Educational Technology

No matter how much we diversify our investments, it's impossible to get rid of all the risk. As investors, we deserve a rate of return that compensates us for taking on risk. The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) helps us to calculate investment risk and what return on investment we should expect. Here we look at the formula behind the model, the evidence for and against the accuracy of CAPM, and what CAPM means to the average investor.

Philosophy begins with, an enquiry into the essence of the external world. Indian and Western Philosophers, were agitated the philosophical question that, how many ultimate realities are there in the world? To answer this question, the foremost, Ancient Greek philosopher, by Thales (624 B.C) declares that ‘Water’ is the only ultimate reality. Anaxamines (588 BC) says 'Air', Heraclites (535 BC), added 'Earth', Empedocles (495 BC) says, 'Fire', Democritus (460 BC) opines 'Ether' as the fifth element. Similarly, Socrates, Plato (427BC) and Aristotle (384 BC) observe that, though these five elements are permanent and eternal but the percipient is not observe these elements as it is. It is something other than what it is. It is called as 'Appearance' or 'illusion' or ‘M?ya’. From the dawn of philosophical enquiry, philosophers were puzzled at this problem which never agitated the minds of common man. The modern western Philosophers like Berkeley, Kant, Russell and Ayer were also discussed the problem of appearance.

This study aimed to compare the effect of balance training methods including core stability, plyometrics and their combination on static and dynamic balance in female futsal players. To this end, a number of 60 female futsal players from Shahrekord city were selected as the participants using purposive sampling method. Then the subjects were randomly assigned into four groups each with 15 members including three experimental groups (core stability training (N=15), plyometric training (N=15) and combination training (N=15)) and a control group (N=15). Height, weight and leg length were measured in the subjects. In the pretest, the subjects performed Stork Test and Star Excursion Balance Test (SEBT) to examine their static and dynamic balance performance, respectively. Based on the training protocol, the experimental groups did 8 weeks of their assigned exercise training. The training sessions were held three times a week and 45 minutes per session. The control subjects performed their routine trainings. After eight weeks, all variables were measured in the four groups again. Paired t test was run for within-group comparison, and one-way ANOVA was used for between-group comparison. The results showed that combination training group achieved the best performance in both static and dynamic balance comparing with other groups. Based on the present findings, it can be concluded that a combination of core stability and plyometric exercises may improve static and dynamic balance in female futsal players. Thus, it is recommended that these exercises be included in training programs for futsal players.

Menstrual cycle is an integral part of women’s fertility period. Although having a minor pain during menstruation is normal, severe pain could not be considered normal. During years of adolescence and youth having severe menstruation pains is the main reason for absence of women from work and school, thus it is important to pay attention to its reasons and solutions for reducing it. The current research general aim is comparing the effect of 12-week Kegel exercises and stretching exercises on pain and quality of life of females aging 18 to 25 suffering from primary dysmenorrhea. In this research which was a quasi-experimental study, 60 individuals (20.21 years±1.85) from single girls of Bandar Abbas who visited clinics because of severe pain of menstruation from 2012 to 2013 were chosen through completing Evaluation Form of Primary Dysmenorrhea, Visual Analogue Scale (NRS) and McGill Pain Questionnaire and they were randomly divided in to two groups of experimental group (Kegel exercises and stretching exercises) and control group. Exercises were 12 weeks long, 3 sessions per week, 2 times a day and each time for 10 to 15 minutes, and also after 12 weeks again the McGill Pain Questionnaire was distributed among 3 groups. Analysis results of repeating the measurements showed that Kegel exercise and stretching exercise are effective on reducing the severity and duration of menstrual pain. Also results showed that the effect of Kegel exercises on reducing severity and duration of menstrual pain is more than the stretching exercises. Based on these results, Kegel exercise and stretching exercise result in reducing the severity and duration of pain of primary dysmenorrhea. Thus perhaps it is possible to use Kegel exercises and stretching exercises for treatment of primary dysmenorrhea.

This study examined the relationships between strategic business model, operational plans and big picture and strategic planning process among Libyan students in Malaysia. Data was collected from 204 respondents using structured questionnaire from the selected universities in Malaysia. The descriptive analysis revealed that, majority of the respondents were male who are mostly working in the tertiary institutions in Libya. Pearson correlation analysis using SEM have shown a significant positive and high relationship between strategic business model, operational plans and big picture and strategic planning process which means, higher strategic planning process is associated with these three concepts. In line with this finding the authors concluded that, strategic planning based on theory of Pfeiffer is applicable to Libyan universities due to significant and positive relationships between the concepts in Pfeiffer’s theory and strategic planning. Thus, the authors recommends that universities, particularly in Libyan should adopt the current approach of strategic planning in order to achieve the set objectives of their universities. Moreover, if this approach is implemented in the universities by the management, it will enhance in managing information and monitoring academic development.

Changing individuals’ knowledge and viewpoint especially the youth and teenagers as decision makers of next generation through educating is one of the most important concerns and policies of policy makers of the environment. In present study, to survey and compare the effect of performing Image-Concept Approach as well as common teaching method on the amount of learning, and the amount of students’ naturalism in elementary schools’ sixth-grade in science course in the area of Mahidasht-Kermanshah, the quasi-experimental plan with two groups (n1=20 and n2= 20) was used to answer this question whether or not the learning performance and the amount of naturalism is statistically different among students educated by this pattern? In two study groups, students learned the concepts of the relation between human and environment via using Image-Concept Approach and the common method, respectively. In order to collect data, the teacher-made learning test and scale of the relation with nature by Nisbet and et al (2009) was used that after being approved in terms of validity and reliability, it was performed before and after applying quasi-experiment and the data were collected. The survey results show that learning is higher among students using Image-Concept Approach with another group and also in term of naturalism, student taught by Image-Concept Approach had more positive attitude regarding nature in comparison with control group.

The present study aimed to compare mental health of female athlete and non-athlete students in the city of Indica. The research methodology was a descriptive survey, which initially described the mental health and then compared it among the students. The statistical population of the study included all high school girls in the academic year of 2012-2013 in the city of Indica accounting for 919 subjects. The sampling was done in this study by two methods of census (enumeration) and multi-stage cluster random sampling. Due to the limited number of athletes (85 subjects), all were included in the study sample. Of the non-athletic population, 106 non-athlete subjects were selected using Cochran formula by multi-stage cluster random sampling method. The measurement tool in this study was the Goldberg and Hiller GHQ Standard Questionnaire (1979) consisting of two parts. The fist part includes demographic information, including questions about demographic and individual characteristics of study samples such as age, type of illness, etc. The second part consisted of 28 questions to measure four subscales (somatic symptoms, anxiety, social functioning and depression). The reliability (reliability coefficient) of the questionnaire was obtained as 0.85 through Cronbach's alpha coefficient. For data analysis, the descriptive statistics was used in order to summarize the data, and the inferential statistics, including Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Mann-Whitney tests were used to test the hypotheses. The results showed significant differences between physical symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction and depression in two groups of female athlete and non- athlete students. It also indicated that the athlete students had a better status than the non-athletic students regarding mental health and its four subscales. It is therefore suggested to encourage students to participate in sports activities in order to enhance their mental health.

Technology today offers many new opportunities for innovation in educational assessment through rich new assessment tasks and potentially powerful scoring, reporting and real-time feedback mechanisms (Scalise, K. & Gifford, B. 2006). This paper elaborates on the pros and cons of computer-based assessment. The intended purpose is to provide a new assessment horizon for assessment developers and teachers and to help them to get a better understanding of using computer-based assessments in the educational settings.

The goal of this paper was to investigate the effect of using Leitner’s learning box in studying inter-mediate to advanced vocabularies among first year students at the Islamic Azad University-Parsabad Moghan Branch in Parsabad Moghan City, Iran. This research was carried out in a class with diversified students from engineering to humanitarian fields. The participants were haphazardly assigned into two homogeneous groups each consisting of twenty five students. The test was performed in fall semester 2012. The control group received the conventional treatment while the experimental group received the Leitner’s learning box to use it for learning vocabulary. Before initiating the treatment, two similar tests were prepared as the pre-test and post-test to discover the vocabulary knowledge of the students at the initial and final stages of the study. The analysis of obtained results in the post-test manifested significant differences between the two groups such that the students in the experimental group outperformed the students in the control group in terms of their vocabulary knowledge. Thus, it was concluded that the use of Leitner’s learning box in studying vocabulary for first year students at the university led to a higher level of vocabulary improvement.

Wireless body area sensors network technology provides ef?cient communication Solution to Omnipresent health-care system. Here the system is taking care of diabetes patient through the WBASN even when the patients is mobile and preserving his all test reports and prescribed medicine at server side .This system provide early detection of abnormal condition and prevention of acute consequences as well as ECG of the patient. The produced android application send alert message with his present location to the doctor as well as family simultaneously if there is any sudden ?uctuation in patients body.