Search results for: online path planning

Authors: Omer Shujat Bhatti, Afshan Huma

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Online educational system were considered a great opportunity for distance learning. In recent days of COVID19 pandemic, it enable the continuation of educational activities at all levels of education, from primary school to the top level universities. One of the key considered element in supporting the online educational system is video lectures. The current research explored the usefulness of the video lectures delivered to technical students of masters level with a focus on MSc Sustainable Environmental design students who have diverse backgrounds in the formal educational system. Hence they were unable to cope right away with the online system and faced communication and understanding issues in the lecture session due to internet and allied connectivity issues. Researcher used self prepared video lectures for respective subjects and provided them to the students using Youtube channel and subject based Whatsapp groups. Later, students were asked about the usefulness of the lectures towards a better understanding of the subject and an overall enhanced learning experience. More than 80% of the students appreciated the effort and requested it to be part of the overall system. Data collection was done using an online questionnaire which was prior briefed to the students with the purpose of research. It was concluded that video lectures should be considered an integral part of the lecture sessions and must be provided prior to the lecture session, ensuring a better quality of delivery. It was also recommended that the existing system must be upgraded to support the availability of these video lectures through the portal. Teachers training must be provided to help develop quality video content ensuring that is able to cover the content and courses taught.

Keywords: video lectures, online distance education, synchronous instruction, asynchronous communication

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Authors: Vivien Chee Pei Wei

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Today we live in a scenario in which letters share space with images on screens that vary in size, shape, and style. The popularization of television, then the computer and now the e-readers, tablets, and smartphones made the electronic assume the role that previously was restricted to printed materials. Since the extensive use of new technologies to produce, disseminate, collect and access electronic publications began, the changes to reading has been intensified. To be able to read online, it involves more than just utilizing specific skills, strategies, and practices, but also in negotiating multiple information sources. In this study, different perspectives of digital reading are being explored in order to define the key aspects of the term. The focus is to explore how new technologies affect how undergraduates’ reading behavior, which in turn, gives readers different reading levels and engagement with the text and other support materials in the same media. There is also the importance of the relationship between reading platforms, reading levels and formats of electronic publications. The study looks at the online reading practices of about 100 undergraduates from a local university. The data collected using the survey and interviews with the respondents are analyzed thematically. Findings from this study found that both digital and traditional reading are interrelated, and should not be viewed as separate, but complementary to each other. However, reading online complicates some of the skills required by traditional reading. Consequently, in order to successfully read and comprehend multiple sources of information online, undergraduates need regular opportunities to practice and develop their skills as part of their natural reading practices.

Keywords: concepts, digital reading, literacy, traditional reading

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Authors: Md. Rasel Mia, Ashik Billah

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The empowerment of girls and youth in Bangladesh is a demanding issue in today's digital age, where online learning and education have become integral to personal and societal development. This abstract explores the critical importance of creating a secure online environment for girls and youth in Bangladesh, emphasizing the transformative impact it can have on their access to education and knowledge. Bangladesh, like many developing nations, faces gender inequalities in education and access to digital resources. The creation of a safe digital space not only mitigates the gender digital divide but also fosters an environment where girls and youth can thrive academically and professionally. This manuscript draws attention to the efforts through a mixed-method study to assess the current digital landscape in Bangladesh, revealing disparities in phone and internet access, online practices, and awareness of cyber security among diverse demographic groups. Moreover, the study unveils the varying levels of familial support and barriers encountered by girls and youth in their quest for digital literacy. It emphasizes the need for tailored training programs that address specific learning needs while also advocating for enhanced internet accessibility, safe online practices, and inclusive online platforms. The manuscript culminates in a call for collaborative efforts among stakeholders, including NGOs, government agencies, and telecommunications companies, to implement targeted interventions that bridge the gender digital divide and pave the way for a brighter, more equitable future for girls and youth in Bangladesh. In conclusion, this research highlights the undeniable significance of creating a safe digital space as a catalyst for the empowerment of girls and youth in Bangladesh, ensuring that they not only access but excel in the online space, thereby contributing to their personal growth and the advancement of society as a whole.

Keywords: collaboration, cyber security, digital literacy, digital resources, inclusiveness

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Authors: Stanley Fore, Sharon Chipeperekwa

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The start of the 2011 academic year in South Africa saw a number of Institutions of Higher Learning introducing online registration for their students. The efficiency and effectiveness of Information Systems are increasingly becoming a necessity and not an option for many organizations. An information system should be able to allow end users to access information easily and navigate with ease. The selected University of Technology (UoT) in this research is one of the largest public institution of higher learning in the Western Cape Province and boasts of an enrolment of more than 30000 students per academic year. An observation was made that, during registration students’ stand in long queues waiting to register or for assistance to register. The system tends to ‘freeze’ whilst students are registering and students are in most cases unfamiliar with the system interface. They constantly have to enquire what to do next when going through online registration process. A mixed method approach will be adopted which comprises of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study uses constructs of the updated DeLone and McLean IS success model (2003) to analyse and explain the student’s perceptions of the online registration system. The research was undertaken to establish the student’s perceptions of the online registration system. This research seeks to identify and analyse the challenges and success factors of introducing an online registration system whilst highlighting the extent to which this system has been able to solve the numerous problems associated with the manual era. The study will assist management and those responsible for managing the current system to determine how well the system is working or not working to achieve user satisfaction. It will also assist them going forward on what to consider before, during and after implementation of an information system. Respondents will be informed of the objectives of the research, and their consent to participate will be sought. Ethical considerations that will be applied to this study include; informed consent and protection from harm, right to privacy and involvement of the research.

Keywords: online registration, information systems, University of Technology, end-users

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Authors: Ge Zhan

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Mobile health (mHealth) concerns the use of mobile technologies to deliver health care and improve wellness. In this paper, we ask the question of what are the drivers of positive consumer attitude toward mHealth programs. Answers to this question are important to consumer health, but existing marketing and health care service literature does not provide sufficient empirical conclusions on the use of mobile technologies for consumer health. This study aims to fill the knowledge gap by investigating mHealth use and consumer attitude. A content analysis was conducted with sample mHealth programs and online consumer reviews in Hong Kong, UK, US, and India. The research findings will contribute to marketing and health services literature.

Keywords: mobile health, consumer attitude, content analysis, online marketing

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Authors: Mark Linden, Michael Brown, Lynne Marsh, Maria Truesdale, Stuart Todd, Nathan Hughes, Trisha Forbes, Rachel Leonard

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Background: Family carers of people with intellectual disabilities (ID) face ongoing challenges in accessing services and often experience poor mental health. Online support programmes may prove effective in addressing the mental health and well-being needs of family carers. This study sought to test the acceptability of a newly developed online support programme for carers of people with intellectual disabilities called Carers-ID. Methods A sequential mixed-methods explanatory design was utilised. An adapted version of the Acceptability of Health Apps among Adolescents (AHAA) Scale was distributed to family carers who had viewed the Carers-ID.com intervention. Following this, participants were invited to take part in an online interview. Interview questions focused on participants’ experiences of using the programme and its acceptability. Qualitative and quantitative data were analysed separately and then brought together through the triangulation protocol developed by Farmer et al (2006). Findings: Seventy family carers responded to the acceptability survey, whilst 10 took part in interviews. Six themes were generated from interviews with family carers. Based on our triangulation, four areas of convergence were identified, these included, programme usability and ease, attitudes towards the programme, perceptions of effectiveness, and programme relatability. Conclusions: In order to be acceptable, online interventions for carers of people with ID need to be accessible, understandable and easy to use, as carers time is precious. Further research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of online interventions for family carers, specifically considering which carers the intervention works for, and for whom it may not.

Keywords: intellectual disability, family carer, acceptability study, online intervention

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Authors: Tania Mitra

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Digital Activism or Cyber Activism uses digital media as a means to disseminate information and mobilize masses towards a specific goal. When digital activism was first born in the early 1990s, it was primarily used by groups of organized political activists. However, with the advent of social media, online activism has filtered down to the individual- one who does not necessarily belong to or identify with an agenda, group, or political party. A large part of digital activism today stems from the individual’s notion of what is right and wrong. This gives rise to a discourse around descriptive ethics and the implications of the independent digital activist. Although digital activism has paved the way for and bolstered support for causes like the MeToo Movement and Black Lives Matter, the lack of a unified, organized body has led to counterintuitive progressions and suspicions regarding the movements. The paper introduces the ideas of 'clout' culture, click baits, and clicktivism (the phenomenon where activism is reduced to a blind following of the online trends), to discuss the impacts of exclusive digital activism. By using Jeremy Bentham's utilitarian approach to ethics, that places emphasis on the best possible outcome for a society, the paper will show how individual online activism reaching for a larger, more common end can sometimes lead to an undermining of that end, not only in the online space but also how it manifests in the real world.

Keywords: digital activism, ethics, independent digital activist, utilitarianism

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Authors: Hong-Nam Choi, Hyeong-Wook Song, Sungwan Hong, Hong-Kyu Kim

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In Korea, elements that decide the quality of residential environment are not only diverse, but show deviation as well. However, people do not consider these elements and instead, they try to settle the uniformed style of residential environment, which focuses on the construction development of apartment housing and business based plans. Recently, block-unit redevelopment is becoming the standout alternative plan of standardize redevelopment projects, but constructions become inefficient because of indefinite planning criteria. In conclusion, the following research is about analyzing and categorizing the development method and legal ground of redevelopment project district, plan determinant and applicable standard. The purpose of this study is to become a basis in compatible analysis of planning standards that will happen in the future.

Keywords: shape restrictions, improvement of regulation, diversity of residential environment, classification of redevelopment project, planning criteria of redevelopment, special architectural district (SAD)

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Authors: Ismail El Gayar, Ossama Ismail, Yousri El Gamal

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This paper presented a technique to solve one of the transportation problems that faces us in real life which is the Bus Scheduling Problem. Most of the countries using buses in schools, companies and traveling offices as an example to transfer multiple passengers from many places to specific place and vice versa. This transferring process can cost time and money, so we build a decision support system that can solve this problem. In this paper, a genetic algorithm with the shortest path technique is used to generate a competitive solution to other well-known techniques. It also presents a comparison between our solution and other solutions for this problem.

Keywords: bus scheduling problem, decision support system, genetic algorithm, shortest path

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Authors: Razieh Karimian, Kim Burton, Mohammad Mehdi Naghizadeh, Maryam Karimian

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Introduction: Habitual upper body postures are associated with online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explored whether adding an exercise routine to an ergonomic advice intervention improves these postures. Methods: In this randomized trial, 42 male adolescent students with a forward head posture were randomly divided into two equal groups, one allocated to ergonomic advice alone and the other to ergonomic advice plus an exercise routine. The angles of forward head, shoulder, and back postures were measured with a photogrammetric profile technique before and after the 8-week intervention period. Findings: During home quarantine, 76% of the students used their mobile phones, while 35% used a table-chair-computer for online learning. While significant reductions of the forward, shoulder, and back angles were found in both groups (P < 0.001), the effect was significantly greater in the exercise group (P < 0.001: forward head, shoulder, and back angles reduced by some 9, 6, and 5 degrees respectively, compared with 4 degrees in the forward head, and 2 degrees in the shoulder and back angles for ergonomic advice alone. Conclusion: The exercise routine produced a greater improvement in habitual upper body postures than ergonomic advice alone, a finding that may extend beyond online learning at home.

Keywords: randomized trial, online learning, adolescent, posture, exercise, ergonomic advice

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Authors: Mahmoud Owais

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Public Transit (P.T) is very important means to reduce traffic congestion, to improve urban environmental conditions and consequently affects people social lives. Planning, designing and management of P.T are the key issues for offering a competitive mode that can compete with the private transportation. These transportation planning, designing and management issues are addressed in the Transit Network Design Problem (TNDP). It deals with a complete hierarchy of decision making process. It includes strategic, tactical and operational decisions. The main body of TNDP is two stages, namely; route design stage and frequency setting. The TNDP is extensively studied in the last five decades; however the research gate is still widely open due to its many practical and modeling challenges. In this paper, a comprehensive background is given to illustrate the issues and challenges related to the TNDP to help in directing the incoming researches towards the untouched areas of the problem.

Keywords: frequency setting, network design, transit planning, urban planning

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Authors: Frazer McDonald Ng'oma

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Online Learning in Malawi has only immersed in recent years due to the need to increase access to higher education, the need to accommodate upgrading students who wish to study on a part time basis while still continuing their work, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the closure of schools resulting in academic institutions seeking alternative modes of teaching and Learning to ensure continued teaching and Learning. Realizing that this mode of Learning is becoming a norm, institutions of higher Learning have started pioneering online post-graduate programs from which they can draw lessons before fully implementing it in undergraduate programs. Online learning pedagogy has not been fully grasped and institutions are still experimenting with this mode of Learning until online Learning guiding policies are created and its standards improved. This single case descriptive qualitative research study sought to investigate online postgraduate students’ perceptions and experiences with Student to student interactive pedagogy in their programs. The results of the study are to inform institutions and educators how to structure their programs to ensure that their students get the full satisfaction. 25 Masters students in 3 recently introduced online programs at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHES), were engaged; 19 were interviewed and 6 responded to questionnaires. The findings from the students were presented and categorized in themes and subthemes that emerged from the qualitative data that was collected and analysed following Colaizzi’s framework for data analysis that resulted in themes formulation. Findings revealed that Student to student interactions occurred in the online programme during live sessions, on class Whatsapp group, in discussion boards as well as on emails. Majority of the students (n=18) felt the level of students’ interaction initiated by the institution was too much, referring to mandatory interactions activities like commenting in discussion boards and attending to live sessons. Some participants (n=7) were satisfied with the level of interaction and also pointed out that they would be fine with more program-initiated student–to–student interactions. These participants attributed having been out of school for some time as a reason for needing peer interactions citing that it is already difficult to get back to a traditional on-campus school after some time, let alone an online class where there is no physical interaction with other students. In general, majority of the participants (n=18) did not value Student to student interaction in online Learning. The students suggested that having intensive student-to-student interaction in postgraduate online studies does not need to be a high priority for the institution and they further recommended that if a lecturer decides to incorporate student-to-student activities into a class, they should be optional.

Keywords: online learning, interactions, student interactions, post graduate students

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Authors: C. Pearcy, C. Rees

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Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and exposure and response prevention (ERP) are currently the most efficacious treatments for Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Many clients, however, remain symptomatic following treatment. As a result, refusal of treatment, withdrawal from treatment, and partial adherence to treatment are common amongst ERP. Such limitations have caused few professionals to actually engage in ERP therapy, which has warranted the exploration of alternative treatments. This study evaluated an online self-help treatment program for OCD (the OCD Doctor Online); a 4-week Metacognitive Therapy (MCT) program which has implemented strategies from Wells’ Metacognitive model of OCD. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether an online self-help treatment using MCT would reduce symptoms of OCD, reduce unhelpful metacognitions and improve quality of life. Treatment effectiveness was assessed using a case series methodology in 3 consecutively referred individuals. At post-treatment, all participants showed reductions in unhelpful metacognitive beliefs (MCQ-30) and improvements in quality of life (Q-LES-Q), which were maintained through to 4 week follow-up. Two of the three participants showed reductions in OCD symptomology (OCI-R), which were further reduced at 4-week follow-up. The present study suggests that internet-based self-help treatment may be an effective means of delivering MCT to adults with OCD.

Keywords: internet-based, metacognitive therapy, obsessive-compulsive disorder, self-help

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Authors: A. Suresh, Sreehari Rao Patri, K. S. R. Krishnaprasad

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An ultra low power capacitor less low-dropout voltage regulator with improved transient response using gain enhanced feed forward path compensation is presented in this paper. It is based on a cascade of a voltage amplifier and a transconductor stage in the feed forward path with regular error amplifier to form a composite gain-enhanced feed forward stage. It broadens the gain bandwidth and thus improves the transient response without substantial increase in power consumption. The proposed LDO, designed for a maximum output current of 100 mA in UMC 180 nm, requires a quiescent current of 69 µA. An undershoot of 153.79mV for a load current changes from 0mA to 100mA and an overshoot of 196.24mV for current change of 100mA to 0mA. The settling time is approximately 1.1 µs for the output voltage undershoot case. The load regulation is of 2.77 µV/mA at load current of 100mA. Reference voltage is generated by using an accurate band gap reference circuit of 0.8V.The costly features of SOC such as total chip area and power consumption is drastically reduced by the use of only a total compensation capacitance of 6pF while consuming power consumption of 0.096 mW.

Keywords: capacitor-less LDO, frequency compensation, transient response, latch, self-biased differential amplifier

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Authors: Monika Benedek

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This paper intends to present a pilot study of blended ear-training course at a Finnish university. The course ran for ten weeks and included both traditional (offline) group lessons for 90 minutes each week and an online learning platform. Twelve students majored in musicology and music education participated in the course. The aims of pilot research were to develop a new blended ear-training course at university level, to determine the ideal amount of workload in each part of the blended instruction (offline and online) and to develop the course material. The course material was selected from the Classical period in order to develop students’ aural skills together with their stylistic knowledge. Students were asked to provide written feedback of the course content and learning approaches of face-to-face group lessons and online learning platform each week during the course. Therefore, the teaching material is continuously planned for each week. This qualitative data collection and weekly analysis of data are on progress. However, based on the teacher-researcher’s experiences and the students’ feedback already collected, it could be seen that the blended instruction would be an ideal teaching strategy for ear-trainging at the music programmes of universities to develop students’ aural skills and stylistic knowledge. It is also presumed that such blended instruction with less workload would already improve university students’ aural skills and related musicianship skills. The preliminary findings of research also indicated that students generally found those ear-training tasks the most useful to learn online that combined listening, singing, singing and playing an instrument. This paper intends to summarise the final results of the pilot study.

Keywords: blended-learning, ear-training, higher music education, online-learning, pilot study

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Authors: Zi Yan

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The pedagogical value of self-assessment is widely recognized. However, identifying effective methods to help students develop productive SA practices poses a significant challenge. Since most students do not acquire self-assessment skills intuitively, they need instruction and guidance. This study is a randomized controlled trial aiming to test the effect of online self-assessment diaries on students’ achievement scores compared to a control group. Two groups of secondary school students (N=59), recruited through convenience sampling, participated in the study. The two groups were randomly designated to one of two conditions: control (n = 31) and online self-assessment diary (n = 28). The participants completed a curriculum-specific pre-test and a baseline survey on the first week of the 10-week study, as well as completed a post-test and survey by the tenth week. The results showed that the SA diary intervention had a significantly positive effect on post-intervention language learning scores after controlling for baseline scores. The findings highlight the potential of self-assessment to enhance educational outcomes, emphasizing its significant implications for educational policies that promote the integration of SA strategies into pedagogical practices.

Keywords: self-assessment, online diary, academic achievement, experimenal study

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Authors: Nusrat T. Chowdhury, M. F. Baki, A. Azab

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The production planning problem is concerned with specifying the optimal quantities to produce in order to meet the demand for a prespecified planning horizon with the least possible expenditure. Making the right decisions in production planning will affect directly the performance and productivity of a manufacturing firm, which is important for its ability to compete in the market. Therefore, developing and improving solution procedures for production planning problems is very significant. In this paper, we develop a Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition of a multi-item hierarchical production planning problem with capacity constraint and present a column generation approach to solve the problem. The original Mixed Integer Linear Programming model of the problem is decomposed item by item into a master problem and a number of subproblems. The capacity constraint is considered as the linking constraint between the master problem and the subproblems. The subproblems are solved using the dynamic programming approach. We also propose a multi-step iterative capacity allocation heuristic procedure to handle any kind of infeasibility that arises while solving the problem. We compare the computational performance of the developed solution approach against the state-of-the-art heuristic procedure available in the literature. The results show that the proposed heuristic-based decomposition approach improves the solution quality by 20% as compared to the literature.

Keywords: inventory, multi-level capacitated lot-sizing, emission control, setup carryover

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Authors: Dorra Kallel, Ines Kanoun, Diala Dhouib

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This paper elaborates a Systematic Literature Review SLR) to select the most outstanding studies that address the Menu Planning Problem (MPP) and to classify them according to the to the three following criteria: the used methods, types of patients and the required constraints. At first, a set of 4165 studies was selected. After applying the SLR’s guidelines, this collection was filtered to 13 studies using specific inclusion and exclusion criteria as well as an accurate analysis of each study. Second, the selected papers were invested to answer the proposed research questions. Finally, data synthesis and new perspectives for future works are incorporated in the closing section.

Keywords: Menu Planning Problem (MPP), Systematic Literature Review (SLR), classification, exact and approaches methods

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Authors: Nabil Saad, David Morgan, Manish Gupta

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Visibility has become a key component of air quality and is regulated in many areas by environmental laws such as the EPA Clean Air Act and Regional Haze Rule. Typically, visibility is calculated by estimating the optical absorption and scattering of both gases and aerosols. A major component of the aerosols’ climatic effect is due to their scattering and absorption of solar radiation, which are governed by their optical and physical properties. However, the accurate assessment of this effect on global warming, climate change, and air quality is made difficult due to uncertainties in the calculation of single scattering albedo (SSA). Experimental complications arise in the determination of the single scattering albedo of an aerosol particle since it requires the simultaneous measurement of both scattering and extinction. In fact, aerosol optical absorption, in particular, is a difficult measurement to perform, and it’s often associated with large uncertainties when using filter methods or difference methods. In this presentation, we demonstrate the use of a new open-path Optical Extinction Analyzer (OEA) in conjunction with a nephelometer and two particle sizers, emphasizing the benefits that co-employment of the OEA offers to derive the complex refractive index of aerosols and their single scattering albedo parameter. Various use cases, data reproducibility, and instrument calibration will also be presented to highlight the value proposition of this novel Open-Path OEA.

Keywords: aerosols, extinction, visibility, albedo

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Authors: Thapthep Paprach, Benya Lertsuwan

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Investment fraud is not a new criminal, but there are still more victims during the Internet of Things era. This kind of criminal has been classified as a national and transnational financial crime problem all over the world. In Thailand, the country has also been attacked by this kind of crime. This research concerns whether the mass media that is supposed to cover news about online investment scams realized and warned Thais about this crime. Thus, this study explores the value of news about investment fraud in terms of frequency. The methodology uses web crawling from the top 5 news agency websites that have the most access. We pull out all information reporting about investment fraud. The findings revealed that the ‘Khaosod’ news agency was the first rank in reporting on investment crime. On the other hand, ‘Matichon’ was the least reported. Thairat news agencies frequently reported such criminals from midnight to very early in the morning, while other news agencies reported during the daytime. The results between the frequency of news reporting about investment fraud and the monthly number of victim reports are not correlated. Although the most cases reported to Thai police were in February 2023, but the most news reported was in January 2023. In conclusion, there might be a negative correlation between the amount of investment fraud news reported and the number of victims.

Keywords: investment fraud, news value, online news report, Ponzi schemes, Romance scam

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Authors: Chengfang Wang, Zichao Wu, Jianying Zhou

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At present, much attention is paid to the development of new industrial parks in the era of inventory planning. Generally speaking, there are two types of development models: incremental development models and stock development models. The former relies on key projects to build a value innovation park, and the latter relies on the iterative update of the park to build a value innovation park. Take the Baiyun Western Digital Park as an example, considering the growth model of value units, determine the evaluation target. Based on a GIS platform, comprehensive land-use status, regulatory detailed planning, land use planning, blue-green ecological base, rail transit system, road network system, industrial park distribution, public service facilities, and other factors are used to carry out the land use within the planning multi-factor superimposed comprehensive evaluation, constructing a value unit evaluation system, and delineating value units based on implementation orientation and combining two different development models. The research hopes to provide a reference for the planning and construction of new domestic industrial parks.

Keywords: value units, GIS, multi-factor evaluation, implementation orientation

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Authors: Dung Nguyen, Yu Wei, Eric Henderson

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Analytical tools have been used for decades to assist in the development of forest plans. In 2016, a new decision support system, PRISM, was jointly developed by United States Forest Service (USFS) Northern Region and Colorado State University to support the forest planning process. Prism has a friendly user interface with functionality for database management, model development, data visualization, and sensitivity analysis. The software is tailored for USFS planning, but it is flexible enough to support planning efforts by other forestland owners and managers. Here, the core capability of PRISM and its applications in developing plans for several United States national forests are presented. The strengths of PRISM are also discussed to show its potential of being a preferable tool for managers and experts in the domain of forest management and planning.

Keywords: decision support, forest management, forest plan, graphical user interface, software

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Authors: Irna Malganova

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The paper assessed the effectiveness of the use of urban functional zoning using the method of M.A. Kramer by the example of Kazan city (Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation) using geoinformation technologies. On the basis of the data obtained, the calculations were carried out to obtain data on population density, overcoming geographic determinism, as well as the effectiveness of the formation of urban frameworks. The authors proposed recommendations for the effectiveness of municipal frameworks in the period from 2018 to 2021: economic, social, environmental and social. The study of effective territorial planning in a given period allows to display of the dynamics of planning changes, as well as assessment of changes in the formation of urban frameworks. Based on the incoming data obtained from the master plan of the municipal formation of Kazan, in the period from 2018 to 2021, there was an increase in population by 13841 people or 1.1% of the values of 2018. In addition, the area of Kazan increased by 2419.6 hectares. In the structure of the distribution of areas of functional zones, there was an increase in such zones of the municipality as zones of residential and public purpose. Changes in functional zoning, as well as territories requiring reorganization, are presented using geoinformation technologies in open-source software Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS 3.32). According to the calculations based on the method of functional zoning efficiency by M.A. Kreimer, the territorial-planning structure of Kazan City is quite effective. However, in the development of spatial planning concepts, it is possible to emphasize the weakened interest of the population in the development of territorial planning documents. Thus, the approach to spatial planning of Kazan differs from foreign methods and approaches based on the joint development of planning directions and development of territories of municipalities between the developers of the planning structure, business representatives and the population. The population plays the role of the target audience on which territorial planning is oriented. It follows that there is a need to satisfy the opinions and demands of the population.

Keywords: spatial development, metamorphosis, Kazan city, spatial planning, efficiency, geographic determinism., GIS, QGIS

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Authors: Alexander Huang

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Online learning sessions have become an indispensable complement to in-classroom-learning sessions in the past two years due to the emergence of Covid-19. Due to social distance requirements, many courses and interaction-intensive sessions, ranging from music classes to debate camps, are online. However, online learning imposes a significant challenge for engaging students effectively during the learning sessions. To resolve this problem, Project PWR, a non-profit organization formed by high school students, developed an online kid-teach-kid learning environment to boost students' learning interests and further improve students’ engagement during online learning. Fundamentally, the kid-teach-kid learning model creates an affinity space to form learning groups, where like-minded peers can learn and teach their interests. The role of the teacher can also help a kid identify the instructional task and set the rules and procedures for the activities. The approach also structures initial discussions to reveal a range of ideas, similar experiences, thinking processes, language use, and lower student-to-teacher ratio, which become enriched online learning experiences for upcoming lessons. In such a manner, a kid can practice both the teacher role and the student role to accumulate experiences on how to convey ideas and questions over the online session more efficiently and effectively. In this research work, we conducted two case studies involving a 3D-Design course and a Speech and Debate course taught by high-school kids. Through Project PWR, a kid first needs to design the course syllabus based on a provided template to become a student-teacher. Then, the Project PWR academic committee evaluates the syllabus and offers comments and suggestions for changes. Upon the approval of a syllabus, an experienced and voluntarily adult mentor is assigned to interview the student-teacher and monitor the lectures' progress. Student-teachers construct a comprehensive final evaluation for their students, which they grade at the end of the course. Moreover, each course requires conducting midterm and final evaluations through a set of surveyed replies provided by students to assess the student-teacher’s performance. The uniqueness of Project PWR lies in its established kid-teach-kids affinity space. Our research results showed that Project PWR could create a closed-loop system where a student can help a teacher improve and vice versa, thus improving the overall students’ engagement. As a result, Project PWR’s approach can train teachers and students to become better online learners and give them a solid understanding of what to prepare for and what to expect from future online classes. The kid-teach-kid learning model can significantly improve students' engagement in the online courses through the Project PWR to effectively supplement the traditional teacher-centric model that the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted substantially. Project PWR enables kids to share their interests and bond with one another, making the online learning environment effective and promoting positive and effective personal online one-on-one interactions.

Keywords: kid-teach-kid, affinity space, online learning, engagement, student-teacher

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Authors: Khaled M. Alhawiti

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This paper investigates the future of medicine and the use of Natural language processing. The importance of having correct clinical information available online is remarkable; improving patient care at affordable costs could be achieved using automated applications to use the online clinical information. The major challenge towards the retrieval of such vital information is to have it appropriately coded. Majority of the online patient reports are not found to be coded and not accessible as its recorded in natural language text. The use of Natural Language processing provides a feasible solution by retrieving and organizing clinical information, available in text and transforming clinical data that is available for use. Systems used in NLP are rather complex to construct, as they entail considerable knowledge, however significant development has been made. Newly formed NLP systems have been tested and have established performance that is promising and considered as practical clinical applications.

Keywords: clinical information, information retrieval, natural language processing, automated applications

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Authors: Gaosheng Ju

Abstract:

Our empirical evidence supports a model of consumption planning behaviors with the following two characteristics. First, households formulate a rational consumption target based on their desired target, displaying a diminishing sensitivity to the discrepancy between them. Second, the established target is a reference point for their planned consumption. The diminishing sensitivity leads to opposite reactions in higher and lower quantiles of both consumption targets and consumption growth to changes in economic conditions. This phenomenon accounts for the perplexingly low correlation between consumption and other macroeconomic variables. Furthermore, the opposing movements of consumption targets offer new insights into consumption-based asset pricing.

Keywords: consumption planning, reference point, diminishing sensitivity, quantile regression, asset pricing puzzles

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Authors: Gałka Aleksandra, Jelińska Justyna, Masiak Albert, Walentukiewicz Krzysztof

Abstract:

An offline signature is well-known however not the safest way to verify identity. Nowadays, to ensure proper authentication, i.e. in banking systems, multimodal verification is more widely used. In this paper the online signature analysis based on dynamic time warping (DTW) coupled with machine learning approaches has been presented. In our research signatures made with biometric pens were gathered. Signature features as well as their forgeries have been described. For verification of authenticity various methods were used including convolutional neural networks using DTW matrix and multilayer perceptron using sums of DTW matrix paths. System efficiency has been evaluated on signatures and signature forgeries collected on the same day. Results are presented and discussed in this paper.

Keywords: dynamic time warping, handwritten signature verification, feature-based recognition, online signature

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Authors: Aliya Ashraf, Mehreen Sirshar, Fatima Akhtar, Farwa Kazmi, Jawaria Wazir

Abstract:

Vision, the basis for performing navigational tasks, is absent or greatly reduced in visually impaired people due to which they face many hurdles. For increasing the navigational capabilities of visually impaired people a desktop application ODAPTA is presented in this paper. The application uses camera to capture video from surroundings, apply various image processing algorithms to get information about path and obstacles, tracks them and delivers that information to user through voice commands. Experimental results show that the application works effectively for straight paths in daylight.

Keywords: visually impaired, ODAPTA, Region of Interest (ROI), driver fatigue, face detection, expression recognition, CCD camera, artificial intelligence

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Authors: Jawairia Rasheed

Abstract:

Modern robots are often used for search and rescue purpose. One of the key areas of interest in such cases is learning complex environments. One of the key methodologies for robots in such cases is reinforcement learning. In reinforcement learning robots learn to move the path to reach the goal while avoiding obstacles. Q-learning, one of the most advancement of reinforcement learning is used for making the robots to learn the path. Robots learn by interacting with the environment to reach the goal. In this paper simulation model of bee-like robots is implemented in NETLOGO. In the start the learning rate was less and it increased with the passage of time. The bees successfully learned to reach the goal while avoiding obstacles through Q-learning technique.

Keywords: reinforlearning of bee like robots for reaching the goalcement learning for randomly placed obstacles, obstacle avoidance through q-learning, q-learning for obstacle avoidance,

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Authors: Adie, Julius Undiukeye

Abstract:

This research investigated the practice of academic leadership succession planning in Nigerian higher education institutions, drawing on the lived experiences of the academic staff of the case study institutions. It is multi-case study research that adopts a qualitative research method. Ten participants (mainly academic staff) were used as the study sample. The study was guided by four research questions. Semi-structured interviews and archival information from official documents formed the sources of data. The data collected was analyzed using the Constant Comparative Technique (CCT) to generate empirical insights and facts on the subject of this paper. The following findings emerged from the data analysis: firstly, there was no formalized leadership succession plan in place in the institutions that were sampled for this study; secondly, despite the absence of a formal succession plan, the data indicates that academics believe that succession planning is very significant for institutional survival; thirdly, existing practices of succession planning in the sampled institutions, takes the forms of job seniority ranking, political process and executive fiat, ad-hoc arrangement, and external hiring; and finally, data revealed that there are some barriers to the practice of succession planning, such as traditional higher education institutions’ characteristics (e.g. external talent search, shared governance, diversity, and equality in leadership appointment) and the lack of interest in leadership positions. Based on the research findings, some far-reaching recommendations were made, including the urgent need for the ‘formalization’ of leadership succession planning by the higher education institutions concerned, through the design of an official policy framework.

Keywords: academic leadership, succession, planning, higher education

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