Search results for: distance learning

Authors: Estelle Ardanouy, Helene Delage, Pascal Zesiger

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Morphological awareness contributes to the acquisition of reading and spelling in typical learners as well as in children with learning disorders. Indeed, the acquisition of phoneme-grapheme correspondences is not sufficient to master spelling, especially in inconsistent orthographic systems such as English or French. Several meta-analyses show the benefit of explicit training in derivational morphology on reading and spelling in old children (who have already learned the main grapheme-phoneme correspondences), but highlight the lack of studies with younger children, particularly in French. In this study, we chose to focus on the efficiency of an intensive training in derivational morphology on spelling skills in French-speaking four-graders (9-10 years of age). The training consisted of 1) learning how to divide words into morphemes (ex: para/pente in French, paraglider in English), as well as 2) working on the meaning of affixes in relation to existing words (ex: para/pente: to protect against – para - the slope -pente). One group of pupils (N = 37, M age = 9.5) received this experimental group training in morphology while an alternative training group (N = 34, M age = 9.6) received a visuo-semantic training based on visual cues to memorize the spelling difficulties of complex words (such as the doubling of “r” in “verre” in French -or "glass" in English-which are represented by the drawing of two glasses). Both trainings lasted a total of 15 hours at a rate of four 45 minutes sessions per week, resulting in five weeks of training in the school setting. Our preliminary results show a significant improvement in the experimental group in the spelling of affixes on the trained (p < 0.001) and untrained word lists (p <0.001), but also in the root of words on the trained (p <0.001) and untrained word lists group (p <0.001). The training effect is also present on both trained and untrained morphologically composed words. By contrast, the alternative training group shows no progress on these previous measures (p >0.15). Further analyses testing the effects of both trainings on other measures such as morphological awareness and reading of morphologically compose words are in progress. These first results support the effectiveness of explicitly teaching derivational morphology to improve spelling in school-aged children. The study is currently extended to a group of children with developmental dyslexia because these children are known for their severe and persistent spelling difficulties.

Keywords: developmental dyslexia, derivational morphology, reading, school-aged children, spelling, training

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Authors: Asghar Zamani, Mostafa Falahmorad

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Virtualization is established to combine and use the unique capabilities of employees to increase productivity and agility to provide services regardless of location. Adapting to fast and continuous change and getting maximum access to human resources are reasons why virtualization is happening. The distance problem is solved by information. Flexibility is the most important feature of virtualization, and information will be the main focus of virtualized companies. In this research, we used the Covid-19 opportunity window to assess the productivity of the companies that had been going through more virtualized management before the Covid-19 in comparison with those that just started planning on developing infrastructures on virtual management after the crises of pandemic occurred. The research process includes financial (profitability and customer satisfaction) and behavioral (organizational culture and reluctance to change) metrics assessment. In addition to financial and CRM KPIs, a questionnaire is devised to assess how manager and employees’ attitude has been changing towards the migration to virtualization. The sample companies and questions are selected by asking from experts in the IT industry of Iran. In this article, the conclusion is that companies open to virtualization based on accurate strategic planning or willing to pay to train their employees for virtualization before the pandemic are more agile in adapting to change and moving forward in recession. The prospective companies in this research, not only could compensate for the short period loss from the first shock of the Covid-19, but they could also foresee new needs of their customer sooner than other competitors, resulting in the need to employ new staff for executing the emerging demands. Findings were aligned with the literature review. Results can be a wake-up call for business owners especially in developing countries to be more resilient toward modern management styles instead of continuing with traditional ones.

Keywords: virtual management, virtual organization, competitive advantage, KPI, profit

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Authors: Catrin Morgan, Atholl Johnston

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Creatine supplementation should theoretically increase total muscle creatine and so enhance the generation of intramuscular phosphocreatine and subsequent ATP formation. The use of creatine as a potential ergogenic aid in sport has been an area of significant scientific research for a number of years. However the effect of creatine supplementation and swimming performance is a relatively new area of research and is the subject of this review. In swimming creatine supplementation could help maintain maximal power output, aid recovery and increase lean body mass. After investigating the underlying theory and science behind creatine supplementation, a literature review was conducted to identify the best evidence looking at the effect of creatine supplementation on swimming performance. The search identified 27 potential studies, and of these 17 were selected for review. The studies were then categorised into single sprint performance, which involves swimming a short distance race, or repeated interval performance, which involves swimming a series of sprints with intervals of rest between them. None of the studies on the effect of creatine controlled for the multiple confounding factors associated with measurement of swimming performance. The sample size in the studies was limited and this reduced the reliability of the studies and introduced the possibility of bias. The studies reviewed provided insufficient evidence to determine if creatine supplementation is beneficial to swimming performance. However, what data there was supported the use of creatine supplementation in repeated interval swimming rather than in single sprint swimming. From a review of the studies, it was calculated on average, there was a 1.37% increase in swimming performance with the use of creatine for repeated intervals and a 0.86% increase in performance for single sprint. While this may seem minor, it should be remembered that swimming races are often won by much smaller margins. In the 2012 London Olympics the Men’s 100 metres freestyle race was won by a margin of only 0.01 of a second. Therefore any potential benefit could make a dramatic difference to the final outcome of the race. Overall more research is warranted before the benefits of creatine supplementation in swimming performance can be further clarified.

Keywords: creatine supplementation, repeated interval, single sprint, swimming performance

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Authors: Amruta Rout, Golak Bihari Mahanta, Gunji Bala Murali, Bibhuti Bhusan Biswal, B. B. V. L. Deepak

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The use of industrial robots for performing welding operation is one of the chief sign of contemporary welding in these days. The weld joint parameter and weld process parameter modeling is one of the most crucial aspects of robotic welding. As weld process parameters affect the weld joint parameters differently, a multi-objective optimization technique has to be utilized to obtain optimal setting of weld process parameter. In this paper, a hybrid optimization technique, i.e., Principal Component Analysis (PCA) combined with fuzzy logic has been proposed to get optimal setting of weld process parameters like wire feed rate, welding current. Gas flow rate, welding speed and nozzle tip to plate distance. The weld joint parameters considered for optimization are the depth of penetration, yield strength, and ultimate strength. PCA is a very efficient multi-objective technique for converting the correlated and dependent parameters into uncorrelated and independent variables like the weld joint parameters. Also in this approach, no need for checking the correlation among responses as no individual weight has been assigned to responses. Fuzzy Inference Engine can efficiently consider these aspects into an internal hierarchy of it thereby overcoming various limitations of existing optimization approaches. At last Taguchi method is used to get the optimal setting of weld process parameters. Therefore, it has been concluded the hybrid technique has its own advantages which can be used for quality improvement in industrial applications.

Keywords: robotic arc welding, weld process parameters, weld joint parameters, principal component analysis, fuzzy logic, Taguchi method

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Authors: Carolina S. Correia, Thalita V. Thomé, Andersen Boniolo, Dhayana I. Veiga

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Evidence-based practices (EBP) in education is a set of principles and practices used to raise educational policy, it involves the integration of professional expertise in education with the best empirical evidence in making decisions about how to deliver instruction. The purpose of this presentation is to describe and characterize studies about EBP in education in elementary classroom setting. Data here presented is part of an ongoing systematic review research. Articles were searched and selected from four academic databases: ProQuest, Scielo, Science Direct and Capes. The search terms were evidence-based practices or program effectiveness, and education or teaching or teaching practices or teaching methods. Articles were included according to the following criteria: The studies were explicitly described as evidence-based or discussed the most effective practices in education, they discussed teaching practices in classroom context in elementary school level. Document excerpts were extracted and recorded in Excel, organized by reference, descriptors, abstract, purpose, setting, participants, type of teaching practice, study design and main results. The total amount of articles selected were 1.185, 569 articles from Proquest Research Library; 216 from CAPES; 251 from ScienceDirect and 149 from Scielo Library. The potentially relevant references were 178, from which duplicates were removed. The final number of articles analyzed was 140. From 140 articles, are 47 theoretical studies and 93 empirical articles. The following research design methods were identified: longitudinal intervention study, cluster-randomized trial, meta-analysis and pretest-posttest studies. From 140 articles, 103 studies were about regular school teaching and 37 were on special education teaching practices. In several studies, used as teaching method: active learning, content acquisition podcast (CAP), precision teaching (PT), mediated reading practice, speech therapist programs and peer-assisted learning strategies (PALS). The countries of origin of the studies were United States of America, United Kingdom, Panama, Sweden, Scotland, South Korea, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and Brunei. The present study in is an ongoing project, so some representative findings will be discussed, providing further acknowledgment on the best teaching practices in elementary classroom setting.

Keywords: best practices, children, evidence-based education, elementary school, teaching methods

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Authors: Xiaoyuan Suo

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3D object reconstruction is a broad research area within the computer vision field involving many stages and still open problems. One of the existing challenges in this field lies with micromotion, such as the facial expressions on the appearance of the human or animal face. Similar literatures in this field focuses on 3D reconstruction in stable conditions such as an existing image or photos taken in a rather static environment, while the purpose of this work is to discuss a flexible scan system using multiple cameras that can correctly reconstruct 3D stable and moving objects -- human face with expression in particular. Further, a mathematical model is proposed at the end of this literature to automate the 3D object reconstruction process. The reconstruction process takes several stages. Firstly, a set of simple 2D lines would be projected onto the object and hence a set of uneven curvy lines can be obtained, which represents the 3D numerical data of the surface. The lines and their shapes will help to identify object’s 3D construction in pixels. With the two-recorded angles and their distance from the camera, a simple mathematical calculation would give the resulting coordinate of each projected line in an absolute 3D space. This proposed research will benefit many practical areas, including but not limited to biometric identification, authentications, cybersecurity, preservation of cultural heritage, drama acting especially those with rapid and complex facial gestures, and many others. Specifically, this will (I) provide a brief survey of comparable techniques existing in this field. (II) discuss a set of specialized methodologies or algorithms for effective reconstruction of 3D objects. (III)implement, and testing the developed methodologies. (IV) verify findings with data collected from experiments. (V) conclude with lessons learned and final thoughts.

Keywords: 3D photogrammetry, 3D object reconstruction, facial expression recognition, facial recognition

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Authors: Rinda Kurnia

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Despite the differences and additional needs in the learning process, every individual has the right to receive educational services in order to enhance her/his abilities and potentials. This notion underlies the principle of inclusive education system, something many countries in the world are striving for since the UNESCO Salamanca Statement in 1994. This paper will consider different views that many theorists have published of the term inclusive, the issues, challenges, and dilemmas encountered during the practice, as well as some possible ways forward. It is being described, criticized and analyzed using the standpoint of a shadow teacher in an inclusive secondary school in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Keywords: inclusive education, inclusive education challenges, inclusive education dilemmas, inclusive education future plans, inclusive education issues

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Authors: Yi Meng, Yun Gao

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Having spent significant periods studying and working in North America and Europe, we, as two Chinese art educators, have been profoundly shaped by both Eastern and Western cultures. Consequently, our ambition is to enrich students' learning experiences by delving into and merging both cultural perspectives for innovative, creative expressions. This exposition draws on our action research study on students' visual literacy practices in a visual literacy course at a prominent Chinese university. The central premise was to explore innovative art forms by cross-utilizing various aspects of diverse cultures. By examining distinct cultural elements, we encouraged students to break away from familiar approaches and forge new paths in their creative endeavors. In implementing our curriculum, we utilized a multimodal pedagogy that deviated from the predominant print-based presentations typically employed in our classroom settings. This pedagogical approach effectively encouraged students to critically analyze the artifact, imbue it with their understanding and perspectives, and then produce an original piece. This approach also motivated students to leverage the semiotic potential of various communicative modes to address diverse cultural issues through their multimodal designs. To demonstrate the potential for cultural amalgamation, we utilized the artwork of Hong Kong-based artist Tik Ka. His works epitomize the fusion of Chinese traditions with Western pop culture, which served as a visual and conceptual reference point for students. Seeing how these distinct cultural elements could coexist and enrich each other in Tik Ka's work was inspiring and motivating for the students. Taken together, these pedagogical strategies helped create a dialogical space where students could actively experience, analyze, and negotiate complex modes of expression. This environment fostered active learning, encouraging students to apply their knowledge, question their assumptions, and reconsider their perspectives. Overall, such a unique approach to visual literacy education has the potential to reshape students' understanding of both cultures. By encouraging them to critically engage with their multimodal designs, we promoted an in-depth, nuanced appreciation of these diverse cultural heritages. The students no longer just interpreted and replicated images—they actively contributed to a dynamic and ongoing conversation between cultures.

Keywords: multimodal pedagogy, creative expressions, visual literacy education, multimodal designs

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Authors: Hong Geng, Zaiyu Fan

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With the acceleration of urbanization and motorization in China, the scale of cities and the travel distance of residents are constantly expanding, and the number of cars is continuously increasing, so the urban traffic problem is more and more serious. Traffic congestion, environmental pollution, energy consumption, travel safety and direct interference between traffic and other urban activities are increasingly prominent problems brought about by motorized development. This not only has a serious impact on the lives of the residents but also has a major impact on the healthy development of the city. The paper found that, in order to solve the development of motorization, a number of problems will arise; urban planning and traffic planning and design in residential planning often take into account the development of motorized traffic but neglects the demand for street life. This kind of planning has resulted in the destruction of the traditional communication space of the residential area, the pollution of noise and exhaust gas, and the potential safety risks of the residential area, which has disturbed the previously quiet and comfortable life of the residential area, resulting in the inconvenience of residents' life and the loss of street vitality. Based on these facts, this paper takes a residential area in Wuhan as the research object, through the actual investigation and research, from the perspective of micro-transformation analysis, combined with the concept of traffic micro-reconstruction governance. And research puts forward the residential traffic optimization strategies such as strengthening the interaction and connection between the residential area and the urban street system, street traffic classification and organization.

Keywords: micro-transformation, residential traffic, residents demand, traffic microcirculation

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Authors: Can Huang, Xiaoliang Wang, Qingquan Liu

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Soil‒water coupling is an important process in landslide-generated impulse waves (LGIW) problems, accompanied by large deformation of soil, strong interface coupling and three-dimensional effect. A meshless particle method, smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) has great advantages in dealing with complex interface and multiphase coupling problems. This study presents an improved soil‒water coupled model to simulate LGIW problems based on an open source code DualSPHysics (v4.0). Aiming to solve the low efficiency problem in modeling real large-scale LGIW problems, graphics processing unit (GPU) acceleration technology is implemented into this code. An experimental example, subaerial landslide-generated water waves, is simulated to demonstrate the accuracy of this model. Then, the Huangtian LGIW, a real large-scale LGIW problem is modeled to reproduce the entire disaster chain, including landslide dynamics, fluid‒solid interaction, and surge wave generation. The convergence analysis shows that a particle distance of 5.0 m can provide a converged landslide deposit and surge wave for this example. Numerical simulation results are in good agreement with the limited field survey data. The application example of the Huangtian LGIW provides a typical reference for large-scale LGIW assessments, which can provide reliable information on landslide dynamics, interface coupling behavior, and surge wave characteristics.

Keywords: soil‒water coupling, landslide-generated impulse wave, large-scale, SPH

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Authors: Elcin Timur Cakmak, Ayse Oguzlar

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This study presents the results of the tweets sent by Twitter users on social media about the Russia-Ukraine war by bigram and trigram methods. On February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a military operation against Ukraine, and all eyes were turned to this war. Many people living in Russia and Ukraine reacted to this war and protested and also expressed their deep concern about this war as they felt the safety of their families and their futures were at stake. Most people, especially those living in Russia and Ukraine, express their views on the war in different ways. The most popular way to do this is through social media. Many people prefer to convey their feelings using Twitter, one of the most frequently used social media tools. Since the beginning of the war, it is seen that there have been thousands of tweets about the war from many countries of the world on Twitter. These tweets accumulated in data sources are extracted using various codes for analysis through Twitter API and analysed by Python programming language. The aim of the study is to find the word sequences in these tweets by the n-gram method, which is known for its widespread use in computational linguistics and natural language processing. The tweet language used in the study is English. The data set consists of the data obtained from Twitter between February 24, 2022, and April 24, 2022. The tweets obtained from Twitter using the #ukraine, #russia, #war, #putin, #zelensky hashtags together were captured as raw data, and the remaining tweets were included in the analysis stage after they were cleaned through the preprocessing stage. In the data analysis part, the sentiments are found to present what people send as a message about the war on Twitter. Regarding this, negative messages make up the majority of all the tweets as a ratio of %63,6. Furthermore, the most frequently used bigram and trigram word groups are found. Regarding the results, the most frequently used word groups are “he, is”, “I, do”, “I, am” for bigrams. Also, the most frequently used word groups are “I, do, not”, “I, am, not”, “I, can, not” for trigrams. In the machine learning phase, the accuracy of classifications is measured by Classification and Regression Trees (CART) and Naïve Bayes (NB) algorithms. The algorithms are used separately for bigrams and trigrams. We gained the highest accuracy and F-measure values by the NB algorithm and the highest precision and recall values by the CART algorithm for bigrams. On the other hand, the highest values for accuracy, precision, and F-measure values are achieved by the CART algorithm, and the highest value for the recall is gained by NB for trigrams.

Keywords: classification algorithms, machine learning, sentiment analysis, Twitter

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Authors: L. Hoade, O. O. Onafowokan, K. Anderson, G. E. Bartlett, E. D. Fern, M. R. Norton, R. G. Middleton

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Aims: Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) was first recognised as a potential driver for hip pain at the turn of the last millennium. While there is an increasing trend towards surgical management of FAI by arthroscopic means, open surgical hip dislocation and debridement (SHD) remains the Gold Standard of care in terms of reported outcome measures. (1) Long-term functional and survivorship outcomes of SHD as a treatment for FAI are yet to be sufficiently reported in the literature. This study sets out to help address this imbalance. Methods: We undertook a retrospective review of our institutional database for all patients who underwent SHD for FAI between January 2003 and December 2008. A total of 223 patients (241 hips) were identified and underwent a ten year review with a standardised radiograph and patient-reported outcome measures questionnaire. The primary outcome measure of interest was survivorship, defined as progression to total hip arthroplasty (THA). Negative predictive factors were analysed. Secondary outcome measures of interest were survivorship to further (non-arthroplasty) surgery, functional outcomes as reflected by patient reported outcome measure scores (PROMS) scores, and whether a learning curve could be identified. Results: The final cohort consisted of 131 females and 110 males, with a mean age of 34 years. There was an overall native hip joint survival rate of 85.4% at ten years. Those who underwent a THA were significantly older at initial surgery, had radiographic evidence of preoperative osteoarthritis and pre- and post-operative acetabular undercoverage. In those whom had not progressed to THA, the average Non-arthritic Hip Score and Oxford Hip Score at ten year follow-up were 72.3% and 36/48, respectively, and 84% still deemed their surgery worthwhile. A learning curve was found to exist that was predicated on case selection rather than surgical technique. Conclusion: This is only the second study to evaluate the long-term outcomes (beyond ten years) of SHD for FAI and the first outside the originating centre. Our results suggest that, with correct patient selection, this remains an operation with worthwhile outcomes at ten years. How the results of open surgery compared to those of arthroscopy remains to be answered. While these results precede the advent of collison software modelling tools, this data helps set a benchmark for future comparison of other techniques effectiveness at the ten year mark.

Keywords: femoroacetabular impingement, hip pain, surgical hip dislocation, hip debridement

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Authors: David J. Foran, Nhan Do, Samuel Ajjarapu, Wenjin Chen, Tahsin Kurc, Joel H. Saltz

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The large-scale data and computational requirements of investigators throughout the clinical and research communities demand an informatics infrastructure that supports both existing and new investigative and translational projects in a robust, secure environment. In some subspecialties of medicine and research, the capacity to generate data has outpaced the methods and technology used to aggregate, organize, access, and reliably retrieve this information. Leading health care centers now recognize the utility of establishing an enterprise-wide, clinical data warehouse. The primary benefits that can be realized through such efforts include cost savings, efficient tracking of outcomes, advanced clinical decision support, improved prognostic accuracy, and more reliable clinical trials matching. The overarching objective of the work presented here is the development and implementation of a flexible Intelligent Retrieval and Interrogation System (IRIS) that exploits the combined use of computational imaging, genomics, and data-mining capabilities to facilitate clinical assessments and translational research in oncology. The proposed System includes a multi-modal, Clinical & Research Data Warehouse (CRDW) that is tightly integrated with a suite of computational and machine-learning tools to provide insight into the underlying tumor characteristics that are not be apparent by human inspection alone. A key distinguishing feature of the System is a configurable Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) interface that enables it to adapt to different clinical and research data environments. This project is motivated by the growing emphasis on establishing Learning Health Systems in which cyclical hypothesis generation and evidence evaluation become integral to improving the quality of patient care. To facilitate iterative prototyping and optimization of the algorithms and workflows for the System, the team has already implemented a fully functional Warehouse that can reliably aggregate information originating from multiple data sources including EHR’s, Clinical Trial Management Systems, Tumor Registries, Biospecimen Repositories, Radiology PAC systems, Digital Pathology archives, Unstructured Clinical Documents, and Next Generation Sequencing services. The System enables physicians to systematically mine and review the molecular, genomic, image-based, and correlated clinical information about patient tumors individually or as part of large cohorts to identify patterns that may influence treatment decisions and outcomes. The CRDW core system has facilitated peer-reviewed publications and funded projects, including an NIH-sponsored collaboration to enhance the cancer registries in Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, and New York, with machine-learning based classifications and quantitative pathomics, feature sets. The CRDW has also resulted in a collaboration with the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center (MAVERIC) at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to develop algorithms and workflows to automate the analysis of lung adenocarcinoma. Those studies showed that combining computational nuclear signatures with traditional WHO criteria through the use of deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) led to improved discrimination among tumor growth patterns. The team has also leveraged the Warehouse to support studies to investigate the potential of utilizing a combination of genomic and computational imaging signatures to characterize prostate cancer. The results of those studies show that integrating image biomarkers with genomic pathway scores is more strongly correlated with disease recurrence than using standard clinical markers.

Keywords: clinical data warehouse, decision support, data-mining, intelligent databases, machine-learning.

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Authors: Verónica Díaz

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A Cartesian graph, as a mathematical object, becomes a tool for configuration of change. Its best comprehension is done through everyday life problem-solving associated with its representation. Despite this, the current educational framework favors general graphs, without consideration of their argumentation. Students are required to find the mathematical function without associating it to the development of graphical language. This research describes the use made by students of configurations made prior to Cartesian graphs with regards to an everyday life problem related to a time and distance variation phenomenon. The theoretical framework describes the function conditions of study and their modeling. This is a qualitative, descriptive study involving six undergraduate case studies that were carried out during the first term in 2016 at University of Los Lagos. The research problem concerned the graphic modeling of a real person’s movement phenomenon, and two levels of analysis were identified. The first level aims to identify local and global graph interpretations; a second level describes the iconicity and referentiality degree of an image. According to the results, students were able to draw no figures before the Cartesian graph, highlighting the need for students to represent the context and the movement of which causes the phenomenon change. From this, they managed Cartesian graphs representing changes in position, therefore, achieved an overall view of the graph. However, the local view only indicates specific events in the problem situation, using graphic and verbal expressions to represent movement. This view does not enable us to identify what happens on the graph when the movement characteristics change based on possible paths in the person’s walking speed.

Keywords: cartesian graphs, higher education, movement modeling, problem solving

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Authors: Muhammad Saeed, Nazeer Ahmed, Mukhtar Alam, Fazli Subhan, Muhammad Adnan, Fazli Wahid, Hidayat Ullah, Rafiullah

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The present experiment evaluated different synthetic insecticides against Jassid (Amrasca devastations) on pea crop at Agriculture Research Institute Tarnab, Peshawar Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The field was prepared to cultivate okra crop in Randomized Complete Block (RCB) Design having six treatments with four replications. Plant to plant and row to row distance was kept at 15 cm and 30 cm, respectively. Pre and post spray data were recorded randomly from the top, middle and bottom leaves of five selected plants. Five synthetic insecticides, namely Confidor (Proponil), a neonicotinoid insecticide, Chlorpyrifos (chlorinated organophosphate (OP) insecticide), Lazer (dinitroaniline) (Pendimethaline), Imidacloprid (neonicotinoids insecticide) and Thiodan (Endosulfan, organochlorine insecticide), were used against infestation of aphids, pea pod borer, stem fly, leaf minor and pea weevil. Each synthetic insecticide showed significantly more effectiveness than control (untreated plots) but was non-significant among each other. The lowest population density was recorded in the plot treated with synthetic insecticide i.e. Confidor (0.6175 liter.ha-1) (4.24 aphids plant⁻¹) which is followed by Imidacloprid (0.6175 liter.ha⁻¹) (4.64 pea pod borer plant⁻¹), Thiodan (1.729 liter.ha⁻¹) (4.78 leaf minor plant⁻¹), Lazer (2.47 liter.ha-1) (4.91 pea weevil plant⁻¹), Chlorpyrifos (1.86 liter.ha⁻¹) (5.11 stem fly plant⁻¹), respectively while the highest population was recorded from the control plot. It is concluded from the data that the residual effect decreases with time after the application of spray, which may be less dangerous to the environment and human beings and can effectively manage this dread.

Keywords: okra crop, jassids, Confidor, imidacloprid, chlorpyrifos, laser, Thiodan

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Authors: Laraba Bala Mohammed

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Education is a very vital tool in enhancement of the general development of individuals in the society who would participate effectively in national development processes, including people with special need, educating children with special needs is one of the greatest challenges of this millennium, this is because professionals in the field of special education are operating in an exciting and rapidly changing phenomenon. Inclusive education in Nigeria is not a new development in the teaching and learning process, but the most important aspect is the utilization and effective integration of people with special needs in the society. This paper focuses on the need of parents, government, professionals in the field of special education and stakeholders to work together for the full implementation of inclusive education in Nigeria.

Keywords: inclusive education, national policy, education, special needs

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Authors: Jiongbin Liu, William Yeoh, Shang Gao, Xiaoliang Meng, Yuhan Zhu

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The metaverse concept has sparked significant interest in both academic and industrial spheres. As educational institutions increasingly adopt this technology, understanding its implementation becomes crucial. In response, we conducted a comprehensive case study at a large university, systematically analyzing the nine stages of metaverse development initiatives. Our study unveiled critical insights into the planning, assessment, and execution processes, offering invaluable guidance for stakeholders. The findings highlight both the opportunities for enhanced learning experiences and the challenges related to technological integration and social interaction in higher education.

Keywords: metaverse, metaverse development framework, higher education, case study

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Authors: Allen A. Espinosa, Larkins A. Trinidad

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The present study investigated collegiate students’ problem solving strategies and misconceptions in solving stoichiometric problems and later on formulate a teaching framework from the result of the study. The study found out that the most prominent strategies among students are the mole method and the proportionality method, which are both algorithmic by nature. Misconception was also noted as some students rely on Avogadro’s number in converting between moles. It is suggested therefore that the teaching of stoichiometry should not be confined to demonstration. Students should be involved in the process of thinking of ways to solve the problem.

Keywords: stoichiometry, Svogadro’s number, mole method, proportionality method

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Authors: Genesis F. Dela Cruz, Liza C. Costa

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The study is concerned with the Risk factors of dropping out among Grade VII students for SY 2012-2013. A total of 87 Grade VII Students-At-Risk-of-Dropping Out (SARDOs) were involved in this study. The descriptive survey method was used in this study. A 50-item questionnaire was used in data gathering. Expert validation was done to determine the validity and reliability of the instrument. The study used Chi Square, Kruskal Wallis Test and Mann Whitney Test in the statistical treatment of data. The study revealed that the respondents are within the standard age limit for Grade VII students in the Philippines which is 13 years old. Males more than females usually becomes SARDOs. SARDOs come from low economic status and complete families contrary to the common belief that they came from single-parent families. The study also showed that parent’s involvement in educating their children on family-related factors contributed to the very good perception on the family related factors. Based on age, there are no significant differences in their perception of the four major recognized risk factors for dropping out among all ages. There are no significant differences in their perception of the family, individual and community related factors for dropping out based on sex. However, females have a more favorable perception when it comes to school related factors. No significant differences in their perception of dropping out were also noted when they are classified according to distance of school from home. The respondents do not differ in their perception on family, individual and community related factors when they are classified according to type of family. When surveyed regarding the respondents’ reason for being absent, it was found out that laziness and being late are the two major reasons. Respondents also perceived remedial and tutorial classes as school-initiated intervention measure to prevent school disengagement or dropping out.

Keywords: drop-out, guidance and counseling, school initiated intervention, students at risk of dropping out

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Authors: Jian-Jun Gao

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Repetition is used for a variety of functions in conversation. When young children first learn to speak, they often repeat words from the adult’s recent utterance with the learning and social function. The objective of this study was to ascertain whether the repetitions are equivalent in indicating attention to new words and the initial repeat of information in conversation. Based on the observation of naturally occurring language use in Taiwan Corpus of Child Mandarin (TCCM), the results in this study provided empirical support to the previous findings that children are more likely to repeat new words they are offered than to repeat new information. When children get older, there would be a drop in the repetition of both new words and new information.

Keywords: acquisition, corpus, mandarin, new words, new information, repetition

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Authors: Wilhelmina van den Berg

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Through intentionally developing the Register Continuum and the Functional Model of Language in the secondary history classroom, teachers can effectively build a teaching and learning cycle geared towards literacy improvement and EAL differentiation. Developing an understanding of and engaging students in the field, tenor, and tone of written and spoken language, allows students to build the foundation for greater academic achievement due to integrated literacy skills in the history classroom. Building a variety of scaffolds during lessons within these models means students can improve their academic language and communication skills.

Keywords: academic language, EAL, functional model of language, international baccalaureate, literacy skills

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Authors: Bernard Eze Orji

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The masquerade, which is the most popular indigenous art form in Africa, is obviously identified by its elaborate, weird, and opulent costumes. The costume is the major essential accouterments in the art of the masquerade. From time past, masquerades have performed and enjoyed the freedom associated with its inscrutability and mystification solely because of its costumes. Noninitiates and women watched masquerades from a distance due to the reverence attached to its costumes and performances. In fact, whether in performance or as an item of art, the masquerade costume was seen as an embodiment of a tradition of liveliness, showiness, secrecy, and sacredness. This liveliness and showiness transformed masked characters who are believed to be possessed by spirits of ancestors and animals that inhabited the costumes. However, with the translocation of masquerade in new festivals such as carnival and state-sponsored cultural days, its costumes have been reduced to a mere item of entertainment and aesthetic values. The sacredness and reverence which hitherto elevated masquerade art to the point of wonderment have given way to an aesthetic appreciation of ingenious and individual creativity deployed in these festivals. This is as a result of the realistic and artistic creations that pervade masquerade costumes and masks in these festivals. It is a common sight to see such masquerades of animal and human genera like a lion, elephant, hippopotamus, and antelope; Agbogho Mmuo, Adamma, and Nchiekwa, respectively. This creative flair has emerged to expunge the ritual narratives associated with masquerades in the past. The study utilized performance analysis and aesthetic theory to establish that the creative ingenuity deployed by fine artists and mask designers who combine traditional artifacts to achieve modern masterpieces for the masquerades of the new festivals have reduced the ritual trappings and hype ascribed to masquerades in indigenous societies.

Keywords: costume and mask designs, entertainment, masquerade, ritual

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Authors: Likewin Thomas, M. V. Manoj Kumar, B. Annappa

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The aim of this study was to develop an Artificial Neural Network0 s recommendation model for an online process using the complexity of load, performance, and average servicing time of the resources. Here, the proposed model investigates the resource performance using stochastic gradient decent method for learning ranking function. A probabilistic cost function is implemented to identify the optimal θ values (load) on each resource. Based on this result the recommendation of resource suitable for performing the currently executing task is made. The test result of CoSeLoG project is presented with an accuracy of 72.856%.

Keywords: ADALINE, neural network, gradient decent, process mining, resource behaviour, polynomial regression model

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Authors: Eda Üstünel, Seval Karacabey

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The students, who are enrolled in German Preparatory Language Programme at the School of Foreign Languages, Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Turkey, learn German as a foreign language for two semesters in an academic year. Although the language programme is a skills-based one, the students lack German speaking skills due to their fear of making language mistakes while speaking in German. This problem of incompetency in German speaking skills exists also in their four-year departmental study at the Faculty of Education. In order to address this problem we design German speaking activities, which are extra-curricular activities. With the help of these activities, we aim to lead Turkish students of German language to speak in the target language, to improve their speaking skills in the target language and to create a stress-free atmosphere and a meaningful learning environment to communicate in the target language. In order to achieve these aims, an ERASMUS+ exchange staff (a German trainee teacher of German as a foreign language), who is from Schwabisch Gmünd University, Germany, conducted out-of-class German speaking activities once a week for three weeks in total. Each speaking activity is lasted for one and a half hour per week. 7 volunteered students of German preparatory language programme attended the speaking activity for three weeks. The activity took place at a cafe in the university campus, that’s the reason, we call it as an out-of-class activity. The content of speaking activity is not related to the topics studied at the units of coursebook, that’s the reason, we call this activity as extra-curricular one. For data collection, three tools are used. A questionnaire, which is an adapted version of Sabo’s questionnaire, is applied to seven volunteers. An interview session is then held with each student on individual basis. The interview questions are developed so as to ask students to expand their answers that are given at the questionnaires. The German trainee teacher wrote fieldnotes, in which the teacher described the activity in the light of her thoughts about what went well and which areas were needed to be improved. The results of questionnaires show that six out of seven students note that such an acitivity must be conducted by a native speaker of German. Four out of seven students emphasize that they like the way that the activities are designed in a learner-centred fashion. All of the students point out that they feel motivated to talk to the trainee teacher in German. Six out of seven students note that the opportunity to communicate in German with the teacher and the peers enable them to improve their speaking skills, the use of grammatical rules and the use of vocabulary.

Keywords: Learning a Foreign Language, Speaking Skills, Teaching German as a Foreign Language, Turkish Learners of German Language

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Authors: Su-Lien Liao

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Most of college students in Taiwan do not have sufficient English proficiency to express themselves in written English. Teachers spent a lot of time correcting students’ English writing, but the results are not satisfactory. This study aims to use blogs as a teaching and learning tool in written English. Before applying peer assessment, students should be trained to be good reviewers. The teacher starts the course by posting the error analysis of students’ first English composition on blogs as the comment models for students. Then the students will go through the process of drafting, composing, peer response and last revision on blogs. Evaluation Questionnaires and interviews will be conducted at the end of the course to see the impact and students’ perception for the course.

Keywords: blog, peer assessment, English writing, error analysis

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Authors: Mohammad K. Abedin, Mohammad Shahjahan, Zeenat Sultana, Tawfique Jahan, Jesmin Akter

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To strengthen social and behavior change communication (SBCC) capacity of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) of the Government of Bangladesh, BCCP/BKMI developed two eLearning courses providing opportunities for professional development of SBCC Program Managers who have no access to training or refreshers training. The two eLearning courses – Message and Material Development (MMD) and Monitoring and Evaluation (MandE) of SBCC programs – went online in September 2015, where all users could register their participation so results could be monitored. Methodology: To assess the uses of these courses a randomly selected sample was collected to run a pre and post-test analyses and a phone survey were conducted. Systematic random sampling was used to select a sample of 75 MandE and 25 MMD course participants from a sampling frame of 179 and 51 respectively. Results: As of September 2016, more than 179 learners have completed the MandE course, and 49 learners have completed the MMD course. The users of these courses are program managers, university faculty members, and students. Encouraging results were revealed from the analysis of pre and post-test scores and a phone survey three months after course completion. Test scores suggested a substantial increase in knowledge. The pre-test scores findings suggested that about 19% learners scored high on the MandE. The post-test scores finding indicated a high score (92%) of the sample across 4 modules of MandE. For MMD course in pre-test scoring, 30% of the learners scored high, and 100% scored high at the post-test. It was found that all the learners in the phone survey have discussed the courses. Most of the sharing occurred with colleagues and friends, usually through face to face (70%) interaction. The learners reported that they did recommend the two courses to concerned people. About 67% MandE and 76% MMD learners stated that the concepts that they had to learn during the course were put into practice in their work settings. The respondents for both MandE and MMD courses have provided a valuable set of suggestions that would further strengthen the courses. Conclusions: The study showed that the initiative offered ample opportunities to build capacity in various ways in which the eLearning courses were used. It also highlighted the importance of scaling up these efforts to further strengthen the outcomes.

Keywords: e-learning course, message & material development, monitoring & evaluation, social and behavior change communication

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Authors: Ebtehal Qulisy, Geoffrey Dougherty, Kholoud Hothan, Mylene Dandavino

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Background: For more than 200 years, journal clubs (JCs) have been used to teach the fundamentals of critical appraisal and evidence-based practice (EBP). However, JCs curricula face important challenges, including poor sustainability, insufficient time to prepare for and conduct the activities, and lack of trainee skills and self-efficacy with critical appraisal. Andragogy principles and modern technology could help EBP be taught in more relevant, modern, and interactive ways. Method: We propose a fresh educational activity to teach EBP. Educational sessions are designed to encourage collaborative and experiential learning and do not require advanced preparation by the participants. Each session lasts 60 minutes and is adaptable to in-person, virtual, or hybrid contexts. Sessions are structured around a worksheet and include three educational objectives: “1. Identify a Clinical Conundrum”, “2. Compare and Contrast Current Guidelines”, and “3. Choose a Recent Journal Article”. Sessions begin with a short presentation by a facilitator of a clinical scenario highlighting a “grey-zone” in pediatrics. Trainees are placed in groups of two to four (based on the participants’ number) of varied training levels. The first task requires the identification of a clinical conundrum (a situation where there is no clear answer but only a reasonable solution) related to the scenario. For the second task, trainees must identify two or three clinical guidelines. The last task requires trainees to find a journal article published in the last year that reports an update regarding the scenario’s topic. Participants are allowed to use their electronic devices throughout the session. Our university provides full-text access to major journals, which facilitated this exercise. Results: Participants were a convenience sample of trainees in the inpatient services at the Montréal Children’s Hospital, McGill University. Sessions were conducted as a part of an existing weekly academic activity and facilitated by pediatricians with experience in critical appraisal. There were 28 participants in 4 sessions held during Spring 2022. Time was allocated at the end of each session to collect participants’ feedback via a self-administered online survey. There were 22 responses, were 41%(n=9) pediatric residents, 22.7%(n=5) family medicine residents, 31.8%(n=7) medical students, and 4.5%(n=1) nurse practitioner. Four respondents participated in more than one session. The “Satisfied” rates were 94.7% for session format, 100% for topic selection, 89.5% for time allocation, and 84.3% for worksheet structure. 60% of participants felt that including the sessions during the clinical ward rotation was “Feasible.” As per self-efficacy, participants reported being “Confident” for the tasks as follows: 89.5% for the ability to identify a relevant conundrum, 94.8% for the compare and contrast task, and 84.2% for the identification of a published update. The perceived effectiveness to learn EBP was reported as “Agreed” by all participants. All participants would recommend this session for further teaching. Conclusion: We developed a modern approach to teach EBP, enjoyed by all levels of participants, who also felt it was a useful learning experience. Our approach addresses known JCs challenges by being relevant to clinical care, fostering active engagement but not requiring any preparation, using available technology, and being adaptable to hybrid contexts.

Keywords: medical education, journal clubs, post-graduate teaching, andragogy, experiential learning, evidence-based practice

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Authors: Kefaya Qaddoum

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The aim of this study is to predict breast cancer and to construct a supportive model that will stimulate a more reliable prediction as a factor that is fundamental for public health. In this study, we utilize general regression neural networks (GRNN) to replace the normal predictions with prediction periods to achieve a reasonable percentage of confidence. The mechanism employed here utilises a machine learning system called conformal prediction (CP), in order to assign consistent confidence measures to predictions, which are combined with GRNN. We apply the resulting algorithm to the problem of breast cancer diagnosis. The results show that the prediction constructed by this method is reasonable and could be useful in practice.

Keywords: neural network, conformal prediction, cancer classification, regression

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Authors: Elizabeth Farquhar, Erich Ritter

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Studying shark's interaction with humans and their behavioral responses will have enormous implications for other fields of marine biology and oceanography. The health of sharks has direct impacts on the stability of human society with a reported 3.5 billion people depending on the ocean for food and/or livelihood. Discovering how sharks behave and interact with people, will have enormous implications for future studies, along with the development of more effective ways to reduce negative shark/human interactions. This specific study investigates the effects of contrasting ponchos worn by divers on the approach distances of Carcharhinus perezi. Data was collected over a two week period at a test site off the shore of Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas, with a depth of approximately 55 feet during mid-August. Sixty-minute dive trials were conducted and videoed from above with 5-meter radius markers on the ocean floor surrounding the two divers, kneeling back-to-back. Five poncho colors were worn by the two divers (black, navy blue, dark green, yellow and orange), rotating the color permutations randomly to test the distance a shark will approach each color. Results indicate significantly closer approach patterns when divers were wearing orange ponchos, and the combination of orange with black and blue ponchos were found to be statistically significant. These results are relevant to understanding how sharks perceive contrast and dive equipment in the marine environment, which could have the potential to prevent negative shark/human interactions.

Keywords: shark behavior, animal behavior, marine biology, conservation

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Authors: Jessica Gu, Yu Chen

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Knowledge Management (KM) is undoubtable crucial to organizational value creation, learning, and adaptation. Although the rapidly growing KM domain has been fueled with full-fledged methodologies and technologies, studies on KM evolution that bridge the organizational performance and adaptation to the organizational environment are still rarely attempted. In particular, creation (or generation) and diffusion (or share/exchange) of knowledge are of the organizational primary concerns on the problem-solving perspective, however, the optimized distribution of knowledge creation and diffusion endeavors are still unknown to knowledge workers. This research proposed an agent-based model of knowledge creation and diffusion in an organization, aiming at elucidating how the intertwining knowledge flows at microscopic level lead to optimized organizational performance at macroscopic level through evolution, and exploring what exogenous interventions by the policy maker and endogenous adjustments of the knowledge workers can better cope with different environmental conditions. With the developed model, a series of simulation experiments are conducted. Both long-term steady-state and time-dependent developmental results on organizational performance, network and structure, social interaction and learning among individuals, knowledge audit and stocktaking, and the likelihood of choosing knowledge creation and diffusion by the knowledge workers are obtained. One of the interesting findings reveals a non-monotonic phenomenon on organizational performance under turbulent environment while a monotonic phenomenon on organizational performance under a stable environment. Hence, whether the environmental condition is turbulence or stable, the most suitable exogenous KM policy and endogenous knowledge creation and diffusion choice adjustments can be identified for achieving the optimized organizational performance. Additional influential variables are further discussed and future work directions are finally elaborated. The proposed agent-based model generates evidence on how knowledge worker strategically allocates efforts on knowledge creation and diffusion, how the bottom-up interactions among individuals lead to emerged structure and optimized performance, and how environmental conditions bring in challenges to the organization system. Meanwhile, it serves as a roadmap and offers great macro and long-term insights to policy makers without interrupting the real organizational operation, sacrificing huge overhead cost, or introducing undesired panic to employees.

Keywords: knowledge creation, knowledge diffusion, agent-based modeling, organizational performance, decision making evolution

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