Search results for: task scenarios

Authors: M. Bahari Mehrabani, Hua-Peng Chen

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Management and maintenance of coastal defence structures during the expected life cycle have become a real challenge for decision makers and engineers. Accurate evaluation of the current condition and future performance of flood defence structures is essential for effective practical maintenance strategies on the basis of available field inspection data. Moreover, as coastal defence structures age, it becomes more challenging to implement maintenance and management plans to avoid structural failure. Therefore, condition inspection data are essential for assessing damage and forecasting deterioration of ageing flood defence structures in order to keep the structures in an acceptable condition. The inspection data for flood defence structures are often collected using discrete visual condition rating schemes. In order to evaluate future condition of the structure, a probabilistic deterioration model needs to be utilised. However, existing deterioration models may not provide a reliable prediction of performance deterioration for a long period due to uncertainties. To tackle the limitation, a time-dependent condition-based model associated with a transition probability needs to be developed on the basis of condition grade scheme for flood defences. This paper presents a probabilistic method for predicting future performance deterioration of coastal flood defence structures based on condition grading inspection data and deterioration curves estimated by expert judgement. In condition-based deterioration modelling, the main task is to estimate transition probability matrices. The deterioration process of the structure related to the transition states is modelled according to Markov chain process, and a reliability-based approach is used to estimate the probability of structural failure. Visual inspection data according to the United Kingdom Condition Assessment Manual are used to obtain the initial condition grade curve of the coastal flood defences. The initial curves then modified in order to develop transition probabilities through non-linear regression based optimisation algorithms. The Monte Carlo simulations are then used to evaluate the future performance of the structure on the basis of the estimated transition probabilities. Finally, a case study is given to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method under no-maintenance and medium-maintenance scenarios. Results show that the proposed method can provide an effective predictive model for various situations in terms of available condition grading data. The proposed model also provides useful information on time-dependent probability of failure in coastal flood defences.

Keywords: condition grading, flood defense, performance assessment, stochastic deterioration modelling

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Authors: Indu Gamage

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Though commonly utilized as a language improvement technique, reading has not been fully employed by both language teachers and learners to develop reading comprehension skills in English as a second language. In a Sri Lankan context, this area has to be delved deep into as the learners’ show more propensity to analyze. Reading comprehension is an area that most language teachers and learners struggle with though it appears easy. Most ESL learners engage in reading tasks without being properly aware of the objective of doing reading comprehension. It is observed that when doing reading tasks, the language learners’ concern is more on the meanings of individual words than on the overall comprehension of the given text. The passiveness with which the ESL learners engage themselves in reading comprehension makes reading a tedious task for the learner thereby giving the learner a sense of disappointment at the end. Certain reading tasks take the form of translations. The active cognitive participation of the learner in the mode of using productive strategies for predicting, employing schemata and using contextual clues seems quite less. It was hypothesized that the learners’ lack of knowledge of the productive strategies of reading was the major obstacle that makes reading comprehension a tedious task for them. This study is based on a group of 30 tertiary students who read English only as a fundamental requirement for their degree. They belonged to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. Almost all learners hailed from areas where English was hardly utilized in their day to day conversations. The study is carried out in the mode of a questionnaire to check their opinions on reading and a test to check whether the learners are using productive strategies of reading when doing reading comprehension tasks. The test comprised reading questions covering major productive strategies for reading. Then the results were analyzed to see the degree of their active engagement in comprehending the text. The findings depicted the validity of the hypothesis as grounds behind the difficulties related to reading comprehension.

Keywords: reading, comprehension, skills, reading strategies

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Authors: Dino Carpentras, Paul J. Maher, Caoimhe O'Reilly, Michael Quayle

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Opinion dynamics is a sub-field of agent-based modeling that focuses on people’s opinions and their evolutions over time. Despite the rapid increase in the number of publications in this field, it is still not clear how to apply these models to real-world scenarios. Indeed, there is no agreement on how people update their opinion while interacting. Furthermore, it is not clear if different topics will show the same dynamics (e.g., more polarized topics may behave differently). These problems are mostly due to the lack of experimental validation of the models. Some previous studies started bridging this gap in the literature by directly measuring people’s opinions before and after the interaction. However, these experiments force people to express their opinion as a number instead of using natural language (and then, eventually, encoding it as numbers). This is not the way people normally interact, and it may strongly alter the measured dynamics. Another limitation of these studies is that they usually average all the topics together, without checking if different topics may show different dynamics. In our work, we collected data from 200 participants on 5 unpolarized topics. Participants expressed their opinions in natural language (“agree” or “disagree”). We also measured the certainty of their answer, expressed as a number between 1 and 10. However, this value was not shown to other participants to keep the interaction based on natural language. We then showed the opinion (and not the certainty) of another participant and, after a distraction task, we repeated the measurement. To make the data compatible with opinion dynamics models, we multiplied opinion and certainty to obtain a new parameter (here called “continuous opinion”) ranging from -10 to +10 (using agree=1 and disagree=-1). We firstly checked the 5 topics individually, finding that all of them behaved in a similar way despite having different initial opinions distributions. This suggested that the same model could be applied for different unpolarized topics. We also observed that people tend to maintain similar levels of certainty, even when they changed their opinion. This is a strong violation of what is suggested from common models, where people starting at, for example, +8, will first move towards 0 instead of directly jumping to -8. We also observed social influence, meaning that people exposed with “agree” were more likely to move to higher levels of continuous opinion, while people exposed with “disagree” were more likely to move to lower levels. However, we also observed that the effect of influence was smaller than the effect of random fluctuations. Also, this configuration is different from standard models, where noise, when present, is usually much smaller than the effect of social influence. Starting from this, we built an opinion dynamics model that explains more than 80% of data variance. This model was also able to show the natural conversion of polarization from unpolarized states. This experimental approach offers a new way to build models grounded on experimental data. Furthermore, the model offers new insight into the fundamental terms of opinion dynamics models.

Keywords: experimental validation, micro-dynamics rule, opinion dynamics, update rule

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Authors: Salman Naseer, Usman Zafar, Iqra Zafar

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This study explores the implication of Vehicular Adhoc Network (VANET) - in the rural and urban scenarios that is one domain of Mobile Adhoc Network (MANET). VANET provides wireless communication between vehicle to vehicle and also roadside units. The Federal Commission Committee of United States of American has been allocated 75 MHz of the spectrum band in the 5.9 GHz frequency range for dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) that are specifically designed to enhance any road safety applications and entertainment/information applications. There are several vehicular related projects viz; California path, car 2 car communication consortium, the ETSI, and IEEE 1609 working group that have already been conducted to improve the overall road safety or traffic management. After the critical literature review, the selection of routing protocols is determined, and its performance was well thought-out in the urban and rural scenarios. Numerous routing protocols for VANET are applied to carry out current research. Its evaluation was conceded with the help of selected protocols through simulation via performance metric i.e. throughput and packet drop. Excel and Google graph API tools are used for plotting the graphs after the simulation results in order to compare the selected routing protocols which result with each other. In addition, the sum of the output from each scenario was computed to undoubtedly present the divergence in results. The findings of the current study present that DSR gives enhanced performance for low packet drop and high throughput as compared to AODV and DSDV in an urban congested area and in rural environments. On the other hand, in low-density area, VANET AODV gives better results as compared to DSR. The worth of the current study may be judged as the information exchanged between vehicles is useful for comfort, safety, and entertainment. Furthermore, the communication system performance depends on the way routing is done in the network and moreover, the routing of the data based on protocols implement in the network. The above-presented results lead to policy implication and develop our understanding of the broader spectrum of VANET.

Keywords: AODV, DSDV, DSR, Adhoc network

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Authors: Martin Pellon Consunji

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Due to the rise in popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto assets as a store of wealth and speculative investment, there is an ever-growing demand for automated trading tools, such as bots, in order to gain an advantage over the market. Traditionally, trading in the stock market was done by professionals with years of training who understood patterns and exploited market opportunities in order to gain a profit. However, nowadays a larger portion of market participants are at minimum aided by market-data processing bots, which can generally generate more stable signals than the average human trader. The rise in trading bot usage can be accredited to the inherent advantages that bots have over humans in terms of processing large amounts of data, lack of emotions of fear or greed, and predicting market prices using past data and artificial intelligence, hence a growing number of approaches have been brought forward to tackle this task. However, the general limitation of these approaches can still be broken down to the fact that limited historical data doesn’t always determine the future, and that a lot of market participants are still human emotion-driven traders. Moreover, developing markets such as those of the cryptocurrency space have even less historical data to interpret than most other well-established markets. Due to this, some human traders have gone back to the tried-and-tested traditional technical analysis tools for exploiting market patterns and simplifying the broader spectrum of data that is involved in making market predictions. This paper proposes a method which uses neuro evolution techniques on both sentimental data and, the more traditionally human-consumed, technical analysis data in order to gain a more accurate forecast of future market behavior and account for the way both automated bots and human traders affect the market prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This study’s approach uses evolutionary algorithms to automatically develop increasingly improved populations of bots which, by using the latest inflows of market analysis and sentimental data, evolve to efficiently predict future market price movements. The effectiveness of the approach is validated by testing the system in a simulated historical trading scenario, a real Bitcoin market live trading scenario, and testing its robustness in other cryptocurrency and stock market scenarios. Experimental results during a 30-day period show that this method outperformed the buy and hold strategy by over 260% in terms of net profits, even when taking into consideration standard trading fees.

Keywords: neuro-evolution, Bitcoin, trading bots, artificial neural networks, technical analysis, evolutionary algorithms

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Authors: Alma Mendoza-Ponce, Rogelio Corona-Núñez, Florian Kraxner

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Mexico is a megadiverse country and it has nearly halved its natural vegetation in the last century due to agricultural and livestock expansion. Impacts of land use cover change and climate change are unevenly distributed and spatial prioritization to minimize the affectations on biodiversity is crucial. Global and national efforts for prioritizing biodiversity conservation show that ~33% to 45% of Mexico should be protected. The width of these targets makes difficult to lead resources. We use a framework based on vulnerability and irreplaceability to prioritize conservation efforts in Mexico. Vulnerability considered exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity under two scenarios (business as usual, BAU based, on the SSP2 and RCP 4.5 and a Green scenario, based on the SSP1 and the RCP 2.6). Exposure to land use is the magnitude of change from natural vegetation to anthropogenic covers while exposure to climate change is the difference between current and future values for both scenarios. Sensitivity was considered as the number of endemic species of terrestrial vertebrates which are critically endangered and endangered. Adaptive capacity is used as the ration between the percentage of converted area (natural to anthropogenic) and the percentage of protected area at municipality level. The results suggest that by 2050, between 11.6 and 13.9% of Mexico show vulnerability ≥ 50%, and by 2070, between 12.0 and 14.8%, in the Green and BAU scenario, respectively. From an ecosystem perspective cloud forests, followed by tropical dry forests, natural grasslands and temperate forests will be the most vulnerable (≥ 50%). Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrates; 62% of the endemic amphibians are critically endangered or endangered while 39%, 12% and 9% of the mammals, birds, and reptiles, respectively. However, the distribution of these amphibians counts for only 3.3% of the country, while mammals, birds, and reptiles in these categories represent 10%, 16% and 29% of Mexico. There are 5 municipalities out of the 2,457 that Mexico has that represent 31% of the most vulnerable areas (70%).These municipalities account for 0.05% of Mexico. This multiscale approach can be used to address resources to conservation targets as ecosystems, municipalities or species considering land use cover change, climate change and biodiversity uniqueness.

Keywords: biodiversity, climate change, land use change, Mexico, vulnerability

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Authors: Antonina A. Shumakova, Sergey A. Khotimchenko

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The relevance of research is associated, on the one hand, with an ever-increasing volume of production and the expansion of the scope of application of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs), and on the other hand, with the lack of sufficient scientific information on the nature of the interactions of nanoparticles (NPs) with components of biogenic and abiogenic origin. In particular, studying the effect of ENMs (TiO2 NPs, SiO2 NPs, Al2O3 NPs, fullerenol) on the toxicometric characteristics of common contaminants such as lead and cadmium is an important hygienic task, given the high probability of their joint presence in food products. Data were obtained characterizing a multidirectional change in the toxicity of model toxicants when they are co-administered with various types of ENMs. One explanation for this fact is the difference in the adsorption capacity of ENMs, which was further studied in in vitro studies. For this, a method was proposed based on in vitro modeling of conditions simulating the environment of the small intestine. It should be noted that the obtained data are in good agreement with the results of in vivo experiments: - with the combined administration of lead and TiO2 NPs, there were no significant changes in the accumulation of lead in rat liver; in other organs (kidneys, spleen, testes and brain), the lead content was lower than in animals of the control group; - studying the combined effect of lead and Al2O3 NPs, a multiple and significant increase in the accumulation of lead in rat liver was observed with an increase in the dose of Al2O3 NPs. For other organs, the introduction of various doses of Al2O3 NPs did not significantly affect the bioaccumulation of lead; - with the combined administration of lead and SiO2 NPs in different doses, there was no increase in lead accumulation in all studied organs. Based on the data obtained, it can be assumed that at least three scenarios of the combined effects of ENMs and chemical contaminants on the body: - ENMs quite firmly bind contaminants in the gastrointestinal tract and such a complex becomes inaccessible (or inaccessible) for absorption; in this case, it can be expected that the toxicity of both ENMs and contaminants will decrease; - the complex formed in the gastrointestinal tract has partial solubility and can penetrate biological membranes and / or physiological barriers of the body; in this case, ENMs can play the role of a kind of conductor for contaminants and, thus, their penetration into the internal environment of the body increases, thereby increasing the toxicity of contaminants; - ENMs and contaminants do not interact with each other in any way, therefore the toxicity of each of them is determined only by its quantity and does not depend on the quantity of another component. Authors hypothesized that the degree of adsorption of various elements on the surface of ENMs may be a unique characteristic of their action, allowing a more accurate understanding of the processes occurring in a living organism.

Keywords: absorption, cadmium, engineered nanomaterials, lead

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Authors: Yael Deutsch, Arieh Gavious

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The threat of aviation terrorism and its potential damage became significant after the 9/11 terror attacks. These attacks have led authorities and leaders to suggest that security personnel should overcome politically correct scruples about profiling and use it openly. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the smart usage of profiling and its advantages. We analyze game models that are suitable to specific real-world scenarios, focusing on profiling as a tool to detect potential violators, such as terrorists and smugglers. We provide analytical and clear answers to difficult questions, and by that help fighting against harmful violation acts.

Keywords: game theory, profiling, security, nash equilibrium

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Authors: Weichen Chang

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To create a guided teaching method for AI generative drawing design, this paper develops a set of teaching models for AI generative drawing (DCAI), which combines learning modes such as problem-solving, thematic inquiry, phenomenon-based, task-oriented, and DFC . Through the information security AI picture book learning guided programs and content, the application of participatory action research (PAR) and interview methods to explore the dual knowledge of Context and ChatGPT (DCAI) for AI to guide the development of students' AI learning skills. In the interviews, the students highlighted five main learning outcomes (self-study, critical thinking, knowledge generation, cognitive development, and presentation of work) as well as the challenges of implementing the model. Through the use of DCAI, students will enhance their consensus awareness of generative mapping analysis and group cooperation, and they will have knowledge that can enhance AI capabilities in DCAI inquiry and future life. From this paper, it is found that the conclusions are (1) The good use of DCAI can assist students in exploring the value of their knowledge through the power of stories and finding the meaning of knowledge communication; (2) Analyze the transformation power of the integrity and coherence of the story through the context so as to achieve the tension of ‘starting and ending’; (3) Use ChatGPT to extract inspiration, arrange story compositions, and make prompts that can communicate with people and convey emotions. Therefore, new knowledge construction methods will be one of the effective methods for AI learning in the face of artificial intelligence, providing new thinking and new expressions for interdisciplinary design and design education practice.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, task-oriented, contextualization, design education

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Authors: Mahalakshmi Vivekanandan S.

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As per the recent changes happening in the global policies, climate-related changes and the impact it causes across every sector are viewed as green swan events – in essence, climate-related changes can often happen and lead to risk and a lot of uncertainty, but needs to be mitigated instead of considering them as black swan events. This brings about a question on how this risk can be computed so that the financial institutions can plan to mitigate it. Climate-related changes impact all risk types – credit risk, market risk, operational risk, liquidity risk, reputational risk and other risk types. And the models required to compute this has to consider the different industrial needs of the counterparty, as well as the factors that are contributing to this – be it in the form of different risk drivers, or the different transmission channels or the different approaches and the granular form of data availability. This brings out the suggestion that the climate-related changes, though it affects Pillar I risks, will be a Pillar II risk. This has to be modeled specifically based on the financial institution’s actual exposure to different industries instead of generalizing the risk charge. And this will have to be considered as the additional capital to be met by the financial institution in addition to their Pillar I risks, as well as the existing Pillar II risks. In this paper, the author presents a risk assessment framework to model and assess climate change risks - for both credit and market risks. This framework helps in assessing the different scenarios and how the different transition risks affect the risk associated with the different parties. This research paper delves into the topic of the increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases that in turn cause global warming. It then considers the various scenarios of having the different risk drivers impacting the Credit and market risk of an institution by understanding the transmission channels and also considering the transition risk. The paper then focuses on the industry that’s fast seeing a disruption: the automobile industry. The paper uses the framework to show how the climate changes and the change to the relevant policies have impacted the entire financial institution. Appropriate statistical models for forecasting, anomaly detection and scenario modeling are built to demonstrate how the framework can be used by the relevant agencies to understand their financial risks. The paper also focuses on the climate risk calculation for the Pillar II Capital calculations and how it will make sense for the bank to maintain this in addition to their regular Pillar I and Pillar II capital.

Keywords: capital calculation, climate risk, credit risk, pillar ii risk, scenario modeling

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Authors: Neha Bhattacharyya, Soumendra Singh, Amrita Banerjee, Ria Ghosh, Oindrila Sinha, Nairit Das, Rajkumar Gayen, Somya Subhra Pal, Sahely Ganguly, Tanmoy Dasgupta, Tanusree Dasgupta, Pulak Mondal, Aniruddha Adhikari, Sharmila Sarkar, Debasish Bhattacharyya, Asim Kumar Mallick, Om Prakash Singh, Samir Kumar Pal

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Background: We aim to develop an integrated device comprised of single-probe EEG and CCD-based motion sensors for a more objective measure of Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). While the integrated device (MAHD) relies on the EEG signal (spectral density of beta wave) for the assessment of attention during a given structured task (painting three segments of a circle using three different colors, namely red, green and blue), the CCD sensor depicts movement pattern of the subjects engaged in a continuous performance task (CPT). A statistical analysis of the attention and movement patterns was performed, and the accuracy of the completed tasks was analysed using indigenously developed software. The device with the embedded software, called MAHD, is intended to improve certainty with criterion E (i.e. whether symptoms are better explained by another condition). Methods: We have used the EEG signal from a single-channel dry sensor placed on the frontal lobe of the head of the subjects (3-5 years old pre-schoolers). During the painting of three segments of a circle using three distinct colors (red, green, and blue), absolute power for delta and beta EEG waves from the subjects are found to be correlated with relaxation and attention/cognitive load conditions. While the relaxation condition of the subject hints at hyperactivity, a more direct CCD-based motion sensor is used to track the physical movement of the subject engaged in a continuous performance task (CPT) i.e., separation of the various colored balls from one table to another. We have used our indigenously developed software for the statistical analysis to derive a scale for the objective assessment of ADHD. We have also compared our scale with clinical ADHD evaluation. Results: In a limited clinical trial with preliminary statistical analysis, we have found a significant correlation between the objective assessment of the ADHD subjects with that of the clinician’s conventional evaluation. Conclusion: MAHD, the integrated device, is supposed to be an auxiliary tool to improve the accuracy of ADHD diagnosis by supporting greater criterion E certainty.

Keywords: ADHD, CPT, EEG signal, motion sensor, psychometric test

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Authors: Samiksha Raviraja, Junaid Arif

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One of the most important abilities in species is the ability to communicate. This paper proposes steps to take when and if aliens came in contact with humans, and how humans would communicate with them. The situation would be a time-sensitive scenario, meaning that communication is at the utmost importance if such an event were to happen. First, humans would need to establish mutual peace by conveying that there is no threat to the alien race. Second, the aliens would need to acknowledge this understanding and reciprocate. This would be extremely difficult to do regardless of their intelligence level unless they are very human-like and have similarities to our way of communicating. The first step towards understanding their mind is to analyze their level of intelligence - Level 1-Low intelligence, Level 2-Human-like intelligence or Level 3-Advanced or High Intelligence. These three levels go hand in hand with the Kardashev scale. Further, the Barrow scale will also be used to categorize alien species in hopes of developing a common universal language to communicate in. This paper will delve into how the level of intelligence can be used toward achieving communication with aliens by predicting various possible scenarios and outcomes by proposing an intensive categorization system. This can be achieved by studying their Emotional and Intelligence Quotient (along with technological and scientific knowledge/intelligence). The limitations and capabilities of their intelligence must also be studied. By observing how they respond and react (expressions and senses) to different kinds of scenarios, items and people, the data will help enable good categorisation. It can be hypothesised that the more human-like aliens are or can relate to humans, the more likely it is that communication is possible. Depending on the situation, either human can teach aliens a human language, or humans can learn an alien language, or both races work together to develop a mutual understanding or mode of communication. There are three possible ways of contact. Aliens visit Earth, or humans discover aliens while on space exploration or through technology in the form of signals. A much rarer case would be humans and aliens running into each other during a space expedition of their own. The first two possibilities allow a more in-depth analysis of the alien life and enhanced results compared. The importance of finding a method of talking with aliens is important in order to not only protect Earth and humans but rather for the advancement of Science through the shared knowledge between the two species.

Keywords: intelligence, Kardashev scale, Barrow scale, alien civilizations, emotional and intelligence quotient

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Authors: Robel Habtemariam

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Globally, wind energy and photovoltaics (PV) solar energy are among the leading renewable energy sources (RES) in terms of installed capacity. In order to increase the contribution of RES to the power supply system, large scale energy integration is required, mainly due to wind energy and PV. In this paper, an investigation has been made on the electrical power supply systems of Taiwan and Greece in order to integrate high level of wind and photovoltaic (PV) to increase the penetration of renewable energy resources. Currently, both countries heavily depend on fossil fuels to meet the demand and to generate adequate electricity. Therefore, this study is carried out to look into the two cases power supply system by developing a methodology that includes major power units. To address the analysis, an approach for simulation of power systems is formulated and applied. The simulation is based on the non-dynamic analysis of the electrical system. This simulation results in calculating the energy contribution of different types of power units; namely the wind, PV, non-flexible and flexible power units. The calculation is done for three different scenarios (2020, 2030, & 2050), where the first two scenarios are based on national targets and scenario 2050 is a reflection of ambitious global targets. By 2030 in Taiwan, the input of the power units is evaluated as 4.3% (wind), 3.7% (PV), 65.2 (non-flexible), 25.3% (flexible), and 1.5% belongs to hydropower plants. In Greece, much higher renewable energy contribution is observed for the same scenario with 21.7% (wind), 14.3% (PV), 38.7% (non-flexible), 14.9% (flexible), and 10.3% (hydro). Moreover, it examines the ability of the power systems to deal with the variable nature of the wind and PV generation. For this reason, an investigation has also been done on the use of the combined wind power with pumped storage systems (WPS) to enable the system to exploit the curtailed wind energy & surplus PV and thus increase the wind and PV installed capacity and replace the peak supply by conventional power units. Results show that the feasibility of pumped storage can be justified in the high scenario (that is the scenario of 2050) of RES integration especially in the case of Greece.

Keywords: large scale energy integration, photovoltaics solar energy, pumped storage systems, renewable energy sources

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Authors: Rizky Oktaviana

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The main purpose of studying lies in improving students’ understanding. Teachers usually use written test to measure students’ understanding about learning material especially mathematical learning material. This common method actually has a lack point, such that in mathematics content, written test only show procedural steps to solve mathematical problems. Therefore, teachers unable to see whether students actually understand about mathematical concepts and the relation between concepts or not. One of the best tools to observe students’ understanding about the mathematical concepts is concept map. The goal of this research is to describe junior high school students understanding about mathematical concepts through Concept Maps based on the difference of mathematical ability. There were three steps in this research; the first step was choosing the research subjects by giving mathematical ability test to students. The subjects of this research are three students with difference mathematical ability, high, intermediate and low mathematical ability. The second step was giving concept mapping training to the chosen subjects. The last step was giving concept mapping task about the function to the subjects. Nodes which are the representation of concepts of function were provided in concept mapping task. The subjects had to use the nodes in concept mapping. Based on data analysis, the result of this research shows that subject with high mathematical ability has formal understanding, due to that subject could see the connection between concepts of function and arranged the concepts become concept map with valid hierarchy. Subject with intermediate mathematical ability has relational understanding, because subject could arranged all the given concepts and gave appropriate label between concepts though it did not represent the connection specifically yet. Whereas subject with low mathematical ability has poor understanding about function, it can be seen from the concept map which is only used few of the given concepts because subject could not see the connection between concepts. All subjects have instrumental understanding for the relation between linear function concept, quadratic function concept and domain, co domain, range.

Keywords: concept map, concept mapping, mathematical concepts, understanding

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Authors: S. MacDougall-Davis, S. Wysling, R. Willmore

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Background: The application of good non-technical skills, also known as crew resource management (CRM), is central to the delivery of safe, effective healthcare. The authors have been running remote trauma courses for over 10 years, primarily focussing on developing participants’ CRM in time-critical, high-stress clinical situations. The course has undergone an iterative process over the past 10 years. We employ a number of experiential learning techniques for improving CRM, including small group workshops, military command tasks, high fidelity simulations with reflective debriefs, and a ‘flipped classroom’, where participants are asked to create their own simulations and assess and debrief their colleagues’ CRM. We created a randomised simulation study to assess the impact of our course on UK medical students’ CRM, both at an individual and a teams level. Methods: Sixteen students took part. Four clinical scenarios were devised, designed to be of similar urgency and complexity. Professional moulage effects and experienced clinical actors were used to increase fidelity and to further simulate high-stress environments. Participants were block randomised into teams of 4; each team was randomly assigned to one pre-course simulation. They then underwent our 5 day remote trauma CRM course. Post-course, students were re-randomised into four new teams; each was randomly assigned to a post-course simulation. All simulations were videoed. The footage was reviewed by two independent CRM-trained assessors, who were blinded to the before/after the status of the simulations. Assessors used the internationally validated team emergency assessment measure (TEAM) to evaluate key areas of team performance, as well as a global outcome rating. Prior to the study, assessors had scored two unrelated scenarios using the same assessment tool, demonstrating 89% concordance. Participants also completed pre- and post-course questionnaires. Likert scales were used to rate individuals’ perceived NTS ability and their confidence to work in a team in time-critical, high-stress situations. Results: Following participation in the course, a significant improvement in CRM was observed in all areas of team performance. Furthermore, the global outcome rating for team performance was markedly improved (40-70%; mean 55%), thus demonstrating an impact at Level 4 of Kirkpatrick’s hierarchy. At an individual level, participants’ self-perceived CRM improved markedly after the course (35-70% absolute improvement; mean 55%), as did their confidence to work in a team in high-stress situations. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that with a short, cost-effective course, using easily reproducible teaching sessions, it is possible to significantly improve participants’ CRM skills, both at an individual and, perhaps more importantly, at a teams level. The successful functioning of multi-disciplinary teams is vital in a healthcare setting, particularly in high-stress, time-critical situations. Good CRM is of paramount importance in these scenarios. The authors believe that these concepts should be introduced from the earliest stages of medical education, thus promoting a culture of effective CRM and embedding an early appreciation of the importance of these skills in enabling safe and effective healthcare.

Keywords: crew resource management, non-technical skills, training, simulation

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Authors: In-Tsang Lin, Chiching Wei

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Reading order is an important task in many digitization scenarios involving the preservation of the logical structure of a document. From the paper survey, it finds that the state-of-the-art algorithm could not fulfill to get the accurate reading order in the portable document format (PDF) files with rich formats, diverse layout arrangement. In recent years, most of the studies on the analysis of reading order have targeted the specific problem of associating layout components with logical labels, while less attention has been paid to the problem of extracting relationships the problem of detecting the reading order relationship between logical components, such as cross-references. Over 3 years of development, the company Foxit has demonstrated the layout recognition (LR) engine in revision 20601 to eager for the accuracy of the reading order. The bounding box of each paragraph can be obtained correctly by the Foxit LR engine, but the result of reading-order is not always correct for single-column, and two-column layout format due to the table issue, formula issue, and multiple mini separated bounding box and footer issue. Thus, the algorithm is developed to improve the accuracy of the reading order based on the Foxit LR structure. In this paper, a creative observation method (Here called the MESH method) is provided here to open a new chance in the research of the reading-order field. Here two important parameters are introduced, one parameter is the number of the bounding box on the right side of the present bounding box (NRight), and another parameter is the number of the bounding box under the present bounding box (Nunder). And the normalized x-value (x/the whole width), the normalized y-value (y/the whole height) of each bounding box, the x-, and y- position of each bounding box were also put into consideration. Initial experimental results of single column layout format demonstrate a 19.33% absolute improvement in accuracy of the reading-order over 7 PDF files (total 150 pages) using our proposed method based on the LR structure over the baseline method using the LR structure in 20601 revision, which its accuracy of the reading-order is 72%. And for two-column layout format, the preliminary results demonstrate a 44.44% absolute improvement in accuracy of the reading-order over 2 PDF files (total 18 pages) using our proposed method based on the LR structure over the baseline method using the LR structure in 20601 revision, which its accuracy of the reading-order is 0%. Until now, the footer issue and a part of multiple mini separated bounding box issue can be solved by using the MESH method. However, there are still three issues that cannot be solved, such as the table issue, formula issue, and the random multiple mini separated bounding boxes. But the detection of the table position and the recognition of the table structure are out of the scope in this paper, and there is needed another research. In the future, the tasks are chosen- how to detect the table position in the page and to extract the content of the table.

Keywords: document processing, reading order, observation method, layout recognition

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Authors: Neeley Current, Fatih Demir, Kenneth Haggerty, Blake Naughton, Isa Jahnke

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Educational systems seek reform using data-intensive continuous improvement processes known as strategic improvement plans (SIPs). Schools turn to digital systems to monitor, analyze and report SIPs. One technical challenge of these digital systems focuses on integrating a highly diverse set of data sources. Another challenge is to create a learnable sociotechnical system to help administrators, principals and teachers add, manipulate and interpret data. This study explores to what extent one particular system is usable and useful for strategic planning activities and whether intended users see the benefit of the system achieve the goal of improving workflow related to strategic planning in schools. In a three-phase study, researchers used sociotechnical design methods to understand the current workflow, technology use, and processes of teachers and principals surrounding their strategic improvement planning. Additionally, design review and task analysis usability methods were used to evaluate task completion, usability, and user satisfaction of the system. The resulting socio-technical models illustrate the existing work processes and indicate how and at which places in the workflow the newly developed system could have an impact. The results point to the potential of the system but also indicate that it was initially too complicated for use. However, the diverse users see the potential benefits, especially to overcome the diverse set of data sources, and that the system could fill a gap for schools in planning and conducting strategic improvement plans.

Keywords: continuous improvement process, education reform, strategic improvement planning, sociotechnical design, software development, usability

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Authors: Fitih Ademe, Kibebew Kibret, Sheleme Beyene, Mezgebu Getnet, Gashaw Meteke

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Pressing demands for agricultural products and its associated pressure on water availability in the semi-arid areas demanded information for strategic decision-making in the changing climate conditions of Ethiopia. Availing such information through traditional agronomic research methods is not sufficient unless supported through the application of decision-support tools. The CERES (Crop Environmental Resource Synthesis) model in DSSAT-CSM was evaluated for estimating yield and water productivity of maize under two soil types (Andosol and Luvisol) of the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia. A six-year data (2010 – 2017) obtained from national fertilizer determination experiments were used for model evaluation. Pertinent statistical indices were employed to evaluate model performance. Following model evaluation, yield and rain-water productivity of maize was assessed for the baseline (1981-2010) and future climate (2050’s and 2080’s) scenario. The model performed well in predicting phenology, growth, and yield of maize for the different seasons and phosphorous rates. A good agreement between simulated and observed grain yield was indicated by low values of the RMSE (0.15 - 0.37 Mg/ha) and other indices for the two soil types. The evaluated model predicted a decline in the potential (23.8 to 26.7% at Melkassa and from 21.7 to 26.1% at Ziway under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 climate change scenarios, respectively) and water-limited yield (15 to 18.3% at Melkassa and by 6.5 to 10.5% at Ziway) in the mid-century due to climate change. Consequently, a decline in water productivity was projected in the future periods that necessitate availing options to improve water productivity in the region. In conclusion, the DSSAT-CERES-maize model can be used to simulate maize (Melkassa-2) phenology, growth and grain yield, as well as simulate water productivity under different management scenarios that can help to identify options to improve water productivity in the changing climate of the semi-arid central Rift valley of Ethiopia.

Keywords: andosol, CERES-maize, luvisol, model evaluation, water productivity

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Authors: Alex Gonzalez Caceres, Jan Karlshøj, Tor Arvid Vik

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Life cycle of residential buildings are expected to be several decades, 40% of European residential buildings have inefficient energy conservation measure. The existing building represents 20-40% of the energy use and the CO₂ emission. Since net zero energy buildings are a short-term goal, (should be achieved by EU countries after 2020), is necessary to plan the next logical step, which is to prepare the existing outdated stack of building to retrofit them into an energy efficiency buildings. In order to accomplish this, two specialize and widespread tool can be used Building Information Modelling (BIM) and life-cycle assessment (LCA). BIM and LCA are tools used by a variety of disciplines; both are able to represent and analyze the constructions in different stages. The combination of these technologies could improve greatly the retrofitting techniques. The incorporation of the carbon footprint, introducing a single database source for different material analysis. To this is added the possibility of considering different analysis approaches such as costs and energy saving. Is expected with these measures, enrich the decision-making. The methodology is based on two main activities; the first task involved the collection of data this is accomplished by literature review and interview with experts in the retrofitting field and BIM technologies. The results of this task are presented as an evaluation checklist of BIM ability to manage data and improve decision-making in retrofitting projects. The last activity involves an evaluation using the results of the previous tasks, to check how far the IFC format can support the requirements by each specialist, and its uses by third party software. The result indicates that BIM/LCA have a great potential to improve the retrofitting process in existing buildings, but some modification must be done in order to meet the requirements of the specialists for both, retrofitting and LCA evaluators.

Keywords: retrofitting, BIM, LCA, energy efficiency

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Authors: Lara Dutil-Fafard, Caroline Rhéaume, Patrick Archambault, Daniel Lafond, Neal W. Pollock

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Improving resources for medical autonomy of astronauts in prolonged space missions, such as a Mars mission, requires not only technology development, but also decision-making support systems. The Advanced Crew Medical System - Medical Condition Requirements study, funded by the Canadian Space Agency, aimed to create knowledge content and a scenario-based query capability to support medical autonomy of astronauts. The key objective of this study was to create a prototype tool for identifying medical infrastructure requirements in terms of medical knowledge, skills and materials. A multicriteria decision-making method was used to prioritize the highest risk medical events anticipated in a long-term space mission. Starting with those medical conditions, event sequence diagrams (ESDs) were created in the form of decision trees where the entry point is the diagnosis and the end points are the predicted outcomes (full recovery, partial recovery, or death/severe incapacitation). The ESD formalism was adapted to characterize and compare possible outcomes of medical conditions as a function of available medical knowledge, skills, and supplies in a given mission scenario. An extensive literature review was performed and summarized in a medical condition database. A PostgreSQL relational database was created to allow query-based evaluation of health outcome metrics with different medical infrastructure scenarios. Critical decision points, skill and medical supply requirements, and probable health outcomes were compared across chosen scenarios. The three medical conditions with the highest risk rank were acute coronary syndrome, sepsis, and stroke. Our efforts demonstrate the utility of this approach and provide insight into the effort required to develop appropriate content for the range of medical conditions that may arise.

Keywords: decision support system, event-sequence diagram, exploration mission, medical autonomy, scenario-based queries, space medicine

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Authors: Thelma Palaoag, Melanie Basa, Jezreel Mark Panilo

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Checking short-answer questions and essays, whether it may be paper or electronic in form, is a tiring and tedious task for teachers. Evaluating a student’s output require wide array of domains. Scoring the work is often a critical task. Several attempts in the past few years to create an automated writing assessment software but only have received negative results from teachers and students alike due to unreliability in scoring, does not provide feedback and others. The study aims to create an application that will be able to check short-answer questions which incorporate information extraction. Information extraction is a subfield of Natural Language Processing (NLP) where a chunk of text (technically known as unstructured text) is being broken down to gather necessary bits of data and/or keywords (structured text) to be further analyzed or rather be utilized by query tools. The proposed system shall be able to extract keywords or phrases from the individual’s answers to match it into a corpora of words (as defined by the instructor), which shall be the basis of evaluation of the individual’s answer. The proposed system shall also enable the teacher to provide feedback and re-evaluate the output of the student for some writing elements in which the computer cannot fully evaluate such as creativity and logic. Teachers can formulate, design, and check short answer questions efficiently by defining keywords or phrases as parameters by assigning weights for checking answers. With the proposed system, teacher’s time in checking and evaluating students output shall be lessened, thus, making the teacher more productive and easier.

Keywords: information extraction, short-answer question, natural language processing, application

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Authors: Natalia M. Acevedo, Luis M. Jimenez, Erick Lambis

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Imperfections in the capital market are used to argue the relevance of the corporate risk management function. With corporate hedge, the value of the company is increased by reducing the volatility of the expected cash flow and making it possible to face a lower bankruptcy costs and financial difficulties, without sacrificing tax advantages for debt financing. With the propose to avoid exchange rate troubles over cash flows of Colombian exporting firms, this dissertation uses financial options, over exchange rate between Peso and Dollar, for realizing a financial hedge. In this study, a strategy of hedge is designed for an exporting company in Colombia with the objective of preventing fluctuations because, if the exchange rate down, the number of Colombian pesos that obtains the company by exports, is less than agreed. The exchange rate of Colombia is measured by the TRM (Representative Market Rate), representing the number of Colombian pesos for an American dollar. First, the TMR is modelled through the Geometric Brownian Motion, with this, the project price is simulated using Montecarlo simulations and finding the mean of TRM for three, six and twelve months. For financial hedging, currency options were used. The 6-month projection was covered with financial options on European-type currency with a strike price of $ 2,780.47 for each month; this value corresponds to the last value of the historical TRM. In the compensation of the options in each month, the price paid for the premium, calculated with the Black-Scholes method for currency options, was considered. Finally, with the modeling of prices and the Monte Carlo simulation, the effect of the exchange hedging with options on the exporting company was determined, this by means of the unit price estimate to which the dollars in the scenario without coverage were changed and scenario with coverage. After using the scenarios: is determinate that the TRM will have a bull trend and the exporting firm will be affected positively because they will get more pesos for each dollar. The results show that the financial options manage to reduce the exchange risk. The expected value with coverage is approximate to the expected value without coverage, but the 5% percentile with coverage is greater than without coverage. The foregoing indicates that in the worst scenarios the exporting companies will obtain better prices for the sale of the currencies if they cover.

Keywords: currency hedging, futures, geometric Brownian motion, options

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Authors: Vaikunthan Rajaratnam

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Intro: Motor imagery (MI) and mental practice (MP) can be an alternative to acquire mastery of surgical skills. One component of using this technique is the use of a mental script. The aim of this study was to design and develop a mental script for basic micro suturing training for skill acquisition using a low-fidelity rubber glove model and to describe the detailed methodology for this process. Methods: This study was based on a design and development research framework. The mental script was developed with 5 expert surgeons performing a cognitive walkthrough of the repair of a vertical opening in a rubber glove model using 8/0 nylon. This was followed by a hierarchal task analysis. A draft script was created, and face and content validity assessed with a checking-back process. The final script was validated with the recruitment of 28 participants, assessed using the Mental Imagery Questionnaire (MIQ). Results: The creation of the mental script is detailed in the full text. After assessment by the expert panel, the mental script had good face and content validity. The average overall MIQ score was 5.2 ± 1.1, demonstrating the validity of generating mental imagery from the mental script developed in this study for micro suturing in the rubber glove model. Conclusion: The methodological approach described in this study is based on an instructional design framework to teach surgical skills. This MP model is inexpensive and easily accessible, addressing the challenge of reduced opportunities to practice surgical skills. However, while motor skills are important, other non-technical expertise required by the surgeon is not addressed with this model. Thus, this model should act a surgical training augment, but not replace it.

Keywords: mental script, motor imagery, cognitive walkthrough, verbal protocol analysis, hierarchical task analysis

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Authors: B. Kekezoglu, C. Kocatepe, O. Arikan, Y. Hacialiefendioglu, G. Ucar

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One of the significant problems of energy systems is to supply economic and efficient energy to consumers. Therefore studies has been continued to reduce technical losses in the network. In this paper, the technical losses analyzed for a portion of European side of Istanbul MV distribution network for different compensation scenarios by considering real system and load data and results are presented. Investigated system is modeled with CYME Power Engineering Software and optimal capacity placement has been proposed to minimize losses.

Keywords: distribution system, optimal capacitor placement, reactive power compensation, technical losses

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Authors: Aldona Kluczek

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Energy efficient process have become a pressing research field in manufacturing. The arguments for having an effective industrial energy efficiency processes are interacted with factors: economic and environmental impact, and energy security. Improvements in energy efficiency are most often achieved by implementation of more efficient technology or manufacturing process. Current processes of electricity production represents the biggest consumption of energy and the greatest amount of emissions to the environment. The goal of this study is to improve the potential energy-savings and reduce greenhouse emissions related to improvement scenarios for the treatment of hardwood lumber produced by an industrial plant operating in the U.S. through the application of green balancing procedure, in order to find the preferable efficient technology. The green procedure for energy is based on analysis of energy efficiency data. Three alternative scenarios of the cogeneration systems plant (CHP) construction are considered: generation of fresh steam, the purchase of a new boiler with the operating pressure 300 pounds per square inch gauge (PSIG), an installation of a new boiler with a 600 PSIG pressure. In this paper, the application of a bottom-down modelling for energy flow to devise a streamlined Energy and Emission Flow Analyze method for the technology of producing electricity is illustrated. It will identify efficiency or technology of a given process to be reached, through the effective use of energy, or energy management. Results have shown that the third scenario seem to be the efficient alternative scenario considered from the environmental and economic concerns for treating hardwood lumber. The energy conservation evaluation options could save an estimated 6,215.78 MMBtu/yr in each year, which represents 9.5% of the total annual energy usage. The total annual potential cost savings from all recommendations is $143,523/yr, which represents 30.1% of the total annual energy costs. Estimation have presented that energy cost savings are possible up to 43% (US$ 143,337.85), representing 18.6% of the total annual energy costs.

Keywords: alternative scenario improvements, cogeneration system, energy and emission flow analyze, energy balancing, green procedure, hardwood lumber manufacturing process

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Authors: Ousmane Sarr

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The Senegalese coasts have high productivity of fishery resources due to the frequency of intense up-welling system that occurs along its coast, caused by the maritime trade winds making its waters nutrients rich. Fishing plays a primordial role in Senegal's socioeconomic plans and food security. However, a global diagnosis of the Senegalese maritime fishing sector has highlighted the challenges this sector encounters. Among these concerns, some significant stocks, a priority target for artisanal fishing, need further assessment. If no efforts are made in this direction, most stock will be overexploited or even in decline. It is in this context that this research was initiated. This investigation aimed to apply a multi-modal approach (LBB, Catch-only-based CMSY model and its most recent version (CMSY++); JABBA, and JABBA-Select) to assess the stock of Atlantic bonito, Sarda sarda (Bloch, 1793) in the Senegalese Exclusive Economic Zone (SEEZ). Available catch, effort, and size data from Atlantic bonito over 15 years (2004-2018) were used to calculate the nominal and standardized CPUE, size-frequency distribution, and length at retentions (50 % and 95 % selectivity) of the species. These relevant results were employed as input parameters for stock assessment models mentioned above to define the stock status of this species in this region of the Atlantic Ocean. The LBB model indicated an Atlantic bonito healthy stock status with B/BMSY values ranging from 1.3 to 1.6 and B/B0 values varying from 0.47 to 0.61 of the main scenarios performed (BON_AFG_CL, BON_GN_Length, and BON_PS_Length). The results estimated by LBB are consistent with those obtained by CMSY. The CMSY model results demonstrate that the SEEZ Atlantic bonito stock is in a sound condition in the final year of the main scenarios analyzed (BON, BON-bt, BON-GN-bt, and BON-PS-bt) with sustainable relative stock biomass (B2018/BMSY = 1.13 to 1.3) and fishing pressure levels (F2018/FMSY= 0.52 to 1.43). The B/BMSY and F/FMSY results for the JABBA model ranged between 2.01 to 2.14 and 0.47 to 0.33, respectively. In contrast, The estimated B/BMSY and F/FMSY for JABBA-Select ranged from 1.91 to 1.92 and 0.52 to 0.54. The Kobe plots results of the base case scenarios ranged from 75% to 89% probability in the green area, indicating sustainable fishing pressure and an Atlantic bonito healthy stock size capable of producing high yields close to the MSY. Based on the stock assessment results, this study highlighted scientific advice for temporary management measures. This study suggests an improvement of the selectivity parameters of longlines and purse seines and a temporary prohibition of the use of sleeping nets in the fishery for the Atlantic bonito stock in the SEEZ based on the results of the length-base models. Although these actions are temporary, they can be essential to reduce or avoid intense pressure on the Atlantic bonito stock in the SEEZ. However, it is necessary to establish harvest control rules to provide coherent and solid scientific information that leads to appropriate decision-making for rational and sustainable exploitation of Atlantic bonito in the SEEZ and the Eastern Atlantic Ocean.

Keywords: multi-model approach, stock assessment, atlantic bonito, SEEZ

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Authors: Ana-María Gómez-Carvajal, Hernando Santamaría-García, Mateo Bernal, Mario Valderrama, Daniela Lizarazo, Juliana Restrepo, María Fernanda Barreto, Angélica Parra, Paula Torres, Diana Matallana, Jaime Silva, José Santamaría-García, Sandra Baez

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Higher levels of oxytocin are associated with better performance on social cognition tasks. However, higher levels of oxytocin have also been associated with increased levels of envy and schadenfreude. Considering these antecedents, this study aims to explore social emotions (i.e., envy and schadenfreude) and other components of social cognition (i.e. ToM and empathy), in women in the puerperal period and their respective partners, compared to a control group of men and women without children or partners. Control women should be in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle or taking oral contraceptives as they allow oxytocin levels to remain stable. We selected this population since increased levels of oxytocin are present in both mothers and fathers of newborn babies. Both groups were matched by age, sex, and education level. Twenty-two parents of newborns (11 women, 11 men) and 15 controls (8 women, 7 men) performed an experimental task designed to trigger schadenfreude and envy. In this task, each participant was shown a real-life photograph and a description of two target characters matched in age and gender with the participant. The task comprised two experimental blocks. In the first block, participants read 15 sentences describing fortunate events involving either character. After reading each sentence, participants rated the event in terms of how much envy they felt for the character (1=no envy, 9=extreme envy). In the second block, participants read and reported the intensity of their pleasure (schadenfreude, 1=no pleasure, 9=extreme pleasure) in response to 15 unfortunate events happening to the characters. Five neutral events were included in each block. Moreover, participants were assessed with ToM and empathy tests. Potential confounding variables such as general cognitive functioning, stress levels, hours of sleep and depression symptoms were also measured. Results showed that parents of newborns showed increased levels of envy and schadenfreude. These effects are not explained by any confounding factor. Moreover, no significant differences were found in ToM or empathy tests. Our results offer unprecedented evidence of specific differences in envy and schadenfreude levels in parents of newborns. Our findings support previous studies showing a negative relationship between oxytocin levels and negative social emotions. Further studies should assess the direct relationship between oxytocin levels in parents of newborns and the performance in social emotions tasks.

Keywords: envy, empathy, oxytocin, schadenfreude, social emotions, theory of mind

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Authors: M. E. Joret, F. Germeys, P. Van de Craen

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Background: Previous studies have shown that ‘full’ bilingualism seems to enhance the executive functions in children, young adults and elderly people. Executive functions refer to a complex cognitive system responsible for self-controlled and planned behavior and seem to predict academic achievement. The present study aimed at investigating whether similar effects could be found in children learning their second language at school in immersion education programs. Methods: In this study, 44 children involved in immersion education for 4 to 5 years were compared to 48 children in traditional schools. All children were between 9 and 11 years old. To assess executive functions, the Simon task was used, a neuropsychological measure assessing executive functions with reaction times and accuracy on congruent and incongruent trials. To control for background measures, all children underwent the Raven’s coloured progressive matrices, to measure non-verbal intelligence and the Echelle de Vocabulaire en Images Peabody (EVIP), assessing verbal intelligence. In addition, a questionnaire was given to the parents to control for other confounding variables, such as socio-economic status (SES), home language, developmental disorders, etc. Results: There were no differences between groups concerning non-verbal intelligence and verbal intelligence. Furthermore, the immersion learners showed overall faster reaction times on both congruent and incongruent trials compared to the traditional learners, but only after 5 years of training, not before. Conclusion: These results show that the cognitive benefits found in ‘full’ bilinguals also appear in children involved in immersion education, but only after a sufficient exposure to the second language. Our results suggest that the amount of second language training needs to be sufficient before these cognitive effects may emerge.

Keywords: bilingualism, executive functions, immersion education, Simon task

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Authors: Kyle Saltmarsh

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Acoustic testing possesses many benefits due to its non-destructive nature and practicality. There hence exists many scenarios in which using acoustic testing for condition testing shows powerful feasibility. A wealth of information is contained within the acoustic and vibration characteristics of structures, allowing the development meaningful features for the classification of their respective condition. In this paper, methods, results, and discussions are presented on the use of non-destructive acoustic testing coupled with acoustic feature extraction and machine learning techniques for the condition testing of manufactured circular steel plates subjected to varied levels of damage.

Keywords: plates, deformation, acoustic features, machine learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 332

Authors: Vivian Franco

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There has been a great deal of research about vowel production of second language learners of Spanish, vowel variation across Spanish dialects, and more recently, research related to Spanish heritage speakers’ vowel production based on speech style. However, there is little investigation reported on Spanish heritage speakers’ vowel production in regard to task modality by incorporating own comparison groups of monolinguals and late bilinguals. Thus, the present study investigates the influence of speech style on Spanish heritage speakers’ vowel production by comparing Spanish-English early and late bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals. The study was guided by the following research question: How do early bilinguals (heritage speakers) differ/relate to advanced L2 speakers of Spanish (late bilinguals) and Spanish monolinguals in their vowel quality (acoustic distribution) and quantity (duration) based on speech style? The participants were a total of 11 speakers of Spanish: 7 early Spanish-English bilinguals with a similar linguistic background (simultaneous bilinguals of the second generation); 2 advanced L2 speakers of Spanish; and 2 Spanish monolinguals from Mexico. The study consisted of two tasks. The first one adopted a semi-spontaneous style by a solicited narration of life experiences and a description of a favorite movie with the purpose to collect spontaneous speech. The second task was a reading activity in which the participants read two paragraphs of a Mexican literary essay 'La nuez.' This task aimed to obtain a more controlled speech style. From this study, it can be concluded that early bilinguals and monolinguals show a smaller formant vowel space overall compared to the late bilinguals in both speech styles. In terms of formant values by stress, the early bilinguals and the late bilinguals resembled in the semi-spontaneous speech style as their unstressed vowel space overlapped with that of the unstressed vowels different from the monolinguals who displayed a slightly reduced unstressed vowel space. For the controlled data, the early bilinguals were similar to the monolinguals as their stressed and unstressed vowel spaces overlapped in comparison to the late bilinguals who showed a more clear reduction of unstressed vowel space. In regard to stress, the monolinguals revealed longer vowel duration overall. However, findings of duration by stress showed that the early bilinguals and the monolinguals remained stable with shorter values of unstressed vowels in the semi-spontaneous data and longer duration in the controlled data when compared to the late bilinguals who displayed opposite results. These findings suggest an implication for Spanish heritage speakers and L2 Spanish vowels research as it has been frequently argued that Spanish bilinguals differ from the Spanish monolinguals by their vowel reduction and centralized vowel space influenced by English. However, some Spanish varieties are characterized by vowel reduction especially in certain phonetic contexts so that some vowels present more weakening than others. Consequently, it would not be conclusive to affirm an English influence on the Spanish of these bilinguals.

Keywords: Spanish-English bilinguals, Spanish monolinguals, spontaneous and controlled speech, vowel production.

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