The primary objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship between language proficiency and socio-cultural factors among the Iranian MA students registered and entered at Shiraz University in 2008. The second objective was to explore whether or not one or a combination of socio-cultural factors are predictors of language proficiency. Finally, the study aims at investigating ...

OBJECTIVES To examine the socio-economic, behavioural and Métis-specific factors that predict obesity among Métis children aged 6 to 14 years. Socio-economic factors included household structure and income, parental education and food insecurity. Cultural factors included knowledge of an Aboriginal language, participation in cultural activities, time spent with Elders and parental residential s...

Cognitive studies of science and technology (“cognitive studies”) participate in two interdisciplinary fields: cognitive science and science and technology studies (STS). My analysis starts from issues about how cognitive studies are situated with respect to the social and cultural research programs in STS. As we will see, these issues have implications for how cognitive studies are situated wi...

In spite of increasing prevalence of diabetes among Kenyans and evidence suggesting Kenyans with diabetes maintain poor glycemic control, no one has examined the role of cultural attitudes, beliefs, and practices in their self-management of diabetes. The purpose of this ethnographic study was to describe diabetes self-management among the Swahili of coastal Kenya, and explore factors that affec...

BACKGROUND Measuring clinical learning environment is crucial for the quality improvement of medical education, especially for medical trainees at transition stages. Medical education in Taiwan is shaped by multiple socio-cultural influences. The aims of this study were to construct an instrument for measuring clinical learning environment in alignment with the local socio-cultural factors and ...

One of the biggest challenges in providing realistic software agent models lies in taking into account the soft factors (or human factors), such as religious, social, political, psychological and economic factors, which are a critical part of people’s decision making and behavior. Whether such agents are used in a simulation or to support analyses, it is these socio-cultural elements that provi...