Search results for: development language

Authors: Olugbara O.O., Adebiyi A.A.

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Most standard software development methodologies are often not applied to software projects in many developing countries of the world. The approach generally practice is close to what eXtreme Programming (XP) is likely promoting, just keep coding and testing as the requirement evolves. XP is an agile software process development methodology that has inherent capability for improving efficiency of Business Software Development (BSD). XP can facilitate Business-to-Development (B2D) relationship due to its customer-oriented advocate. From practitioner point of view, we applied XP to BSD and result shows that customer involvement has positive impact on productivity, but can as well frustrate the success of the project. In an effort to promote software engineering practice in developing countries of Africa, we present the experiment performed, lessons learned, problems encountered and solution adopted in applying XP methodology to BSD.

Keywords: Requirements engineering, Requirements elicitation, Extreme programming, Mobile Work force

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Authors: Theologos Athanaselis, Stelios Bakamidis, Ioannis Dologlou, Konstantinos Mamouras

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This paper presents an approach for repairing word order errors in English text by reordering words in a sentence and choosing the version that maximizes the number of trigram hits according to a language model. A possible way for reordering the words is to use all the permutations. The problem is that for a sentence with length N words the number of all permutations is N!. The novelty of this method concerns the use of an efficient confusion matrix technique for reordering the words. The confusion matrix technique has been designed in order to reduce the search space among permuted sentences. The limitation of search space is succeeded using the statistical inference of N-grams. The results of this technique are very interesting and prove that the number of permuted sentences can be reduced by 98,16%. For experimental purposes a test set of TOEFL sentences was used and the results show that more than 95% can be repaired using the proposed method.

Keywords: Permutations filtering, Statistical language model N-grams, Word order errors, TOEFL

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Authors: Jamil Mikhail Yahaya, Ahmad Nurulazam Md Zain, Mageswary Karpudewan

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This paper highlights the controversial socioscientific issues and their misconceptions in Nigeria as well as in some other low literate societies around the world. It states the relevance of the issues or problems in Nigeria, which might be neutral or absent in other countries. The need to understand the issues and how such an understanding can contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is also being discussed. The paper concludes by suggesting the responsibilities of science teachers to remove the misconceptions surrounding the socioscientific issues.

Keywords: Sosioscientific issues, Millennium development goals, Science teachers.

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Authors: Jungho Moon, Lae-Jeong Park

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This paper introduces a signal monitoring program developed with a view to helping electrical engineering students get familiar with sensors with digital output. Because the output of digital sensors cannot be simply monitored by a measuring instrument such as an oscilloscope, students tend to have a hard time dealing with digital sensors. The monitoring program runs on a PC and communicates with an MCU that reads the output of digital sensors via an asynchronous communication interface. Receiving the sensor data from the MCU, the monitoring program shows time and/or frequency domain plots of the data in real time. In addition, the monitoring program provides a serial terminal that enables the user to exchange text information with the MCU while the received data is plotted. The user can easily observe the output of digital sensors and configure the digital sensors in real time, which helps students who do not have enough experiences with digital sensors. Though the monitoring program was programmed in the Matlab programming language, it runs without the Matlab since it was compiled as a standalone executable.

Keywords: Digital sensor, MATLAB, MCU, signal monitoring program.

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Authors: Stephanie Ho

Abstract:

This project utilizes principles derived from the Surrealist movement to prioritize creative and critical thinking in secondary English Language Arts (ELA). The implementation of Surrealist-style pedagogies within an ELA classroom will be rooted in critical, radical pedagogy, which addresses the injustices caused by economic-oriented educational systems. The use of critical pedagogy will enable the subversive artistic and political aims of Surrealism to be transmitted to a classroom context. Through aesthetic reading strategies, appreciative questioning and dialogue, students will actively critique the power dynamics which structure (and often restrict) their lives. Within the ELA domain, cost-effective approaches often replace the actual “arts” of ELA. This research will therefore explore how Surrealist-oriented pedagogies could restore imaginative freedom and deconstruct conceptual barriers (normative standards, curricular constraints, and status quo power relations) in secondary ELA. This research will also examine how Surrealism can be used as a political and pedagogical model to treat societal problems mirrored in ELA classrooms. The stakeholders are teachers, as they experience constant pressure within their practices. Similarly, students encounter rigorous, results-based pressures. These dynamics contribute to feelings of powerlessness, thus reinforcing a formulaic model of ELA. The ELA curriculum has potential to create laboratories for critical discussion and active movement towards social change. This proposed research strategy of Surrealist-oriented pedagogies could enable students to experiment with social issues and develop senses of agency and voice that reflect awareness of contemporary society while simultaneously building their ELA skills.

Keywords: Arts-informed pedagogies, language arts, literature, Surrealism.

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Authors: Farrukh Shahzad

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The rich Islamic resources related to religious text, Islamic sciences, and history are widely available in print and in electronic format online. However, most of these works are only available in Arabic language. In this research, an attempt is made to utilize these resources to create interactive web applications in Arabic, English and other languages. The system utilizes the Pattern Recognition, Knowledge Management, Data Mining, Information Retrieval and Management, Indexing, storage and data-analysis techniques to parse, store, convert and manage the information from authentic Arabic resources. These interactive web Apps provide smart multi-lingual search, tree based search, on-demand information matching and linking. In this paper, we provide details of application architecture, design, implementation and technologies employed. We also presented the summary of web applications already developed. We have also included some screen shots from the corresponding web sites. These web applications provide an Innovative On-line Learning Systems (eLearning and computer based education).

Keywords: Islamic resources, Muslim scholars, hadith, narrators, history, fiqh.

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Authors: Е. V. Kutsina, S. A. Tarasova

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In this article we present a methodology which enables preschool and primary school unlanguaged children to remember words, phrases and texts with the help of graphic signs - letters, syllables and words. Reading for a child becomes a support for speech development. Teaching is based on the principle "from simple to complex", "a letter - a syllable - a word - a proposal - a text." Availability of multi-level texts allows using this methodology for working with children who have different levels of speech development.

Keywords: Alalia, analytic-synthetic method, development of coherent speech, formation of vocabulary, learning to read, , sentence formation, three-level stories, unlanguaged children.

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Authors: M. Chavleishvili

Abstract:

The paper presents the analysis of the current situation of agricultural development in Georgia. The investment environment that supports development of the agricultural sector is evaluated and the key priorities are identified. The analysis of the projects already implemented with state and EU support, as well as those that are being currently implemented is presented. The policy and the programs supporting development of agricultural sector are analyzed. Based on an analysis of the evaluations of experts and the primary accounting documents, the outcomes of investment programs, their advantages and disadvantages, are studied. Through identifying investment programs in the agricultural sector of Georgia, corresponding conclusions are made, based on which some recommendations are developed.

Keywords: Agriculture, investments, investment programs, projects.

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Authors: Leila Amjad, Mahsa Shafighi

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The role of the pollen grain, with to the reproductive process of higher plants, is to deliver the spermatic cells to the embryo sac for egg fertilization. The aim of this project was study the effect of electromagnetic fields on structure and pollen grains development in Chenopodium album. Anthers of Chenopodium album L. were collected at different stages of development from control (without electromagnetic field) and plants grown at 10m from the field sources. Structure and development of pollen grains were studied and compared. The studying pollen structure by Light and Scanning electron microscopy showed that electromagnetic fields reduction of pollen grains number and male sterility, thus , in some anthers, pollen grains were attached together and deformed compared to control ones. The data presented suggest that prolonged exposures of plants to magnetic field may cause different biological effects at the cellular tissue and organ levels.

Keywords: Electromagnetic fields, pollen, Chenopodium albumL.

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Authors: K. Aravindhan, Trishit Bandyopadhyay, Mahesh Mehendale, Supriya Kumar De

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The inherent iterative nature of product design and development poses significant challenge to reduce the product design and development time (PD). In order to shorten the time to market, organizations have adopted concurrent development where multiple specialized tasks and design activities are carried out in parallel. Iterative nature of work coupled with the overlap of activities can result in unpredictable time to completion and significant rework. Many of the products have missed the time to market window due to unanticipated or rather unplanned iteration and rework. The iterative and often overlapped processes introduce greater amounts of ambiguity in design and development, where the traditional methods and tools of project management provide less value. In this context, identifying critical metrics to understand the iteration probability is an open research area where significant contribution can be made given that iteration has been the key driver of cost and schedule risk in PD projects. Two important questions that the proposed study attempts to address are: Can we predict and identify the number of iterations in a product development flow? Can we provide managerial insights for a better control over iteration? The proposal introduces the concept of decision points and using this concept intends to develop metrics that can provide managerial insights into iteration predictability. By characterizing the product development flow as a network of decision points, the proposed research intends to delve further into iteration probability and attempts to provide more clarity.

Keywords: Decision Points, Iteration, Product Design, Rework.

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Authors: Nagore Guerra Bilbao, Clemente Lobato Fraile

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Mentoring is provided by professionals with a higher level of experience and competence as part of the professional development of a university faculty. This paper explores the characteristics of the mentoring provided by those teachers participating in the development of an active methodology program run at the University of the Basque Country: to examine and to analyze mentors’ performance with the aim of providing empirical evidence regarding its value as a lifelong learning strategy for teaching staff. A total of 183 teachers were trained during the first three programs. The analysis method uses a coding technique and is based on flexible, systematic guidelines for gathering and analyzing qualitative data. The results have confirmed the conception of mentoring as a methodological innovation in higher education. In short, university teachers in general assessed the mentoring they received positively, considering it to be a valid, useful strategy in their professional development. They highlighted the methodological expertise of their mentor and underscored how they monitored the learning process of the active method and provided guidance and advice when necessary. Finally, they also drew attention to traits such as availability, personal commitment and flexibility in. However, a minority critique is pointed to some aspects of the performance of some mentors.

Keywords: Higher education, Mentoring, Professional development, University teachers.

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Authors: Whee Yen Wong, Chan Wai Lee, Kim Yeow Tshai

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Producing IT products/services required carefully designed. IT development process is intangible and labour intensive. Making optimal use of available resources, both soft (knowledge, skill-set etc.) and hard (computer system, ancillary equipment etc.), is vital if IT development is to achieve sensible economical advantages. Apart from the norm of Project Life Cycle and System Development Life Cycle (SDLC), there is an urgent need to establish a general yet widely acceptable guideline on the most effective and efficient way to precede an IT project in the broader view of Product Life Cycle. The current paper proposes such a framework with two major areas of concern: (1) an integration of IT Products and IT Services within an existing IT Process architecture and; (2) how IT Product and IT Services are built into the framework of Product Life Cycle, Project Life Cycle and SDLC.

Keywords: Mapping of Quality Relationship, IT Processes/IT Products/IT Services, Product Life Cycle, System Development Life Cycle.

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Authors: N. Kulakova

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Thisresearch paper is dedicated to an actual issue in Latvia and in the whole European Union – development of the secondary materials management. The goal of this paper is to research the development of the secondary materials management in Latvia as a result to point out its main positive aspects and problems. In this research paper the author regards following issues: significance of the secondary materials management, current situation of the waste generation and utilization in Latvia comparing with other EU Member States, main problems and positive aspects of the secondary materials management in Latvia. The research author concludes that in last ten years a great work is done to develop the secondary materials market. Nevertheless following improvements are necessary: implementation of the packaging deposit system, development of the separate waste collection, increasing of the recycling capacity.

Keywords: sustainable development, secondary materials, separate waste collection, packaging deposit system.

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Authors: Natalya G. Filimonova, Mariya G. Ozerova, Irina N. Ermakova

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The long-term strategy of the economic development of Russia up to 2030 is based on the concept of sustainable growth. The determining factor of such development is complex changes in the economic system which may be achieved by making progressive changes in its structure. The structural changes determine the character and the direction of economic development, as well as they include all elements of this system without exception, and their regulated character ensures the most rapid aim achievement. This article has discussed the industrial structure of the agriculture in Russia. With the use of the system of indexes, the article has determined the directions, intensity, and speed of structural shifts. The influence of structural changes on agricultural production development has been found out. It is noticed that the changes in the industrial structure are synchronized with the changes in the organisation and economic structure. Efficiency assessment of structural changes allowed to trace the efficiency of structural changes and elaborate the main directions for agricultural policy improvement.

Keywords: Russian agriculture system, sectoral structure, organizational and economic structure, structural changes.

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Authors: Manash Pratim Sarma, Kandarpa Kumar Sarma

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A set of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based methods for the design of an effective system of speech recognition of numerals of Assamese language captured under varied recording conditions and moods is presented here. The work is related to the formulation of several ANN models configured to use Linear Predictive Code (LPC), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and other features to tackle mood and gender variations uttering numbers as part of an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system in Assamese. The ANN models are designed using a combination of Self Organizing Map (SOM) and Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) constituting a Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) block trained in a cooperative environment to handle male and female speech samples of numerals of Assamese- a language spoken by a sizable population in the North-Eastern part of India. The work provides a comparative evaluation of several such combinations while subjected to handle speech samples with gender based differences captured by a microphone in four different conditions viz. noiseless, noise mixed, stressed and stress-free.

Keywords: Assamese, Recognition, LPC, Spectral, ANN.

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Authors: Mingaleva Zhanna, Kapuskina Tatiana

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The article touches upon questions of information security in Russian Economy. It covers theoretical bases of information security and causes of its development. The theory is proved by the analysis of business activities and the main tendencies of information security development. Perm region has been chosen as the bases for the analysis, being the fastestdeveloping region that uses methods of information security in managing it economy. As a result of the study the authors of the given article have formulated their own vision of the problem of information security in various branches of economy and stated prospects of information security development and its growing role in Russian economy

Keywords: security of business, management of information security, institutional analyses.

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Authors: Danielle Reichel, Antoine Druilhe, Tuan Dang

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Traditional development of wireless sensor network mote is generally based on SoC1 platform. Such method of development faces three main drawbacks: lack of flexibility in terms of development due to low resource and rigid architecture of SoC; low capability of evolution and portability versus performance if specific micro-controller architecture features are used; and the rapid obsolescence of micro-controller comparing to the long lifetime of power plants or any industrial installations. To overcome these drawbacks, we have explored a new approach of development of wireless sensor network mote using a hybrid FPGA technology. The application of such approach is illustrated through the implementation of an innovative wireless sensor network protocol called OCARI.

Keywords: Hybrid FPGA, Embedded system, Mote, flexibility, durability, OCARI protocol, SoC, Wireless Sensor Network

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Authors: Mohamed Amine Ouddan, Hassane Essafi

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Source code retrieval is of immense importance in the software engineering field. The complex tasks of retrieving and extracting information from source code documents is vital in the development cycle of the large software systems. The two main subtasks which result from these activities are code duplication prevention and plagiarism detection. In this paper, we propose a Mohamed Amine Ouddan, and Hassane Essafi source code retrieval system based on two-level fingerprint representation, respectively the structural and the semantic information within a source code. A sequence alignment technique is applied on these fingerprints in order to quantify the similarity between source code portions. The specific purpose of the system is to detect plagiarism and duplicated code between programs written in different programming languages belonging to the same class, such as C, Cµ, Java and CSharp. These four languages are supported by the actual version of the system which is designed such that it may be easily adapted for any programming language.

Keywords: Source code retrieval, plagiarism detection, clonedetection, sequence alignment.

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Authors: Nazira Kakulia, Tsotne Zhghenti

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The institutional development is one of the actual topics in economics science. New trends and directions of institutional development mostly depend on its structure and framework. Transformation of institutions is an important problem for every economy, especially for developing countries. The first research goal is to determine the importance and interactions between different institutions in Georgia. Using World Governance Indicators and Economic Freedom indexes it can be calculated the size for each institutional group. The second aim of this research is to evaluate Georgian institutional backwardness in comparison to other post-communist economies. We use statistical and econometric methods to evaluate the difference between the levels of institutional development in Georgia and in leading post-communist economies. Within the scope of this research, major findings are coefficients which are an assessment of their deviation (i.e. lag) of institutional indicators between Georgia and leading post-communist country which should be compared. The last part of the article includes analysis around the selected coefficients.

Keywords: Post-communist transition, institutions, economic growth, institutional development.

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Authors: Jin hui Kim, Hyung kwan Cho, Ji won Moon, Hoon Chang

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The purpose of this study is comparing and analysing of the financial characteristics for development methods of the urban development project in the established area, focusing on the multi-level replotting. Analysis showed that the type of the lowest expenditure was 'combination type of group-land and multi-level replotting' and the type of the highest profitability was 'multi-level replotting type'. But 'multi-level replotting type' has still risk of amount of cost for the additional architecture. In addition, we subdivided standard amount for liquidation of replotting and analysed income-expenditure flow. Analysis showed that both of 'multi-level replotting type' and 'combination type of group-land and multi-level replotting' improved profitability of project and property change ratio. However, when the standard was under a certain amount, amount of original property for the replotting was increased exponentially, and profitability of project.

Keywords: Urban development, multi-level replotting, financial characteristics, expropriation type, combination type, urban meteorology.

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Authors: Rajinder Singh, Ram Valluru

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Chain Ladder (CL) method, Expected Loss Ratio (ELR) method and Bornhuetter-Ferguson (BF) method, in addition to more complex transition-rate modeling, are commonly used actuarial reserving methods in general insurance. There is limited published research about their relative performance in the context of Mortgage Insurance (MI). In our experience, these traditional techniques pose unique challenges and do not provide stable claim estimates for medium to longer term liabilities. The relative strengths and weaknesses among various alternative approaches revolve around: stability in the recent loss development pattern, sufficiency and reliability of loss development data, and agreement/disagreement between reported losses to date and ultimate loss estimate. CL method results in volatile reserve estimates, especially for accident periods with little development experience. The ELR method breaks down especially when ultimate loss ratios are not stable and predictable. While the BF method provides a good tradeoff between the loss development approach (CL) and ELR, the approach generates claim development and ultimate reserves that are disconnected from the ever-to-date (ETD) development experience for some accident years that have more development experience. Further, BF is based on subjective a priori assumption. The fundamental shortcoming of these methods is their inability to model exogenous factors, like the economy, which impact various cohorts at the same chronological time but at staggered points along their life-time development. This paper proposes an alternative approach of parametrizing the loss development curve and using logistic regression to generate the ultimate loss estimate for each homogeneous group (accident year or delinquency period). The methodology was tested on an actual MI claim development dataset where various cohorts followed a sigmoidal trend, but levels varied substantially depending upon the economic and operational conditions during the development period spanning over many years. The proposed approach provides the ability to indirectly incorporate such exogenous factors and produce more stable loss forecasts for reserving purposes as compared to the traditional CL and BF methods.

Keywords: Actuarial loss reserving techniques, logistic regression, parametric function, volatility.

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Authors: Justine Jun

Abstract:

This study aims to reveal migrant women English instructors' workplace learning experiences in Canadian post-secondary institutions in Ontario. Migrant women English instructors in higher education are an understudied group of teachers. This study employs a qualitative research paradigm. Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory is an essential lens for the researcher to explain, analyze, and interpret the research data. It is a collaborative research project. The researcher and participants cooperatively create photographic or other artwork data responding to the research questions. Photovoice and arts-informed data collection methodology are the main methods. Research participants engage in the study as co-researchers and inquire about their own workplace learning experiences, actively utilizing their critical self-reflective and dialogic skills. Co-researchers individually select the forms of artwork they prefer to engage with to represent their transformative workplace learning experiences about the Canadian workplace cultures that they underwent while working with colleagues and administrators in the workplace. Once the co-researchers generate their cultural artifacts as research data, they collaboratively interpret their artworks with the researcher and other volunteer co-researchers. Co-researchers jointly investigate the themes emerging from the artworks. They also interpret the meanings of their own and others’ workplace learning experiences embedded in the artworks through interactive one-on-one or group interviews. The following are the research questions that the migrant women English instructor participants examine and answer: (1) What have they learned about their workplace culture and how do they explain their learning experiences? (2) How transformative have their learning experiences been at work? (3) How have their colleagues and administrators influenced their transformative learning? (4) What kind of support have they received? What supports have been valuable to them and what changes would they like to see? (5) What have their learning experiences transformed? (6) What has this arts-informed research process transformed? The study findings implicate English language instructor support currently practiced in post-secondary English language programs in Ontario, Canada, especially for migrant women English instructors. This research is a doctoral empirical study in progress. This study has the urgency to address the research problem that few studies have investigated migrant English instructors’ professional learning and support issues in the workplace, precisely that of English instructors working with adult learners in Canada. While appropriate social and professional support for migrant English instructors is required throughout the country, the present workplace realities in Ontario's English language programs need to be heard soon. For that purpose, the conceptualization of this study is crucial. It makes the investigation of under-represented instructors’ under-researched social phenomena, workplace learning and support, viable and rigorous. This paper demonstrates the robust theorization of English instructors’ workplace experiences using Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory in the English language teacher education field. 

Keywords: English teacher education, professional learning, transformative learning theory, workplace learning.

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Authors: Silvia Tamayo-Moreno, Diana Pérez-Marín

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In this paper, the possibility of children studying by using an interactive learning technology called Pedagogic Conversational Agent is presented. The main benefit is that the agent is able to adapt the dialogue to each student and to provide automatic feedback. Moreover, according to Math teachers, in many cases students are unable to solve the problems even knowing the procedure to solve them, because they do not understand what they have to do. The hypothesis is that if students are helped to understand what they have to solve, they will be able to do it. Taken that into account, we have started the development of Dr. Roland, an agent to help students understand Math problems following a User-Centered Design methodology. The use of this methodology is proposed, for the first time, to design pedagogic agents to teach any subject from Secondary down to Pre-Primary education. The reason behind proposing a methodology is that while working on this project, we noticed the lack of literature to design and evaluate agents. To cover this gap, we describe how User-Centered Design can be applied, and which usability techniques can be applied to evaluate the agent.

Keywords: Pedagogic conversational agent, human-computer interaction, user-centered design, natural language interface.

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Authors: Masoud Saeedi, Mansour Tavakoli, Shirin Rahimi Kazerooni, Vahid Parvaresh

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This article investigated the validity of C-test and Cloze test which purport to measure general English proficiency. To provide empirical evidence pertaining to the validity of the interpretations based on the results of these integrative language tests, their criterion-related validity was investigated. In doing so, the test of English as a foreign language (TOEFL) which is an established, standardized, and internationally administered test of general English proficiency was used as the criterion measure. Some 90 Iranian English majors participated in this study. They were seniors studying English at a university in Tehran, Iran. The results of analyses showed that there is a statistically significant correlation among participants- scores on Cloze test, C-test, and the TOEFL. Building on the findings of the study and considering criterion-related validity as the evidential basis of the validity argument, it was cautiously deducted that these tests measure the same underlying trait. However, considering the limitations of using criterion measures to validate tests, no absolute claims can be made as to the construct validity of these integrative tests.

Keywords: Integrative testing, C-test, Cloze test, theTOEFL, Validity.

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Authors: Luz Janeth Ospina M.

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The fourth industrial revolution is changing the role of education substantially and, therefore, the role of instructors and learners at all levels. Education 4.0 is an imminent response to the needs of a globalized world where humans and technology are being aligned to enable endless possibilities, among them the need for students, as digital natives, to communicate effectively in at least one language besides their mother tongue, and also the requirement of developing theirs. This is an exploratory study in which a control group (N = 21), all of the students of Spanish as a foreign language at the university level, after taking a Spanish class, responded to an online questionnaire about the engagement, atmosphere, and environment in which their course was delivered. These aspects considered in the survey were relative to the instructor’s teaching style, including: (a) active, hands-on learning; (b) flexibility for in-class activities, easily switching between small group work, individual work, and whole-class discussion; and (c) integrating technology into the classroom. Strongly believing in these principles, the instructor deliberately taught the course in a SCALE-UP room, as it could facilitate such a positive and encouraging learning environment. These aspects are trends related to Education 4.0 and have become integral to the instructor’s pedagogical stance that calls for a constructive-affective role, instead of a transmissive one. As expected, with a learning environment that (a) fosters student engagement and (b) improves student outcomes, the subjects were highly engaged, which was partially due to the learning environment. An overwhelming majority (all but one) of students agreed or strongly agreed that the atmosphere and the environment were ideal. Outcomes of this study are relevant and indicate that it is about time for teachers to build up a meaningful correlation between humans and technology. We should see the trends of Education 4.0 not as a threat but as practices that should be in the hands of critical and creative instructors whose pedagogical stance responds to the needs of the learners in the 21st century.

Keywords: Active learning, education 4.0, higher education, pedagogical stance.

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Authors: I. Kontorovich, R. Zazkis

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We present a framework of researcher knowledge development in conducting a study in mathematics education. The key components of the framework are: knowledge germane to conducting a particular study, processes of knowledge accumulation, and catalyzing filters that influence a researcher decision making. The components of the framework originated from a confluence between constructs and theories in Mathematics Education, Higher Education and Sociology. Drawing on a self-reflective interview with a leading researcher in mathematics education, Professor Michèle Artigue, we illustrate how the framework can be utilized in data analysis. Criteria for framework evaluation are discussed.

Keywords: Community of practice, knowledge development, mathematics education research, researcher knowledge.

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Authors: Kawtar Benghazi Akhlaki, Manuel I. Capel-Tuñón

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UML is a collection of notations for capturing a software system specification. These notations have a specific syntax defined by the Object Management Group (OMG), but many of their constructs only present informal semantics. They are primarily graphical, with textual annotation. The inadequacies of standard UML as a vehicle for complete specification and implementation of real-time embedded systems has led to a variety of competing and complementary proposals. The Real-time UML profile (UML-RT), developed and standardized by OMG, defines a unified framework to express the time, scheduling and performance aspects of a system. We present in this paper a framework approach aimed at deriving a complete specification of a real-time system. Therefore, we combine two methods, a semiformal one, UML-RT, which allows the visual modeling of a realtime system and a formal one, CSP+T, which is a design language including the specification of real-time requirements. As to show the applicability of the approach, a correct design of a real-time system with hard real time constraints by applying a set of mapping rules is obtained.

Keywords: CSP+T, formal software specification, process algebras, real-time systems, unified modeling language.

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Authors: Carlo Bellettini, Alessandro Marchetto, Andrea Trentini

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Web applications have become complex and crucial for many firms, especially when combined with areas such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and BPR (Business Process Reengineering). The scientific community has focused attention to Web application design, development, analysis, testing, by studying and proposing methodologies and tools. Static and dynamic techniques may be used to analyze existing Web applications. The use of traditional static source code analysis may be very difficult, for the presence of dynamically generated code, and for the multi-language nature of the Web. Dynamic analysis may be useful, but it has an intrinsic limitation, the low number of program executions used to extract information. Our reverse engineering analysis, used into our WAAT (Web Applications Analysis and Testing) project, applies mutational techniques in order to exploit server side execution engines to accomplish part of the dynamic analysis. This paper studies the effects of mutation source code analysis applied to Web software to build application models. Mutation-based generated models may contain more information then necessary, so we need a pruning mechanism.

Keywords: Validation, Dynamic Analysis, MutationAnalysis, Reverse Engineering, Web Applications

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Authors: Marek Skomorowski

Abstract:

In syntactic pattern recognition a pattern can be represented by a graph. Given an unknown pattern represented by a graph g, the problem of recognition is to determine if the graph g belongs to a language L(G) generated by a graph grammar G. The so-called IE graphs have been defined in [1] for a description of patterns. The IE graphs are generated by so-called ETPL(k) graph grammars defined in [1]. An efficient, parsing algorithm for ETPL(k) graph grammars for syntactic recognition of patterns represented by IE graphs has been presented in [1]. In practice, structural descriptions may contain pattern distortions, so that the assignment of a graph g, representing an unknown pattern, to a graph language L(G) generated by an ETPL(k) graph grammar G is rejected by the ETPL(k) type parsing. Therefore, there is a need for constructing effective parsing algorithms for recognition of distorted patterns. The purpose of this paper is to present a new approach to syntactic recognition of distorted patterns. To take into account all variations of a distorted pattern under study, a probabilistic description of the pattern is needed. A random IE graph approach is proposed here for such a description ([2]).

Keywords: Syntactic pattern recognition, Distorted patterns, Random graphs, Graph grammars.

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Authors: Marwah Mohsin, Thomas Beach, Alan Kwan, Mahdi Ismail

Abstract:

This paper describes the differences in views on sustainable development between the general public and experts in a developing country, Iraq. This paper will answer the question: How do the views of the public differ from the generally accepted view of experts in the context of sustainable urban development in Iraq? In order to answer this question, the views of both the public and the experts will be analysed. These results are taken from a public survey and a Delphi questionnaire. These will be analysed using statistical methods in order to identify the significant differences. This will enable investigation of the different perceptions between the public perceptions and the experts’ views towards urban sustainable development factors. This is important due to the fact that different viewpoints between policy-makers and the public will impact on the acceptance by the public of any future sustainable development work that is undertaken. The brief findings of the statistical analysis show that the views of both the public and the experts are considered different in most of the variables except six variables show no differences. Those variables are ‘The importance of establishing sustainable cities in Iraq’, ‘Mitigate traffic congestion’, ‘Waste recycling and separating’, ‘Use wastewater recycling’, ‘Parks and green spaces’, and ‘Promote investment’.

Keywords: Urban sustainable development, experts’ views, public views, statistical analysis.

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