COVID-19 has affected North Cyprus since the beginning of March 2020. On March 10 th 2020, the council of ministers in North Cyprus announced a lockdown and listed some restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus; schools and entertainment centres were closed, and children had to spend most of their day at home. This study aims to examine the use of mobile technology before and during the COVID-19 lockdown period by children aged three to six, based on parents' opinions. This is a descriptive study with a sample of 319 parents. Data and demographic information were collected with a questionnaire and analysed with SPSS (24.0). Comparing the duration of mobile technology device usage before the pandemic and during the lockdown period, an increase is evident, as expected. Of note, when compared to the pre-pandemic period, it is found that there is a decrease in the rate of mobile technology device usage for video viewing during the lockdown period. The findings also suggest that children mostly first experienced mobile technology devices in some way before 36 months of age. This study has determined that most children do not have their own mobile technology device.

The main aim of this paper was to investigate the impact of bank characteristics on capital structure empirically. The study employed a panel data analysis, Pooled Mean Group (PMG) and Cross-Sectionally Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) estimators were utilized, for the period spans between the years 2008 and 2018. Both the borrowing (leverage) ratio and equity ratio used in the analysis cover short-term deposits and long-term deposits as a fundamental determinant variable on the capital structure. The main findings confirm that the deposit ratio has a positive relationship with the size of the bank. In other words, big banks use more foreign sources than small banks to use the tax shield advantage. At the same time, a percentage increase in bank size and liquidity ratio enhance the bank deposit rate by 0.0068% and 0.479%, respectively, in the long-run, while a percentage change in interest income coverage will reduce the bank deposit rate by 0.004% in the long-run. Meanwhile, the significant causal relationship of growth rate with the bank deposit rate could not be established. In addition, the short-run coefficients of the variables reveal that size, interest coverage, and liquidity have a positive and significant causal relationship with bank deposit rate in the short-run. The findings of the study are in line with the results of capital structure theories, especially the hierarchy theory and balancing theory.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the presence and use of Blockchain technologies (BCTs) in the North Cyprus hotel and tourism sectors by eliciting stakeholder perspectives on BCT's role in sustainable tourism development and the current state of its application in North Cyprus.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative methodology was used and primary data gathered via telephone interviews with sixteen managers of casino hotels. The researchers also used an observation technique for data collection in order to better analyse the existing case situation.FindingsAlthough the findings show similarities in the stakeholders' awareness of cryptocurrencies, they lack overall knowledge of BCTs. The responses of participants indicate a lack of knowledge regarding the use of BCTs, particularly the areas in which they can be used. North Cyprus' tourism and hotel sectors are significantly behind the curve in terms of adopting innovative technologies, due to traditional operational concerns and to the limited scope of policy development.Research limitations/implicationsPolicymakers should consider the practical implications for both the sector's and the country's resources in order to maximize environmental and financial gains.Practical implicationsThe promotion of sustainable tourism can be facilitated by the wider adoption of BCTs as it could enable operators to manage their network relationships and business operations in a more socially and environmentally responsible manner.Originality/valueNo prior studies were found that evaluate the presence of BCTs in support of tourism development in North Cyprus. This study will assist practitioners in comprehending the practical implications and will enable policymakers to develop sector-specific policies.

An educational software assessment tool, VB2ALGO, for a visual programming course has been developed and the eff ects of it on the high school students' performances, motivation and cognitive skills were explored. The tool inherits algorithm visualization technique together with reverse engineering approach; it takes the visual basic source code as an input and generates pseudocode and fl owchart as an output. First, an experimental research methodology was applied, whereby pre-tests and post-tests were conducted to estimate the eff ect of using the software tool on student performances towards learning visual programming course. Then, the eff ect of the tool on students' motivation and cognitive skills were measured with students' questionnaires. Finally, teachers' class management skills were investigated with teachers' questionnaires in terms of time-management for better teaching experiences. The experiment was carried out with 294 students from 4 diff erent high schools which had divided into experimental group and control groups. Parametric statistical tests were applied and results showed that the use of software tool reveals better performances for the experimental group as compared to the control group. In addition, the results of the students' questionnaires confi rmed an increment in students' motivation and cognitive skills in programming language classes as compared to the traditional class. It also results in the improvement of students' learning capacities and knowledge about programming concepts. Finally, results of the teachers' quantitative analysis REVISTA DE CERCETARE SI INTERVENTIE SOCIALA -VOLUMUL 67/2019 REVISTA DE CERCETARE SI INTERVENTIE SOCIALA -VOLUMUL 67/2019 68 outlined that use of the software tool encourages teachers to complete more examples inside the classroom with better time management.

No abstract