Search results for: Learning Organization
819 Connecting Lives Inside and Outside the Classroom: Why and How to Implement Technology in the Language Learning Classroom
Authors: Geoffrey Sinha
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This paper is primarily addressed to teachers who stand on the threshold of bringing technology and new media into their classrooms. Technology and new media, such as smart phones and tablets have changed the face of communication in general and of language teaching more specifically. New media has widespread appeal among young people in particular, so it is in the teacher’s best interests to bring new media into their lessons. It is the author’s firm belief that technology will never replace the teacher, but it is without question that the twenty-first century teacher must employ technology and new media in some form, or run the risk of failure. The level that one chooses to incorporate new media within their class is entirely in their hands.
Keywords: New media, social media, technology, education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1783818 The Views of Elementary Mathematics Education Preservice Teachers on Proving
Authors: Belma Turker, Cigdem Alkas, Ebru Aylar, Ramazan Gurel, Oylum Akkus Ispir
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This study has been prepared with the purpose to get the views of senior class Elementary Education Mathematics preservice teachers on proving. Data have been obtained via surveys and interviews carried out with 104 preservice teachers. According to the findings, although preservice teachers have positive views about using proving in mathematics teaching, it is seen that their experiences related to proving is limited to courses and they think proving is a work done only for the exams. Furthermore, they have expressed in the interviews that proving is difficult for them, and because of this reason they prefer memorizing instead of learning.
Keywords: Belief on Proving, Mathematics Education, Proof.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1426817 Laban Movement Analysis Using Kinect
Authors: Ran Bernstein, Tal Shafir, Rachelle Tsachor, Karen Studd, Assaf Schuster
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Laban Movement Analysis (LMA), developed in the dance community over the past seventy years, is an effective method for observing, describing, notating, and interpreting human movement to enhance communication and expression in everyday and professional life. Many applications that use motion capture data might be significantly leveraged if the Laban qualities will be recognized automatically. This paper presents an automated recognition method of Laban qualities from motion capture skeletal recordings and it is demonstrated on the output of Microsoft’s Kinect V2 sensor.Keywords: Laban Movement Analysis, Kinect, Machine Learning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2833816 Smartphone-Based Human Activity Recognition by Machine Learning Methods
Authors: Yanting Cao, Kazumitsu Nawata
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As smartphones are continually upgrading, their software and hardware are getting smarter, so the smartphone-based human activity recognition will be described more refined, complex and detailed. In this context, we analyzed a set of experimental data, obtained by observing and measuring 30 volunteers with six activities of daily living (ADL). Due to the large sample size, especially a 561-feature vector with time and frequency domain variables, cleaning these intractable features and training a proper model become extremely challenging. After a series of feature selection and parameters adjustments, a well-performed SVM classifier has been trained.
Keywords: smart sensors, human activity recognition, artificial intelligence, SVM
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 637815 An Investigation into the Views of Gifted Children on the Effects of Computer and Information Technologies on Their Lives and Education
Authors: Ahmet Kurnaz, Eyup Yurt, Ümit Çiftci
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In this study, too, an attempt was made to reveal the place and effects of information technologies on the lives and education of gifted children based on the views of gifted. To this end, the effects of information technologies on gifted are general skills, technology use, academic and social skills, and cooperative and personal skills were investigated. These skills were explored depending on whether or not gifted had their own computers, had internet connection at home, or how often they use the internet, average time period they spent at the computer, how often they played computer games and their use of social media. The study was conducted using the screening model with a quantitative approach. The sample of the study consisted of 129 gifted attending 5-12th classes in 12 provinces in different regions of Turkey. 64 of the participants were female while 65 were male. The research data were collected using the using computer of gifted and information technologies (UCIT) questionnaire which was developed by the researchers and given its final form after receiving expert view. As a result of the study, it was found that UCIT use improved foreign language speaking skills of gifted, enabled them to get to know and understand different cultures, and made use of computer and information technologies while they study. At the end of the study these result were obtained: Gifted have positive idea using computer and communication technology. There are differences whether using the internet about the ideas UCIT. But there are not differences whether having computer, inhabited city, grade level, having internet at home, daily and weekly internet usage durations, playing the computer and internet game, having Facebook and Twitter account about the UCIT. UCIT contribute to the development of gifted vocabulary, allows knowing and understand different cultures, developing foreign language speaking skills, gifted do not give up computer when they do their homework, improve their reading, listening, understanding and writing skills in a foreign language. Gifted children want to have transition to the use of tablets in education. They think UCIT facilitates doing their homework, contributes learning more information in a shorter time. They'd like to use computer-assisted instruction programs at courses. They think they will be more successful in the future if their computer skills are good. But gifted students prefer teacher instead of teaching with computers and they said that learning can be run from home without going to school.
Keywords: Gifted, using computer, communication technology.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1786814 Facility Location Selection using Preference Programming
Authors: C. Ardil
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This paper presents preference programming technique based multiple criteria decision making analysis for selecting a facility location for a new organization or expansion of an existing facility which is of vital importance for a decision support system and strategic planning process. The implementation of decision support systems is considered crucial to sustain competitive advantage and profitability persistence in turbulent environment. As an effective strategic management and decision making is necessary, multiple criteria decision making analysis supports the decision makers to formulate and implement the right strategy. The investment cost associated with acquiring the property and facility construction makes the facility location selection problem a long-term strategic investment decision, which rationalize the best location selection which results in higher economic benefits through increased productivity and optimal distribution network. Selecting the proper facility location from a given set of alternatives is a difficult task, as many potential qualitative and quantitative multiple conflicting criteria are to be considered. This paper solves a facility location selection problem using preference programming, which is an effective multiple criteria decision making analysis tool applied to deal with complex decision problems in the operational research environment. The ranking results of preference programming are compared with WSM, TOPSIS and VIKOR methods.
Keywords: Facility Location Selection, Multiple Criteria Decision Making, Multiple Criteria Decision Making Analysis, Preference Programming, Location Selection, WSM, TOPSIS, VIKOR
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 540813 Energy Efficient Plant Design Approaches: Case Study of the Sample Building of the Energy Efficiency Training Facilities
Authors: Idil Kanter Otcu
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Nowadays, due to the growing problems of energy supply and the drastic reduction of natural non-renewable resources, the development of new applications in the energy sector and steps towards greater efficiency in energy consumption are required. Since buildings account for a large share of energy consumption, increasing the structural density of buildings causes an increase in energy consumption. This increase in energy consumption means that energy efficiency approaches to building design and the integration of new systems using emerging technologies become necessary in order to curb this consumption. As new systems for productive usage of generated energy are developed, buildings that require less energy to operate, with rational use of resources, need to be developed. One solution for reducing the energy requirements of buildings is through landscape planning, design and application. Requirements such as heating, cooling and lighting can be met with lower energy consumption through planting design, which can help to achieve more efficient and rational use of resources. Within this context, rather than a planting design which considers only the ecological and aesthetic features of plants, these considerations should also extend to spatial organization whereby the relationship between the site and open spaces in the context of climatic elements and planting designs are taken into account. In this way, the planting design can serve an additional purpose. In this study, a landscape design which takes into consideration location, local climate morphology and solar angle will be illustrated on a sample building project.Keywords: Energy efficiency, landscape design, plant design, xeriscape landscape.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1804812 A Robotic “Puppet Master” Application to ASD Therapeutic Support
Authors: Sophie Sakka, Rénald Gaboriau
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This paper describes a preliminary work aimed at setting a therapeutic support for autistic teenagers using three humanoid robots NAO shared by ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) subjects. The studied population had attended successfully a first year program, and were observed with a second year program using the robots. This paper focuses on the content and the effects of the second year program. The approach is based on a master puppet concept: the subjects program the robots, and use them as an extension for communication. Twenty sessions were organized, alternating ten preparatory sessions and ten robotics programming sessions. During the preparatory sessions, the subjects write a story to be played by the robots. During the robot programming sessions, the subjects program the motions to be realized to make the robot tell the story. The program was concluded by a public performance. The experiment involves five ASD teenagers aged 12-15, who had all attended the first year robotics training. As a result, a progress in voluntary and organized communication skills of the five subjects was observed, leading to improvements in social organization, focus, voluntary communication, programming, reading and writing abilities. The changes observed in the subjects general behavior took place in a short time, and could be observed from one robotics session to the next one. The approach allowed the subjects to draw the limits of their body with respect to the environment, and therefore helped them confronting the world with less anxiety.Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder, robot, therapeutic support, rob’autism.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 855811 Non Inmersive Virtual Reality for Improving Teaching Processes
Authors: Galeano R. Katherine, Rincon L. David, Luengas. Lely, Guevara. Juan Carlos
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The following paper shows an interactive tool which main purpose is to teach how to play a flute. It consists of three stages the first one is the instruction and teaching process through a software application, the second is the practice part when the user starts to play the flute (hardware specially designed for this application) this flute is capable of capturing how is being played the flute and the final stage is the one in which the data captured are sent to the software and the user is evaluated in order to give him / she a correction or an acceptanceKeywords: acoustoelectric devices, computer applications, learning systems, music, technological innovation, virtual reality
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1613810 Seasonal Variation of the Impact of Mining Activities on Ga-Selati River in Limpopo Province, South Africa
Authors: Joshua N. Edokpayi, John O. Odiyo, Patience P. Shikwambana
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Water is a very rare natural resource in South Africa. Ga-Selati River is used for both domestic and industrial purposes. This study was carried out in order to assess the quality of Ga-Selati River in a mining area of Limpopo Province-Phalaborwa. The pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC) and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) were determined using a Crinson multimeter while turbidity was measured using a Labcon Turbidimeter. The concentrations of Al, Ca, Cd, Cr, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na and Pb were analysed in triplicate using a Varian 520 flame atomic absorption spectrometer (AAS) supplied by PerkinElmer, after acid digestion with nitric acid in a fume cupboard. The average pH of the river from eight different sampling sites was 8.00 and 9.38 in wet and dry season respectively. Higher EC values were determined in the dry season (138.7 mS/m) than in the wet season (96.93 mS/m). Similarly, TDS values were higher in dry (929.29 mg/L) than in the wet season (640.72 mg/L) season. These values exceeded the recommended guideline of South Africa Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) for domestic water use (70 mS/m) and that of the World Health Organization (WHO) (600 mS/m), respectively. Turbidity varied between 1.78-5.20 and 0.95-2.37 NTU in both wet and dry seasons. Total hardness of 312.50 mg/L and 297.75 mg/L as the concentration of CaCO3 was computed for the river in both the wet and the dry seasons and the river water was categorised as very hard. Mean concentration of the metals studied in both the wet and the dry seasons are: Na (94.06 mg/L and 196.3 mg/L), K (11.79 mg/L and 13.62 mg/L), Ca (45.60 mg/L and 41.30 mg/L), Mg (48.41 mg/L and 44.71 mg/L), Al (0.31 mg/L and 0.38 mg/L), Cd (0.01 mg/L and 0.01 mg/L), Cr (0.02 mg/L and 0.09 mg/L), Pb (0.05 mg/L and 0.06 mg/L), Mn (0.31 mg/L and 0.11 mg/L) and Fe (0.76 mg/L and 0.69 mg/L). Results from this study reveal that most of the metals were present in concentrations higher than the recommended guidelines of DWAF and WHO for domestic use and the protection of aquatic life.Keywords: Contamination, mining activities, surface water, trace metals.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1986809 Practical Experiences as Part of Project Management Course
Authors: H. Hussain, N. H. Mohamad
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Practical experiences have been one of the successful criteria for the Project Management course for the art and design students. There are series of events that the students have to undergo as part of their practical exercises in the learning context for Project Management courses. These series have been divided into few mini programs that involved the whole individual in each group. Therefore, the events have been one of the bench marks for these students. Through the practical experience, the task that has been given to individual has been performed according to the needs of professional practice and ethics.Keywords: Practical experiences, project management, art and design students, events, programs.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1271808 Age and Second Language Acquisition: A Case Study from Maldives
Authors: Aaidha Hammad
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The age a child to be exposed to a second language is a controversial issue in communities such as the Maldives where English is taught as a second language. It has been observed that different stakeholders have different viewpoints towards the issue. Some believe that the earlier children are exposed to a second language, the better they learn, while others disagree with the notion. Hence, this case study investigates whether children learn a second language better when they are exposed at an earlier age or not. The spoken and written data collected confirm that earlier exposure helps in mastering the sound pattern and speaking fluency with more native-like accent, while a later age is better for learning more abstract and concrete aspects such as grammar and syntactic rules.Keywords: Age, development of language skills, fluency, second language acquisition.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3638807 Comparison between Approaches Used in Two WalkAbout Projects
Authors: Derek O Reilly, Piotr Milczarski, Shane Dowdall, Artur Hłobaż, Krzysztof Podlaski, Hiram Bollaert
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Learning through creation of contextual games is a very promising approach when undertaking interdisciplinary and international group projects. During 2013 and 2014 the authors organized two intensive student projects. The two projects were in different countries and different conditions. Between them, the two projects involved 68 students and 12 mentors from five EU countries and from various academic disciplines. In this paper we share our experience of these two projects and we suggest approaches that can be utilized to strengthen the chances of succeeding in short (12-15 days long) intensive student projects.
Keywords: Contextual games, mobile games, GGULIVRR, WalkAbout, Erasmus Intensive Programme.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1882806 Comparison between XGBoost, LightGBM and CatBoost Using a Home Credit Dataset
Authors: Essam Al Daoud
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Gradient boosting methods have been proven to be a very important strategy. Many successful machine learning solutions were developed using the XGBoost and its derivatives. The aim of this study is to investigate and compare the efficiency of three gradient methods. Home credit dataset is used in this work which contains 219 features and 356251 records. However, new features are generated and several techniques are used to rank and select the best features. The implementation indicates that the LightGBM is faster and more accurate than CatBoost and XGBoost using variant number of features and records.
Keywords: Gradient boosting, XGBoost, LightGBM, CatBoost, home credit.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9462805 Educase – Intelligent System for Pedagogical Advising Using Case-Based Reasoning
Authors: Elionai Moura, José A. da Cunha, César Analide
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This paper introduces a proposal scheme for an Intelligent System applied to Pedagogical Advising using Case-Based Reasoning, to find consolidated solutions before used for the new problems, making easier the task of advising students to the pedagogical staff. We do intend, through this work, introduce the motivation behind the choices for this system structure, justifying the development of an incremental and smart web system who learns bests solutions for new cases when it’s used, showing technics and technology.
Keywords: Case-based Reasoning, Pedagogical Advising, Educational Data-Mining (EDM), Machine Learning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2083804 Assessment of Cadmium Level in Water from Watershed of the Kowsar Dam
Authors: Fardin Boustani
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The Kowsar dam supply water for different usages such as drinking, industrial, agricultural and aquaculture farms usages and located next to the city of Dehdashat in Kohgiluye and Boyerahmad province in southern Iran. There are some towns and villages on the Kowsar dam watersheds, which Dehdasht and Choram are the most important and populated cities in this area. The study was undertaken to assess the status of water quality in the urban areas of the Kowsar dam. A total of 28 water samples were collected from 6 stations on surface water and 1 station from groundwater on the watershed of the Kowsar dam. All the samples were analyzed for Cd concentration using standard procedures. The results were compared with other national and international standards. Among the analyzed samples, as the maximum value of cadmium (1.131 μg/L) was observed on the station 2 at the winter 2009, all the samples analyzed were within the maximum admissible limits by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, EU, WHO, New Zealand , Australian, Iranian, and the Indian standards. In general results of the present study have shown that Cd mean values of stations No. 4, 1 and 2 with 0.5135, 0.0.4733 and 0.4573 μg/L respectively are higher than the other stations . Although Cd level of all samples and stations have had normal values but this is an indication of pollution potential and hazards because of human activity and waste water of towns in the areas, which can effect on human health implications in future. This research, therefore, recommends the government and other responsible authorities to take suitable improving measures in the Kowsar dam watershed-s.Keywords: Kowsar dam, Drinking water quality, Cadmium, Maximum admissible limit, World health organization,
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1787803 Critical Factors Affecting the Implementation of Total Quality Management in the Construction Industry in U.A.E
Authors: Firas Mohamad Al-Sabek
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The purpose of the paper is to examine the most critical and important factor which will affect the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the construction industry in the United Arab Emirates. It also examines the most effected Project outcome from implementing TQM. A framework was also proposed depending on the literature studies. The method used in this paper is a quantitative study. A survey with a sample of 60 respondents was created and distributed in a construction company in Abu Dhabi, which includes 15 questions to examine the most critical factor that will affect the implementation of TQM in addition to the most effected project outcome from implementing TQM. The survey showed that management commitment is the most important factor in implementing TQM in a construction company. Also it showed that Project cost is most effected outcome from the implementation of TQM. Management commitment is very important for implementing TQM in any company. If the management loose interest in quality then everyone in the organization will do so. The success of TQM will depend mostly on the top of the pyramid. Also cost is reduced and money is saved when the project team implement TQM. While if no quality measures are present within the team, the project will suffer a commercial failure. Based on literature, more factors can be examined and added to the model. In addition, more construction companies could be surveyed in order to obtain more accurate results. Also this study could be conducted outside the United Arab Emirates for further enchantment.Keywords: Construction project, total quality management, management commitment, cost, theoretical framework.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4066802 Applying Theory of Inventive Problem Solving to Develop Innovative Solutions: A Case Study
Authors: Y. H. Wang, C. C. Hsieh
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Good service design can increase organization revenue and consumer satisfaction while reducing labor and time costs. The problems facing consumers in the original serve model for eyewear and optical industry includes the following issues: 1. Insufficient information on eyewear products 2. Passively dependent on recommendations, insufficient selection 3. Incomplete records on progression of vision conditions 4. Lack of complete customer records. This study investigates the case of Kobayashi Optical, applying the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) to develop innovative solutions for eyewear and optical industry. Analysis results raise the following conclusions and management implications: In order to provide customers with improved professional information and recommendations, Kobayashi Optical is suggested to establish customer purchasing records. Overall service efficiency can be enhanced by applying data mining techniques to analyze past consumer preferences and purchase histories. Furthermore, Kobayashi Optical should continue to develop a 3D virtual trial service which can allow customers for easy browsing of different frame styles and colors. This 3D virtual trial service will save customer waiting times in during peak service times at stores.Keywords: Theory of inventive problem solving, service design, augmented reality, eyewear and optical industry.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1672801 MEAL Project: Modifying Eating Attitudes and Actions through Learning
Authors: E. Oliver, A. Cebolla, A. Dominguez, A. Gonzalez-Segura, E. de la Cruz, S. Albertini, L. Ferrini, K. Kronika, T. Nilsen, R. Baños
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The main objective of MEAL is to develop a pedagogical tool aimed to help teachers and nutritionists (students and professionals) to acquire, train, promote and deliver to children basic nutritional education and healthy eating behaviours competencies. MEAL is focused on eating behaviours and not only in nutritional literacy, and will use new technologies like Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and serious games (SG) platforms to consolidate the nutritional competences and habits.Keywords: Nutritional Education, Pedagogical ICT Platform, Serious Games, Teachers and Nutritionists, Training Course.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2276800 Assessing the Impact of High Fidelity Human Patient Simulation on Teamwork among Nursing, Medicine and Pharmacy Undergraduate Students
Authors: S. MacDonald, A. Manuel, R. Law, N. Bandruak, A. Dubrowski, V. Curran, J. Smith-Young, K. Simmons, A. Warren
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High fidelity human patient simulation has been used for many years by health sciences education programs to foster critical thinking, engage learners, improve confidence, improve communication, and enhance psychomotor skills. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of research on the use of high fidelity human patient simulation to foster teamwork among nursing, medicine and pharmacy undergraduate students. This study compared the impact of high fidelity and low fidelity simulation education on teamwork among nursing, medicine and pharmacy students. For the purpose of this study, two innovative teaching scenarios were developed based on the care of an adult patient experiencing acute anaphylaxis: one high fidelity using a human patient simulator and one low fidelity using case based discussions. A within subjects, pretest-posttest, repeated measures design was used with two-treatment levels and random assignment of individual subjects to teams of two or more professions. A convenience sample of twenty-four (n=24) undergraduate students participated, including: nursing (n=11), medicine (n=9), and pharmacy (n=4). The Interprofessional Teamwork Questionnaire was used to assess for changes in students’ perception of their functionality within the team, importance of interprofessional collaboration, comprehension of roles, and confidence in communication and collaboration. Student satisfaction was also assessed. Students reported significant improvements in their understanding of the importance of interprofessional teamwork and of the roles of nursing and medicine on the team after participation in both the high fidelity and the low fidelity simulation. However, only participants in the high fidelity simulation reported a significant improvement in their ability to function effectively as a member of the team. All students reported that both simulations were a meaningful learning experience and all students would recommend both experiences to other students. These findings suggest there is merit in both high fidelity and low fidelity simulation as a teaching and learning approach to foster teamwork among undergraduate nursing, medicine and pharmacy students. However, participation in high fidelity simulation may provide a more realistic opportunity to practice and function as an effective member of the interprofessional health care team.
Keywords: Acute anaphylaxis, high fidelity human patient simulation, low fidelity simulation, interprofessional education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 954799 Surface Water Pollution by Open Refuse Dumpsite in North Central of Nigeria
Authors: Abimbola Motunrayo Folami, Ibironke Titilayo Enitan, Feroz Mohomed Swalaha
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Water is a vital resource that is important in ensuring the growth and development of any country. To sustain the basic human needs and the demands for agriculture, industry, conservational and ecosystem, enough quality and quantity water is needed. Contamination of water resources is now a global and public health concern. Hence, this study assessed the water quality of Ndawuse River by measuring the physicochemical parameters and heavy metals concentrations of the river using standard methods. In total, 16 surface water samples were obtained from five locations along the river, from upstream to downstream as well as samples from the dumpsite. The results obtained were compared with the standard limits set by both the World Health Organization and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency for domestic purposes. The results of the measured parameters indicated that biological oxygen demand (85.88 mg/L), turbidity (44.51 NTU), Iron (0.014 - 3.511 mg /L) and chromium (0.078 - 0.14 mg /L) were all above the standard limits. The results further showed that the quality of surface water is being significantly affected by human activities around the Ndawuse River which could pose an adverse health risk to several communities that rely on this river as their primary source of water. Therefore, there is a need for strict enforcement of environmental laws to protect the aquatic ecosystem and to avoid long term cumulative exposure risk that heavy metals may pose on human health.
Keywords: Abuja, contaminants, heavy metals, Ndawuse River, Nigeria, surface water.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 603798 Relevant LMA Features for Human Motion Recognition
Authors: Insaf Ajili, Malik Mallem, Jean-Yves Didier
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Motion recognition from videos is actually a very complex task due to the high variability of motions. This paper describes the challenges of human motion recognition, especially motion representation step with relevant features. Our descriptor vector is inspired from Laban Movement Analysis method. We propose discriminative features using the Random Forest algorithm in order to remove redundant features and make learning algorithms operate faster and more effectively. We validate our method on MSRC-12 and UTKinect datasets.Keywords: Human motion recognition, Discriminative LMA features, random forest, features reduction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 773797 The Way of Life of the Civil Servant Community under the Bureau of the Royal Household: A Case Study of Tha Wasukri, Bangkok
Authors: Vilasinee Jintalikhitdee, Saowapa Phaithayawat
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The research on “The Way of Life of the Civil Servant Community under the Bureau of the Royal Household” aims to study 1) the way of life of the people who live in the civil servant community in Tha Wasukri, and 2) the model of community administration of civil servants under the Bureau of the Royal Household. This research is conducted qualitatively and quantitatively by collecting data from interviews, focus group discussion, participant and non-participant observation along with the data from questionnaire based on age groups which include elder group, working age group and youth group. The result of the research shows that the origin of this community is related to the history during the Rama V’s reign. It has been a harbor for the king to boat in any royal ceremonies; this custom is still maintained until today. The status or position of person who serves the king in terms of working is often inherited from the bureau of the Royal Household based on his/her consanguinity and, hence, further receives the rights to live in the Tha Wasukri area. Therefore, this community has some special characteristics demonstrating the way of living influenced by the regulation of the Bureau of the Royal Household such as respecting elders and interdependence in which there is internal social organization with the practice of bureaucracy in going in and out the community. The person who has rights to live here must be friendly to everybody so that this community will be a safe place for lives and property. The administration based on the model of Bangkok for local administration was used as an external structure only, but the way of living still follows the practice of the Bureau of the Royal Household.
Keywords: The way of life, Community, Tha Wasukri.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1835796 Using LabVIEW Software in an Introductory Residual Current Device Course
Authors: B. Rajkumarsingh, S. Goolaup, A. Galleegadoo
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Laboratory classes in Electrical Engineering are often hampered by safety issues, as students have to work on high voltage lines. One solution is to make use of virtual laboratory simulations, to help students understand the concepts taught in their coursework. In this context, we have conceived and implemented virtual lab experiments in connection with the study of earthing arrangements. In this work, software was developed, which aid student in understanding the working of a residual current device (RCD) in a TT earthing system. Various parameters, such as the earthing resistances, leakage currents and harmonics were included for a TT system with RCD connection.
Keywords: TT system, RCD, LabVIEW, Learning aids.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1884795 ClassMATE: Enabling Ambient Intelligence in the Classroom
Authors: Asterios Leonidis, George Margetis, Margherita Antona, Constantine Stephanidis
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Ambient Intelligence (AmI) environments bring significant potential to exploit sophisticated computer technology in everyday life. In particular, the educational domain could be significantly enhanced through AmI, as personalized and adapted learning could be transformed from paper concepts and prototypes to real-life scenarios. In this paper, an integrated framework is presented, named ClassMATE, supporting ubiquitous computing and communication in a school classroom. The main objective of ClassMATE is to enable pervasive interaction and context aware education in the technologically augmented classroom of the future.Keywords: Ambient intelligence, smart classroom, pervasivecomputing, education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2324794 Speaker Identification by Atomic Decomposition of Learned Features Using Computational Auditory Scene Analysis Principals in Noisy Environments
Authors: Thomas Bryan, Veton Kepuska, Ivica Kostanic
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Speaker recognition is performed in high Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) environments using principals of Computational Auditory Scene Analysis (CASA). CASA methods often classify sounds from images in the time-frequency (T-F) plane using spectrograms or cochleargrams as the image. In this paper atomic decomposition implemented by matching pursuit performs a transform from time series speech signals to the T-F plane. The atomic decomposition creates a sparsely populated T-F vector in “weight space” where each populated T-F position contains an amplitude weight. The weight space vector along with the atomic dictionary represents a denoised, compressed version of the original signal. The arraignment or of the atomic indices in the T-F vector are used for classification. Unsupervised feature learning implemented by a sparse autoencoder learns a single dictionary of basis features from a collection of envelope samples from all speakers. The approach is demonstrated using pairs of speakers from the TIMIT data set. Pairs of speakers are selected randomly from a single district. Each speak has 10 sentences. Two are used for training and 8 for testing. Atomic index probabilities are created for each training sentence and also for each test sentence. Classification is performed by finding the lowest Euclidean distance between then probabilities from the training sentences and the test sentences. Training is done at a 30dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Testing is performed at SNR’s of 0 dB, 5 dB, 10 dB and 30dB. The algorithm has a baseline classification accuracy of ~93% averaged over 10 pairs of speakers from the TIMIT data set. The baseline accuracy is attributable to short sequences of training and test data as well as the overall simplicity of the classification algorithm. The accuracy is not affected by AWGN and produces ~93% accuracy at 0dB SNR.
Keywords: Time-frequency plane, atomic decomposition, envelope sampling, Gabor atoms, matching pursuit, sparse dictionary learning, sparse autoencoder.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1570793 An Evaluation of Drivers in Implementing Sustainable Manufacturing in India: Using DEMATEL Approach
Authors: D. Garg, S. Luthra, A. Haleem
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Due to growing concern about environmental and social consequences throughout the world, a need has been felt to incorporate sustainability concepts in conventional manufacturing. This paper is an attempt to identify and evaluate drivers in implementing sustainable manufacturing in Indian context. Nine possible drivers for successful implementation of sustainable manufacturing have been identified from extensive review. Further, Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach has been utilized to evaluate and categorize these identified drivers for implementing sustainable manufacturing in to the cause and effect groups. Five drivers (Societal Pressure and Public Concerns; Regulations and Government Policies; Top Management Involvement, Commitment and Support; Effective Strategies and Activities towards Socially Responsible Manufacturing and Market Trends) have been categorized into the cause group and four drivers (Holistic View in Manufacturing Systems; Supplier Participation; Building Sustainable culture in Organization; and Corporate Image and Benefits) have been categorized into the effect group. “Societal Pressure and Public Concerns” has been found the most critical driver and “Corporate Image and Benefits” as least critical or the most easily influenced driver to implementing sustainable manufacturing in Indian context. This paper may surely help practitioners in better understanding of these drivers and their priorities towards effective implementation of sustainable manufacturing.
Keywords: Drivers, Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), India, Sustainable Manufacturing (SM).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3221792 Comparison between LQR and ANN Active Anti-Roll Control of a Single Unit Heavy Vehicle
Authors: Babesse Saad, Ameddah Djameleddine
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In this paper, a learning algorithm using neuronal networks to improve the roll stability and prevent the rollover in a single unit heavy vehicle is proposed. First, LQR control to keep balanced normalized rollovers, between front and rear axles, below the unity, then a data collected from this controller is used as a training basis of a neuronal regulator. The ANN controller is thereafter applied for the nonlinear side force model, and gives satisfactory results than the LQR one.Keywords: Rollover, single unit heavy vehicle, neural networks, nonlinear side force.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1043791 Meta-Classification using SVM Classifiers for Text Documents
Authors: Daniel I. Morariu, Lucian N. Vintan, Volker Tresp
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Text categorization is the problem of classifying text documents into a set of predefined classes. In this paper, we investigated three approaches to build a meta-classifier in order to increase the classification accuracy. The basic idea is to learn a metaclassifier to optimally select the best component classifier for each data point. The experimental results show that combining classifiers can significantly improve the accuracy of classification and that our meta-classification strategy gives better results than each individual classifier. For 7083 Reuters text documents we obtained a classification accuracies up to 92.04%.Keywords: Meta-classification, Learning with Kernels, Support Vector Machine, and Performance Evaluation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1616790 SIPINA Induction Graph Method for Seismic Risk Prediction
Authors: B. Selma
Abstract:
The aim of this study is to test the feasibility of SIPINA method to predict the harmfulness parameters controlling the seismic response. The approach developed takes into consideration both the focal depth and the peak ground acceleration. The parameter to determine is displacement. The data used for the learning of this method and analysis nonlinear seismic are described and applied to a class of models damaged to some typical structures of the existing urban infrastructure of Jassy, Romania. The results obtained indicate an influence of the focal depth and the peak ground acceleration on the displacement.
Keywords: SIPINA method, seism, focal depth, peak ground acceleration, displacement.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1210