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In the Netherlands, thesis assessment quality is a growing concern for the national accreditation organization due to increasing student numbers and supervisor workload. However, the accreditation framework lacks guidance on how to meet quality standards. This study aims to address these issues by sharing our experience, identifying problems and proposing guidelines for quality assurance for a thesis assessment system.

This study has two parts. The first part is a narrative literature review conducted to derive guidelines for thesis assessment based on observations made at four Dutch universities. The second part is a case study conducted in one bachelor’s psychology-related program, where the assessment practitioners and the vice program director analyzed the assessment documents based on the guidelines developed from the literature review.

The findings of this study include a list of guidelines based on the four standards. The case study results showed that the program meets most of the guidelines, as it has a comprehensive set of thesis learning outcomes, peer coaching for novice supervisors, clear and complete assessment information and procedures for both examiners and students, and a concise assessment form.

This study is original in that it demonstrates how to holistically ensure the quality of thesis assessments by considering the context of the program and paying more attention to validity (e.g. program curriculum and assessment design), transparency (e.g. integrating assessment into the supervision process) and the assessment expertise of teaching staff.

This article reports on the intrapersonal, interpersonal and ecological factors that shaped the professional identity (PI) construction of five ESL Malaysian pre-service teachers (PSTs) during microteaching classes and teaching practicum.

The study is qualitative in nature aiming to give voice to ESL PSTs and allow them share their personal experience while constructing their professional identity. The semi-interview data were supported by observation data to validate what PSTs report in their interview. The researchers chose junctural points in the PI construction journey to follow the developmental line of PI growth and to live the experience with the participant. The project was a co-construction of knowledge and enabled a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon.

This inquiry revealed that PI is dynamic and changing constantly as one reinterprets and reevaluates self and interact and react to the various intrapersonal, interpersonal and ecological factors in their context. At the intrapersonal level, lack of practical experience and intrinsic motivation and sense of low self-efficacy created a perception of low PI in the beginning of the simulated practice. The findings also show that supportive interpersonal relationships developed within a facilitating context such as the simulated teaching class smoothed the emergence of high PI. However, when the interpersonal relationships and ecological context in the practicum settings were challenging, they hindered PI development and led to a PI crisis.

The article offers recommendations to enhance the pivotal role of teaching practice during PSTs' journey of becoming.

This study was conducted in one of the understudied contexts in regards of PI construction. It captured a holistic view of the PI construction. It showed that the interplay of interpersonal and intrapersonal factors, in addition to ecological factors, is not isolated from each other. On the contrary, they were like a cycle circumscribing the PSTs and impact their PI construction. Hence, the authors believe that the study contributed with a comprehensive understanding of pre-service PI construction.

Projecting the population distribution in geographical regions is important for many applications such as launching marketing campaigns or enhancing the public safety in certain densely populated areas. Conventional studies require the collection of people’s trajectory data through offline means, which is limited in terms of cost and data availability. The wide use of online social network (OSN) apps over smartphones has provided the opportunities of devising a lightweight approach of conducting the study using the online data of smartphone apps. This paper aims to reveal the relationship between the online social networks and the offline communities, as well as to project the population distribution by modeling geo-homophily in the online social networks.

In this paper, the authors propose the concept of geo-homophily in OSNs to determine how much the data of an OSN can help project the population distribution in a given division of geographical regions. Specifically, the authors establish a three-layered theoretic framework that first maps the online message diffusion among friends in the OSN to the offline population distribution over a given division of regions via a Dirichlet process and then projects the floating population across the regions.

By experiments over large-scale OSN data sets, the authors show that the proposed prediction models have a high prediction accuracy in characterizing the process of how the population distribution forms and how the floating population changes over time.

This paper tries to project population distribution by modeling geo-homophily in OSNs.

The paper targets on providing new experimental data for validation of the well-established mathematical models within the framework of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), which are applied to problems of casting processes in complex mould cavities.

An experimental campaign aiming at the free-surface flow within a system of narrow channels is designed and executed under well-controlled laboratory conditions. An in-house lattice Boltzmann solver is implemented. Its algorithm is described in detail and its performance is tested thoroughly using both the newly recorded experimental data and well-known analytical benchmark tests.

The benchmark tests prove the ability of the implemented algorithm to provide a reliable solution when the surface tension effects become dominant. The convergence of the implemented method is assessed. The two new experimentally studied problems are resolved well by simulations using a coarse computational grid.

A detailed set of original experimental data for validation of computational schemes for simulations of free-surface gravity-driven flow within a system of narrow channels is presented.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an algorithm and software for determining the size of a line-start permanent magnet synchronous motor (LSPMSMs) based on its optimization.

The software consists of an optimization procedure that cooperates with a FEM model to provide the desired behavior of the motor under consideration. The proposed improved version of the genetic algorithm has modifications enabling efficient optimization of LSPMSMs. The objective function consists of three important functional parameters describing the designed machine. The 2-D field-circuit mathematical model of the dynamics operation of the LSPMSMs consists of transient electromagnetic field equations, equations describing electric windings and mechanical motion equations. The model has been developed in the ANSYS Maxwell environment.

In this proposed approach, the set of design variables contains the variables describing the stator and rotor structure. The improved procedure of the optimization algorithm makes it possible to find an optimal motor structure with correct synchronization properties. The proposed modifications make the optimization procedure faster and more

This proposed approach can be successfully applied to solve the design problems of LSPMSMs.

This study aims to investigate the influence of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and geopolitical risk (GPR) on corporate cash holding level and speed of adjustment (SOA) in one of the most important emerging markets in the Middle East and North Africa, Saudi Arabia. It also investigates whether Shariah-compliance as well as financial constraints affect the relationship between both EPU and GPR and corporate cash holdings.

The study employs GMM regression considering a sample of 140 nonfinancial firms drawn from the Saudi stock market over the period 2002 to 2019.

The authors find evidence in support of the precautionary motive hypothesis. Facing costly external financing induced by economic policy-related uncertainty and geopolitical tension, Saudi firms tend to accumulate cash as a buffer against negative shocks to their cash flows. The results also show that the positive impact of EPU and GPR on the level of cash holding is less pronounced in Shariah-compliant firms, whereas it is more pronounced in more financially constrained firms. Evidence also reveals that the estimated adjustment coefficients show that Saudi firms adjust more quickly toward their target cash ratio in periods of high economic instability and geopolitical risks.

This study has important implications for managers, policymakers and regulators. For managers, the study is an important reference to understand and design cash management policies by considering factors measured at the country level. More specifically, managers should pay more attention to periods of heightened uncertainties and geopolitical tensions in which the availability of funds is reduced. For policymakers and regulators, this study may be useful in assessing the effect of economic instability on firm’s cash holding decision. Therefore, in an effort to increase the supply of external financing available to firms, policymakers may devise investment friendly environment by controlling country-specific factors.

This paper shows how EPU and GPR as institutional environment factors affect cash holding decision in an oil-rich country.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is emerging as an area of interest in leadership development. Recent research stresses how valuable strong EI skills are to the success of the person, team, organization, and society. Unlike IQ emotional intelligence skills can be improved with focused training, coaching, and lifespan experiences. Effectively used, film can be a worthy instrument for educators, facilitators, trainers, and coaches to bring to their professional toolboxes to assist in EI skill building efforts.