future are presented.

A Study on the Impacting Path Mechanism of User Behavior Habits for Tourism Social Website

Along with the development of socialized media and self-help tourism,tourism industry has been going into tourism social times.Based on technology acceptance model,use and gratifications approach,and weighted and calculated needs theory,this study explored the impact of perceived popularity,perceived characteristics,and perceived need on the use of tourism social network site and being a member of it.This study also discussed the interaction of perceived popularity,perceived characteristics,and perceived need.The findings of this paper could be used to help the management operator pay attention to strengthen the function of tourism social network site in order to provide better information for users and satisfied the needs of users.

The college students' response to customized information services based on Library2.0 technologies at universities in Nanjing

Through a questionnaire survey of students’ response from 6 universities in Nanjing, this paper aims to determine their varying degrees of satisfaction about the customized information service based on Library2.0 technologies. In so doing, the authors carefully examined the data collected from the returned questionnaires about such key issues as the students’ perceptions about the customized information service via a Library2.0platform, self-initiated use experience of such a mechanism, their achieved information searching results vis-à-vis their expectations, etc. In addition, the authors also made a comparative study between information providers(i.e. librarians) and information consumers(i.e. students) at Chinese and American academic libraries.

A Fast Detection Method of Network Crime Based on User Portrait

In order to quickly and accurately find the implementer of the network crime,based on the user portrait technology,a rapid detection method for users with abnormal behaviors is proposed.This method needs to construct the abnormal behavior rule base on various kinds of abnormal behaviors in advance,and construct the user portrait including basic attribute tags,behavior attribute tags and abnormal behavior similarity tags for network users who have abnormal behaviors.When a network crime occurs,firstly get the corresponding tag values in all user portraits according to the category of the network crime.Then,use the Naive Bayesian method matching each user portrait,to quickly locate the most likely network criminal suspects.In the case that no suspect is found,all users are audited comprehensively through matching abnormal behavior rule base.The experimental results show that,the accuracy rate of using this method for fast detection of network crimes is 95.9%,and the audit time is shortened to 1/35 of that of the conventional behavior audit method.

Guidance on Design of Internet-based Process Control Systems

Internet-based process control is becoming new generations of control systems, in which the Internet is used as a platform for global remote monitoring and control. The obvious benefit is to enable global collaboration between operators from geographically dispersed locations, data sharing and data provision for remote monitoring and control. However, connection to an open network and the use of universal technology present new problems that did not exist with the conventional design and construction of control systems, such as time delay and data loss in Internet transmission and security. This paper reviews the latest research results and presents design guidance of Internet based monitoring and control systems.

Analysis of a joint entry-and distance-based cordon pricing scheme: a dynamic modeling approach

Transportation demand management(TDM)covers strategies for reducing traffic congestion within the affected urban areas. Congestion pricing includes a branch of TDM strategies; among them, the entry-based cordon pricing, i.e., applying charge on entry, is the most popular because of practicality and social acceptance. Many researchers have investigated different second-best approaches for evaluations of cordon pricing plans, mostly by applying static traffic assignment methods. In this paper,a joint entry-and distance-based scheme is proposed to circumvent the deficiencies intrinsic to each. The optimal joint design is considered as the solution to an optimization problem, in which an equilibrium dynamic traffic assignment model is used to take account of flow variations and represent congestion effects more realistically. The problem is solved for the network of Sioux Falls by using an enumeration algorithm, and the solution is compared with those obtained for distinct entry-and distance-based schemes. Based on the results, the joint tolling has the best performance in reducing the total travel time of the travelers and in alleviating the congestion level inside the cordoned area, while generating a higher level of revenue from tolls. Furthermore, the numerical experiments show the unreliability of the results by static against dynamic modeling approach.

Design and Evaluation of a Vision-Based UI for People with Large Cognitive-Motor Disabilities

Recovering from multiple traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a very difficult task, depending on the severity of the lesions, the affected parts of the brain and the level of damage (locomotor, cognitive or sensory). Although there are some software platforms to help these patients to recover part of the lost capacity, the variety of existing lesions and the different degree to which they affect the patient, do not allow the generalization of the appropriate treatments and tools in each case. The aim of this work is to design and evaluate a machine vision-based UI (User Interface) allowing patients with a high level of injury to interact with a computer. This UI will be a tool for the therapy they follow and a way to communicate with their environment. The interface provides a set of specific activities, developed in collaboration with the multidisciplinary team that is currently evaluating each patient, to be used as a part of the therapy they receive. The system has been successfully tested with two patients whose degree of disability prevents them from using other types of platforms.

ESPNeeds Analysisand Course Designin Application-Oriented Universities

With demands for applied talents dramatically increasing motivated by economic transformation and China's "Going Out " Strategy, College English reform should deepen ESP teaching, stress application of language skills to academic and professionallearning, and serve for students' future development. Therefore, it is vital to explore school-based course design in ESP based onneeds analysis.