Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation of a Novel In-Service Training Strategy of Public Health Staff: Evidence from Colombo Regional Directorate of Health Services, Sri Lanka

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Introduction: Continuous in-service training sessions help in updating and upgrading the competency of the public health field staff. Implementation of these sessions with the uniform delivery of the quality assured content has been a challenge in the Sri Lankan well-established preventive healthcare system.

Aim: To describe the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a novel in-service training strategy of public health staff including Pubic Health Inspectors (PHI) and Public Health Midwives (PHM) conducted in the Colombo Regional Directorate of Health, Sri Lanka from January to June 2018.

Methods: A consultative meeting and a workshop was conducted with the participation of all stakeholders in reviewing the existing in-service training methodology and in recommending the strategies of overcoming the limitations of it. A novel strategy was developed for the implementation of in-service sessions with multi-level implementation and evaluation components. The in-service training sessions were conducted to improve the knowledge and quality of service provision by Public Health Inspectors, Public Health Midwives and other public health staff. Four evaluation indicators were defined. Descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon signed rank test were used in the evaluation.

Results: By the consultative meetings and workshops, four main weaknesses of the existing in-service training system were revealed, and three characteristics of an ideal system were defined. Two process indicators have shown a coverage of the intervention of 100% while the median satisfaction scores were observed to be 85% or above. Two output/outcome indicators have shown that the interventions have yielded significantly higher post-intervention scores compared to the pre-intervention scores as perceived by the staff members (p<0.05), while the reception of feedback reports was 100%.

Conclusions and Recommendations: The novel strategy is seemingly effective in relation to the four evaluation indicators used. Possibility of implementing similar strategies in other areas must be explored with the view of disseminating quality assured content with uniformity among the public health field staff categories in the monthly in-service sessions.

Application for Calculating Psychological Pressure in the DASS (Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale) Scale Using the Certainty Factor Method

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Psychological stresses such as depression, anxiety, and stress often experienced by students can affect academic performance, physical health, and psychosocial well-being. The purpose of this research is to build a facility in the form of a website-based application for students in particular and the general public in order to know the level of psychological pressure they are experiencing. The psychological scale used is the DASS-21 (Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale) and the calculation uses the Certainty Factor method. In carrying out this research, there are three main stages that are carried out, namely; The first stage, looking for literature studies related to research. Second stage, conducting interviews with experts to get a certainty value on the scale that the researcher uses. Then, build an expert system using prototype development methods and web-based applications. The third stage, implementation was carried out by getting Computer Technology student respondents. This research is a new domain for the NSC Surabaya Polytechnic which will implement an expert system by utilizing the Certainty Factor method in analyzing student stress levels through intelligent applications that will be implemented in the form of a website, with the calculation of Certainty Factors, the application can produce evidence or analysis that can be used. in changing the learning system.

A Review of the Failure and Damage Forms of Metals under Cyclic Loading

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The studies related to metals damage under cyclic loading as the dominant form of structural failure is reviewed. The early approaches including stress-based and strain-based as well as the later approaches of energy-based, critical plane-based and damage mechanics-based are briefed on. Recent methods including thermography, finite element, and microstructural are summarized and explained. Different phenomenon occurring under cyclic loading are explained including fatigue crack initiation, crack propagation, fretting, and buckling. This review provides insight on the underlying mechanisms of different fatigue damage types and related proposed models. In addition, it explains the different aspects of each model along with their methodology

Restructuring of the Banking Sector through Merger: Case of Tunisian Banks

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In the classical economy, the business is always looking for growth. It tries to protect itself against disappearance and to enter new markets to ensure its growth. It resorts to the merger or the takeover of local companies to more easily solve certain problems. Development today by M&A is the most popular mode. In the context of merger acquisition processes, and its relationship with organizational, process, strategic, economic, political and cultural factors, our paper is designed to study the impact of these various factors on the merger-acquisition.
To understand these relationships, we used principal component analysis, ANOVA analysis and multiple regression. A questionnaire was designed on the basis of a documentary analysis leading to the collection of 80 observations, collected from functionaries in the Tunisian banking sector during the period 16 December to 6 January 2016.The results show that the various factors have a positive impact on the success of the merger acquisition operation. It should be noted that the organizational factor is the most influential factor on the acquisition merger process and the least influential economic factor.

Performance Management in Bangladeshi Schools: Head Teachers’ Perception

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Performance Management is a very important task for the management of an educational institution. However, this concept is not yet widely acknowledged by most of the educational institutions of Bangladesh. This small-scale qualitative study thus focused on performance management in Bangladeshi schools. The main objective of this study was to explore head teachers’ perception about performance management, their roles in performance management and the challenges that they face while managing performance. Six secondary school head teachers were selected through convenient sampling and were interviewed using semi- structured interview guide. The findings revealed that the head teachers’ concept about performance management is not very clear and they mostly measure teachers’ performance on the basis of students’ scores in the examinations. Results also showed that head teachers sometimes fail to provide effective feedback on teachers’ performance which in turn hampers the teachers’ productivity. This study recommends that head teachers themselves need proper training on performance management and there should be a proper guideline on performance management in every educational institution. The researcher believes that this study along with its findings will help improve the overall performance of the schools as well as the individual performance of the teachers and the head teachers.

Current status of the invasive pest (Tuta absoluta) and other pest complex on tomato crop in Karnataka

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Tomato is one of the commercially important vegetable crops in India. Recently, an invasive pest Tuta absoluta was introduced to India causing potential yield loss to the tomato crop. Several studies were undertaken on the pest since 2014 to understand the biology, distribution, host range, natural enemies and chemical management of the pest. It is important to understand the current status of the pest at regular time intervals to validate the existing practices and to development suitable management technologies. Thus, current study aims at understanding the spatial variation in the pest incidence in randomly sampled 24 tomato fields in larger tomato growing areas viz., Chikkaballapur and Kolar of southern parts of Karnataka from August to December, 2018. There was no recognizable pattern in spatial distribution of the pest damage on the crop vegetation and the fruit yield. Intensity of pest incidence on different plant canopies as well as fruit yield were observed to be very low to low (0 – 20 per cent) in 70 per cent of the sampled locations. Subsequently, less than 10 per cent of locations showed high pest infestation. Further, in all the locations, 10-22 per cent of yield loss was observed to be due to insect pest, diseases and/or nutritional deficiency in the sampled locations. In the total loss incurred, about 50 percent of the damage caused by the incidence of Tuta absoluta alone. Further studies have to be conducted on the effect of biotic and non-biotic factors on the pest population, effect of prevailing management practices on the natural enemies to understand the current status of the pest in different seasons.

Morphotectonic Analysis of Desang River Basin for Feasibility Appraisal of Micro Hydro Power and Diversion Based Irrigation

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Desang River has a good deal of ‘discharge’ and ‘elevation’ in its course required for micro hydropower or diversion based irrigation projects. However, the region is known for its highly tectonic events at different points of time. The importance of morphotectonic analysis of the basin before undertaking any engineering geological project in its course is undisputable. Various morphotectonic parameters are studied in this paper to understand how tectonically active this basin is or how feasible to initiate any big investment for the public good in this basin.
Morphotectonic analysis has established that the basin is less active tectonically and is feasible to commence larger investment for micro hydropower and diversion based irrigation project with extremely low risk of failure due to tectonic eventuality.
Assam has one of the highest per unit electricity cost in the entire country and its irrigation potentiality created mostly based on expensive fossil fuel. Such an expensive bottom line is making micro, mini and small industries highly vulnerable and agricultural activity extremely cost prohibitive. In this backdrop, establishing micro hydropower and diversion based irrigation project could bring about a paradigm shift for the communities living in the vicinity of the Desang river basin.

Do the Transformation Leadership Style have a Massive Influence on Teacher Job Satisfaction?

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In school organizations, principals and teachers have a very important role. This study aims to determine the effect of the principal’s transformational leadership style on teacher job satisfaction. The population in this study was a junior high school teacher in Lampung province, Indonesia. The research sample was determined randomly. Data collection uses questionnaires distributed to teachers. Data were analyzed using normality, homogeneity, simple linear regression and T-test. Based on the results of the analysis, it is known that the transformational leadership style does not affect teacher job satisfaction with a 95% confidence level. Then, based on the results of the T-test, there was no difference in the satisfaction of teacher job between male and female teachers.

Lessons to Be Learnt For Policy Planners on Promoting Health Education on Childhood Fever Management: Evidence from a Cohort of Children with Dengue Fever

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Introduction
Dengue fever has been a public health challenge in Sri Lanka. Many of the home-based secondary preventive measures are influenced by the parental knowledge on fever. This study was done to describe the level of knowledge on fever among parents and its associations with the events of child’s dengue episode with the view of exploring the components that should be covered in related health educational messages.
Methods
A descriptive cross-sectional study was done in six general medical wards of the premier children’s hospital in Sri Lanka. Parents who were the bystanders of children admitted as suspected cases of dengue according to the surveillance guidelines, consisted the study population. The sample size was determined with a statistical formula. An interviewer administered questionnaire was used. Data collection was done by two trained data collectors. Descriptive statistics and the chi square test were used with a significance level of 5%. Prior ethics approval was obtained.
Results
Study sample included 423 parents with a response rate of 99.5%. Most were parents of children of school going age (64.8%) and majority were mothers (97.6%). In more than half (50.4%), the level of knowledge was unsatisfactory. The level of knowledge was significantly associated with the education level (p<0.05), but not with the gender or the employment status (p>0.05) of the parents. A higher knowledge was further associated with a higher utilization of thermometer, and the administration of the correct anti-pyretic dosage and early laboratory diagnosis (p<0.05). Conclusions and Recommendations A higher level of knowledge on fever is associated with favourable clinical events in the dengue episode. The level of knowledge on fever must be improved irrespective of the gender and the employment status of the parents prioritizing those with a lower level of education. Public health interventions must be implemented by regular updating of public health staff’s knowledge on prevention of dengue, fever management their implications on laboratory diagnosis and treatment costs through in service training and in empowering the field health staff in disseminating relevant health education messages to the community