Search results for: Statistical learning theory
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 4532

Search results for: Statistical learning theory

2702 Learning a Song: an ACT-R Model

Authors: Belkacem Chikhaoui, Helene Pigot, Mathieu Beaudoin, Guillaume Pratte, Philippe Bellefeuille, Fernando Laudares

Abstract:

The way music is interpreted by the human brain is a very interesting topic, but also an intricate one. Although this domain has been studied for over a century, many gray areas remain in the understanding of music. Recent advances have enabled us to perform accurate measurements of the time taken by the human brain to interpret and assimilate a sound. Cognitive computing provides tools and development environments that facilitate human cognition simulation. ACT-R is a cognitive architecture which offers an environment for implementing human cognitive tasks. This project combines our understanding of the music interpretation by a human listener and the ACT-R cognitive architecture to build SINGER, a computerized simulation for listening and recalling songs. The results are similar to human experimental data. Simulation results also show how it is easier to remember short melodies than long melodies which require more trials to be recalled correctly.

Keywords: Computational model, cognitive modeling, simulation, learning, song, music.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1567
2701 Shape Sensing and Damage Detection of Thin-Walled Cylinders Using an Inverse Finite Element Method

Authors: Ionel D. Craiu, Mihai Nedelcu

Abstract:

Thin-walled cylinders are often used by the offshore industry as columns of floating installations. Based on observed strains, the inverse Finite Element Method (iFEM) may rebuild the deformation of structures. Structural Health Monitoring uses this approach extensively. However, the number of in-situ strain gauges is what determines how accurate it is, and for shell structures with complicated deformation, this number can easily become too high for practical use. Any thin-walled beam member's complicated deformation can be modeled by the Generalized Beam Theory (GBT) as a linear combination of pre-specified cross-section deformation modes. GBT uses bar finite elements as opposed to shell finite elements. This paper proposes an iFEM/GBT formulation for the shape sensing of thin-walled cylinders based on these benefits. This method significantly reduces the number of strain gauges compared to using the traditional inverse-shell finite elements. Using numerical simulations, dent damage detection is achieved by comparing the strain distributions of the undamaged and damaged members. The effect of noise on strain measurements is also investigated.

Keywords: Damage detection, generalized beam theory, inverse finite element method, shape sensing.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 159
2700 Training Engineering Students in Sustainable Development

Authors: Hoong C. Chin, Soon H. Chew, Zhaoxia Wang

Abstract:

Work on sustainable developments and the call for action in education for sustainable development have been ongoing for a number of years. Training engineering students with the relevant competencies, particularly in sustainable development literacy, has been identified as an urgent task in universities. This requires not only a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach to education but also a suitable training environment to develop the needed skills and to inculcate the appropriate attitudes in students towards sustainable development. To demonstrate how this can be done, a module involving an overseas field trip was introduced in 2013 at the National University of Singapore. This paper provides details of the module and describes its training philosophy and methods. Measured against the student learning outcomes, stipulated by the Engineering Accreditation Board, the module scored well on all of them, particularly those related to complex problem solving, environmental and sustainability awareness, multi-disciplinary team work and varied-level communications.

Keywords: Civil engineering education, student learning outcomes, sustainable development.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1407
2699 Avoiding Catastrophic Forgetting by a Dual-Network Memory Model Using a Chaotic Neural Network

Authors: Motonobu Hattori

Abstract:

In neural networks, when new patterns are learned by a network, the new information radically interferes with previously stored patterns. This drawback is called catastrophic forgetting or catastrophic interference. In this paper, we propose a biologically inspired neural network model which overcomes this problem. The proposed model consists of two distinct networks: one is a Hopfield type of chaotic associative memory and the other is a multilayer neural network. We consider that these networks correspond to the hippocampus and the neocortex of the brain, respectively. Information given is firstly stored in the hippocampal network with fast learning algorithm. Then the stored information is recalled by chaotic behavior of each neuron in the hippocampal network. Finally, it is consolidated in the neocortical network by using pseudopatterns. Computer simulation results show that the proposed model has much better ability to avoid catastrophic forgetting in comparison with conventional models.

Keywords: catastrophic forgetting, chaotic neural network, complementary learning systems, dual-network

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2102
2698 Agreement Options in Multi-person Decision on Optimizing High-Rise Building Columns

Authors: Christiono Utomo, Arazi Idrus, Madzlan Napiah, Mohd. Faris Khamidi

Abstract:

This paper presents a conceptual model of agreement options for negotiation support in multi-person decision on optimizing high-rise building columns. The decision is complicated since many parties involved in choosing a single alternative from a set of solutions. There are different concern caused by differing preferences, experiences, and background. Such building columns as alternatives are referred to as agreement options which are determined by identifying the possible decision maker group, followed by determining the optimal solution for each group. The group in this paper is based on three-decision makers preferences that are designer, programmer, and construction manager. Decision techniques applied to determine the relative value of the alternative solutions for performing the function. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied for decision process and game theory based agent system for coalition formation. An n-person cooperative game is represented by the set of all players. The proposed coalition formation model enables each agent to select individually its allies or coalition. It further emphasizes the importance of performance evaluation in the design process and value-based decision.

Keywords: Agreement options, coalition, group choice, game theory, building columns selection.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1625
2697 System Reliability by Prediction of Generator Output and Losses in a Competitive Energy Market

Authors: Perumal Nallagownden, Ravindra N. Mukerjee, Syafrudin Masri

Abstract:

In a competitive energy market, system reliability should be maintained at all times. Power system operation being of online in nature, the energy balance requirements must be satisfied to ensure reliable operation the system. To achieve this, information regarding the expected status of the system, the scheduled transactions and the relevant inputs necessary to make either a transaction contract or a transmission contract operational, have to be made available in real time. The real time procedure proposed, facilitates this. This paper proposes a quadratic curve learning procedure, which enables a generator-s contribution to the retailer demand, power loss of transaction in a line at the retail end and its associated losses for an oncoming operating scenario to be predicted. Matlab program was used to test in on a 24-bus IEE Reliability Test System, and the results are found to be acceptable.

Keywords: Deregulation, learning coefficients, reliability, prediction, competitive energy market.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1478
2696 Connectionist Approach to Generic Text Summarization

Authors: Rajesh S.Prasad, U. V. Kulkarni, Jayashree.R.Prasad

Abstract:

As the enormous amount of on-line text grows on the World-Wide Web, the development of methods for automatically summarizing this text becomes more important. The primary goal of this research is to create an efficient tool that is able to summarize large documents automatically. We propose an Evolving connectionist System that is adaptive, incremental learning and knowledge representation system that evolves its structure and functionality. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for Part of Speech disambiguation using a recurrent neural network, a paradigm capable of dealing with sequential data. We observed that connectionist approach to text summarization has a natural way of learning grammatical structures through experience. Experimental results show that our approach achieves acceptable performance.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Networks (ANN); Computational Intelligence (CI); Connectionist Text Summarizer ECTS (ECTS); Evolving Connectionist systems; Evolving systems; Fuzzy systems (FS); Part of Speech (POS) disambiguation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1591
2695 Research on User Experience and Brand Attitudes of Chatbots

Authors: Shu-Yin Yu

Abstract:

With the advancement of artificial intelligence technology, most companies are aware of the profound potential of artificial intelligence in commercial marketing. Man-machine dialogue has become the latest trend in marketing customer service. However, chatbots are often considered to be lack of intelligent or unfriendly conversion, which instead reduces the communication effect of chatbots. To ensure that chatbots represent the brand image and provide a good user experience, companies and users attach great importance. In this study, customer service chatbot was used as the research sample. The research variables are based on the theory of artificial intelligence emotions, integrating the technology acceptance model and innovation diffusion theory, and the three aspects of pleasure, arousal, and dominance of the human-machine PAD (Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance) dimension. The results show that most of the participants have a higher acceptance of innovative technologies and are high pleasure and arousal in the user experience. Participants still have traditional gender (female) service stereotypes about customer service chatbots. Users who have high trust in using chatbots can easily enhance brand acceptance and easily accept brand messages, extend the trust of chatbots to trust in the brand, and develop a positive attitude towards the brand.

Keywords: Brand attitude, chatbot, emotional interaction, user experience.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 817
2694 Robot Technology Impact on Dyslexic Students’ English Learning

Authors: Khaled Hamdan, Abid Amorri, Fatima Hamdan

Abstract:

Involving students in English language learning process and achieving an adequate English language proficiency in the target language can be a great challenge for both teachers and students. This can prove even a far greater challenge to engage students with special needs (Dyslexia) if they have physical impairment and inadequate mastery of basic communicative language competence/proficiency in the target language. From this perspective, technology like robots can probably be used to enhance learning process for the special needs students who have extensive communication needs, who face continuous struggle to interact with their peers and teachers and meet academic requirements. Robots, precisely NAO, can probably provide them with the perfect opportunity to practice social and communication skills, and meet their English academic requirements. This research paper aims to identify to what extent robots can be used to improve students’ social interaction and communication skills and to understand the potential for robotics-based education in motivating and engaging UAEU dyslexic students to meet university requirements. To reach this end, the paper will explore several factors that come into play – Motion Level-involving cognitive activities, Interaction Level-involving language processing, Behavior Level -establishing a close relationship with the robot and Appraisal Level- focusing on dyslexia students’ achievement in the target language.

Keywords: Dyslexia, robot technology, motion, interaction, behavior and appraisal levels, social and communication skills.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1396
2693 Comparison of Power Generation Status of Photovoltaic Systems under Different Weather Conditions

Authors: Zhaojun Wang, Zongdi Sun, Qinqin Cui, Xingwan Ren

Abstract:

Based on multivariate statistical analysis theory, this paper uses the principal component analysis method, Mahalanobis distance analysis method and fitting method to establish the photovoltaic health model to evaluate the health of photovoltaic panels. First of all, according to weather conditions, the photovoltaic panel variable data are classified into five categories: sunny, cloudy, rainy, foggy, overcast. The health of photovoltaic panels in these five types of weather is studied. Secondly, a scatterplot of the relationship between the amount of electricity produced by each kind of weather and other variables was plotted. It was found that the amount of electricity generated by photovoltaic panels has a significant nonlinear relationship with time. The fitting method was used to fit the relationship between the amount of weather generated and the time, and the nonlinear equation was obtained. Then, using the principal component analysis method to analyze the independent variables under five kinds of weather conditions, according to the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test, it was found that three types of weather such as overcast, foggy, and sunny meet the conditions for factor analysis, while cloudy and rainy weather do not satisfy the conditions for factor analysis. Therefore, through the principal component analysis method, the main components of overcast weather are temperature, AQI, and pm2.5. The main component of foggy weather is temperature, and the main components of sunny weather are temperature, AQI, and pm2.5. Cloudy and rainy weather require analysis of all of their variables, namely temperature, AQI, pm2.5, solar radiation intensity and time. Finally, taking the variable values in sunny weather as observed values, taking the main components of cloudy, foggy, overcast and rainy weather as sample data, the Mahalanobis distances between observed value and these sample values are obtained. A comparative analysis was carried out to compare the degree of deviation of the Mahalanobis distance to determine the health of the photovoltaic panels under different weather conditions. It was found that the weather conditions in which the Mahalanobis distance fluctuations ranged from small to large were: foggy, cloudy, overcast and rainy.

Keywords: Fitting, principal component analysis, Mahalanobis distance, SPSS, MATLAB.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 675
2692 In Vivo Evaluation of Stable Cream Containing Flavonoids on Hydration and TEWL of Human Skin

Authors: Haji M Shoaib Khan, Naveed Akhtar, Fatima Rasool, Barkat Ali Khan, Tariq Mahmood, Muhammad Shuaib Khan

Abstract:

Antioxidants contribute to endogenous photoprotection and are important for the maintenance of skin health. The study was carried out to compare the skin hydration and transepidermal water loss (TEWL) effects of a stable cosmetic preparation containing flavonoids, following two applications a day over a period of tenth week. The skin trans-epidermal water loss and skin hydration effect was measured at the beginning and up to the end of study period of ten weeks. Any effect produced was measured by Corneometer and TEWA meter (Non-invasive probe). Two formulations were developed for this study design. Formulation one the control formulation in which no apple juice extract( Flavonoids) was incorporated while second one was the active formulation in which the apple juice extract (3%) containing flavonoids was incorporated into water in oil emulsion using Abil EM 90 as an emulsifier. Stable formulations (control and Active) were applied on human cheeks (n = 12) for a study period of 10 weeks. Result of each volunteer of skin hydration and TEWL was measured by corneometer and TEWA meter. By using ANOVA and Paired sample t test as a statistical evaluation, result of both base and formulation were compared. Statistical significant results (p≤0.05) were observed regarding skin hydration and TEWL when two creams, control and Formulation were compared. It showed that desired formulation (Active) may have interesting application as an active moisturizing cream on healthy skin.

Keywords: Apple juice extract, TEWL, Corneometer, flavonoids.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2693
2691 On λ− Summable of Orlicz Space of Gai Sequences of Fuzzy Numbers

Authors: N.Subramanian, S.Krishnamoorthy, S. Balasubramanian

Abstract:

In this paper the concept of strongly (λM)p - Ces'aro summability of a sequence of fuzzy numbers and strongly λM- statistically convergent sequences of fuzzy numbers is introduced.

Keywords: Fuzzy numbers, statistical convergence, Orlicz space, gai sequence.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1952
2690 Prioritizing Influential Factors on the Promotion of Virtual Training System

Authors: Nader Gharibnavaz, Mostafa Mosadeghi, Naser Gharibnavaz

Abstract:

In today's world where everything is rapidly changing and information technology is high in development, many features of culture, society, politic and economy has changed. The advent of information technology and electronic data transmission lead to easy communication and fields like e-learning and e-commerce, are accessible for everyone easily. One of these technologies is virtual training. The "quality" of such kind of education systems is critical. 131 questionnaires were prepared and distributed among university student in Toba University. So the research has followed factors that affect the quality of learning from the perspective of staff, students, professors and this type of university. It is concluded that the important factors in virtual training are the quality of professors, the quality of staff, and the quality of the university. These mentioned factors were the most prior factors in this education system and necessary for improving virtual training.

Keywords: Training , Virtual Training, Strategic Positioning, Positioning Mapping, Unique Selling Proposition, Strong Brands, Indoors industry

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1472
2689 Discriminant Analysis as a Function of Predictive Learning to Select Evolutionary Algorithms in Intelligent Transportation System

Authors: Jorge A. Ruiz-Vanoye, Ocotlán Díaz-Parra, Alejandro Fuentes-Penna, Daniel Vélez-Díaz, Edith Olaco García

Abstract:

In this paper, we present the use of the discriminant analysis to select evolutionary algorithms that better solve instances of the vehicle routing problem with time windows. We use indicators as independent variables to obtain the classification criteria, and the best algorithm from the generic genetic algorithm (GA), random search (RS), steady-state genetic algorithm (SSGA), and sexual genetic algorithm (SXGA) as the dependent variable for the classification. The discriminant classification was trained with classic instances of the vehicle routing problem with time windows obtained from the Solomon benchmark. We obtained a classification of the discriminant analysis of 66.7%.

Keywords: Intelligent transportation systems, data-mining techniques, evolutionary algorithms, discriminant analysis, machine learning.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1547
2688 Virtual Reality Classrooms Strategies for Creating a Social Presence

Authors: Elizabeth M. Hodge, M.H.N. Tabrizi, Mary A. Farwell, Karl L. Wuensch

Abstract:

Delivering course material via a virtual environment is beneficial to today-s students because it offers the interactivity, real-time interaction and social presence that students of all ages have come to accept in our gaming rich community. It is essential that the Net Generation also known as Generation Why, have exposure to learning communities that encompass interactivity to form social and educational connections. As student and professor become interconnected through collaboration and interaction in a virtual learning space, relationships develop and students begin to take on an individual identity. With this in mind the research project was developed to investigate the use of virtual environments on student satisfaction and the effectiveness of course delivery. Furthermore, the project was designed to integrate both interactive (real-time) classes conducted in the Virtual Reality (VR) environment while also creating archived VR sessions for student use in retaining and reviewing course content.

Keywords: Virtual Reality, Social Presence, Virtual Environments, Course Delivery Methods.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1914
2687 Web-Based Instructional Program to Improve Professional Development: Recommendations and Standards for Radioactive Facilities in Brazil

Authors: Denise Levy, Gian M. A. A. Sordi

Abstract:

This web based project focuses on continuing corporate education and improving workers' skills in Brazilian radioactive facilities throughout the country. The potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) shall contribute to improve the global communication in this very large country, where it is a strong challenge to ensure high quality professional information to as many people as possible. The main objective of this system is to provide Brazilian radioactive facilities a complete web-based repository - in Portuguese - for research, consultation and information, offering conditions for learning and improving professional and personal skills. UNIPRORAD is a web based system to offer unified programs and inter-related information about radiological protection programs. The content includes the best practices for radioactive facilities in order to meet both national standards and international recommendations published by different organizations over the past decades: International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN). The website counts on concepts, definitions and theory about optimization and ionizing radiation monitoring procedures. Moreover, the content presents further discussions related to some national and international recommendations, such as potential exposure, which is currently one of the most important research fields in radiological protection. Only two publications of ICRP develop expressively the issue and there is still a lack of knowledge of fail probabilities, for there are still uncertainties to find effective paths to quantify probabilistically the occurrence of potential exposures and the probabilities to reach a certain level of dose. To respond to this challenge, this project discusses and introduces potential exposures in a more quantitative way than national and international recommendations. Articulating ICRP and AIEA valid recommendations and official reports, in addition to scientific papers published in major international congresses, the website discusses and suggests a number of effective actions towards safety which can be incorporated into labor practice. The WEB platform was created according to corporate public needs, taking into account the development of a robust but flexible system, which can be easily adapted to future demands. ICTs provide a vast array of new communication capabilities and allow to spread information to as many people as possible at low costs and high quality communication. This initiative shall provide opportunities for employees to increase professional skills, stimulating development in this large country where it is an enormous challenge to ensure effective and updated information to geographically distant facilities, minimizing costs and optimizing results.

Keywords: Distance learning, information and communication technology, nuclear science, radioactive facilities.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1272
2686 Student Satisfaction Data for Work Based Learners

Authors: Rosie Borup, Hanifa Shah

Abstract:

This paper aims to describe how student satisfaction is measured for work-based learners as these are non-traditional learners, conducting academic learning in the workplace, typically their curricula have a high degree of negotiation, and whose motivations are directly related to their employers- needs, as well as their own career ambitions. We argue that while increasing WBL participation, and use of SSD are both accepted as being of strategic importance to the HE agenda, the use of WBL SSD is rarely examined, and lessons can be learned from the comparison of SSD from a range of WBL programmes, and increased visibility of this type of data will provide insight into ways to improve and develop this type of delivery. The key themes that emerged from the analysis of the interview data were: learners profiles and needs, employers drivers, academic staff drivers, organizational approach, tools for collecting data and visibility of findings. The paper concludes with observations on best practice in the collection, analysis and use of WBL SSD, thus offering recommendations for both academic managers and practitioners.

Keywords: Student satisfaction data, work based learning, employer engagement, NSS.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1493
2685 Factors Related to Working Behavior

Authors: Charawee Butbumrung

Abstract:

This paper aimed to study the factors that relate to working behavior of employees at Pakkred Municipality, Nonthaburi Province. A questionnaire was utilized as the tool in collecting information. Descriptive statistics included frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Independent- sample t- test, analysis of variance and Pearson Correlation were also used. The findings of this research revealed that the majority of the respondents were female, between 25- 35 years old, married, with a Bachelor degree. The average monthly salary of respondents was between 8,001- 12,000 Baht, and having about 4-7 years of working experience. Regarding the overall working motivation factors, the findings showed that interrelationship, respect, and acceptance were ranked as highly important factors, whereas motivation, remunerations & welfare, career growth, and working conditions were ranked as moderately important factors. Also, overall working behavior was ranked as high. The hypotheses testing revealed that different genders had a different working behavior and had a different way of working as a team, which was significant at the 0.05 confidence level, Moreover, there was a difference among employees with different monthly salary in working behavior, problem- solving and decision making, which all were significant at the 0.05 confidence level. Employees with different years of working experience were found to have work working behavior both individual and as a team at the statistical significance level of 0.01 and 0.05. The result of testing the relationship between motivation in overall working revealed that interrelationship, respect and acceptance from others, career growth, and working conditions related to working behavior at a moderate level, while motivation in performing duties and remunerations and welfares related to working behavior towards the same direction at a low level, with a statistical significance of 0.01.

Keywords: Employees of Pakkred Municipality, Factors, Nonthaburi Province, Working Behavior.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1583
2684 Generalized Vortex Lattice Method for Predicting Characteristics of Wings with Flap and Aileron Deflection

Authors: Mondher Yahyaoui

Abstract:

A generalized vortex lattice method for complex lifting surfaces with flap and aileron deflection is formulated. The method is not restricted by the linearized theory assumption and accounts for all standard geometric lifting surface parameters: camber, taper, sweep, washout, dihedral, in addition to flap and aileron deflection. Thickness is not accounted for since the physical lifting body is replaced by a lattice of panels located on the mean camber surface. This panel lattice setup and the treatment of different wake geometries is what distinguish the present work form the overwhelming majority of previous solutions based on the vortex lattice method. A MATLAB code implementing the proposed formulation is developed and validated by comparing our results to existing experimental and numerical ones and good agreement is demonstrated. It is then used to study the accuracy of the widely used classical vortex-lattice method. It is shown that the classical approach gives good agreement in the clean configuration but is off by as much as 30% when a flap or aileron deflection of 30° is imposed. This discrepancy is mainly due the linearized theory assumption associated with the conventional method. A comparison of the effect of four different wake geometries on the values of aerodynamic coefficients was also carried out and it is found that the choice of the wake shape had very little effect on the results.

Keywords: Aileron deflection, camber-surface-bound vortices, classical VLM, Generalized VLM, flap deflection.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5056
2683 Inquiry on the Improvement Teaching Quality in the Classroom with Meta-Teaching Skills

Authors: Shahlan Surat, Saemah Rahman, Saadiah Kummin

Abstract:

When teachers reflect and evaluate whether their teaching methods actually have an impact on students’ learning, they will adjust their practices accordingly. This inevitably improves their students’ learning and performance. The approach in meta-teaching can invigorate and create a passion for teaching. It thus helps to increase the commitment and love for the teaching profession. This study was conducted to determine the level of metacognitive thinking of teachers in the process of teaching and learning in the classroom. Metacognitive thinking teachers include the use of metacognitive knowledge which consists of different types of knowledge: declarative, procedural and conditional. The ability of the teachers to plan, monitor and evaluate the teaching process can also be determined. This study was conducted on 377 graduate teachers in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The stratified sampling method was selected for the purpose of this study. The metacognitive teaching inventory consisting of 24 items is called InKePMG (Teacher Indicators of Effectiveness Meta-Teaching). The results showed the level of mean is high for two components of metacognitive knowledge; declarative knowledge (mean = 4.16) and conditional (mean = 4.11) whereas, the mean of procedural knowledge is 4.00 (moderately high). Similarly, the level of knowledge in monitoring (mean = 4.11), evaluating (mean = 4.00) which indicate high score and planning (mean = 4.00) are moderately high score among teachers. In conclusion, this study shows that the planning and procedural knowledge is an important element in improving the quality of teachers teaching in the classroom. Thus, the researcher recommended that further studies should focus on training programs for teachers on metacognitive skills and also on developing creative thinking among teachers.

Keywords: Metacognitive thinking skills, procedural knowledge, conditional knowledge, declarative knowledge, meta-teaching and regulation of cognitive.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1437
2682 The Importance of Erythrocyte Parameters in Obese Children

Authors: Orkide Donma, M. Metin Donma, Burcin Nalbantoglu, Birol Topcu, Feti Tulubas, Murat Aydin, Tuba Gokkus, Ahmet Gurel

Abstract:

Increasing prevalence of childhood obesity has increased the interest in early and late indicators of gaining weight. Cell blood counts may be indicators of pro-inflammatory states. The aim was to evaluate associations of hematological parameters, including hematocrit (HTC), hemoglobin, blood cell counts and their indices with the degree of obesity in pediatric population. A total of 249; -139 morbidly obese (MO), 82 healthy normal weight (NW) and 28 overweight (OW) children were included into the scope of the study. WHO BMI-for age percentiles were used to form age- and sexmatched groups. Informed consent forms and the Ethics Committee approval were obtained. Anthropometric measurements were performed. Hematological parameters were determined. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS. The degree for statistical significance was p≤0.05. Significant differences (p=0.000) between waist-to-hip ratios and head-to- neck ratios (hnrs) of MO and NW children were detected. A significant difference between hnrs of OW and MO children (p=0.000) was observed. Red cell distribution width (RDW) was higher in OW children than NW group (p=0.030). Such finding couldn’t be detected between MO and NW groups. Increased RDW was prominent in OW children. The decrease in mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) values in MO children was sharper than the values in OW children (p=0.006 vs p=0.042) compared to those in NW group. Statistically higher HTC levels were observed between MO-NW (p=0.014), but none between OW-NW. Though the cause-effect relationship between obesity and erythrocyte indices still needs further investigation, alterations in RDW, HTC, MCHC during obesity may be of significance in the early life.

Keywords: Anthropometry, children, erythrocytes, obesity.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2460
2681 Empirical Study from Final Exams of Computer Science Courses Demystifying the Notion of 'an Average Software Engineer'

Authors: Alex Elentukh

Abstract:

The paper is based on data collected from final exams administered during five years teaching the graduate course in software engineering. The visualization instrument with four distinct personas has been used to improve effectiveness of each class. The study offers a plethora of clues toward students' behavioral preferences. Diversity among students (professional background, physical proximity) is too significant to assume a single face of a learner. This is particularly true for a body of on-line graduate students in computer science. Conclusions of the study (each learner is unique and each class is unique) are extrapolated to demystify the notion of an 'average software engineer'. An immediate direction for an educator is to assure a course applies to a wide audience of very different individuals. On another hand, a student should be clear about his/her abilities and preferences - to follow the most effective learning path.

Keywords: K.3.2 computer & information science education, learner profiling, adaptive learning, software engineering.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 652
2680 Learning Example of a Biomedical Project from a Real Problem of Muscle Fatigue

Authors: M. Rezki, A. Belaidi

Abstract:

This paper deals with a method of learning to solve a real problem in biomedical engineering from a technical study of muscle fatigue. Electromyography (EMG) is a technique for evaluating and recording the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles (viewpoint: anatomical and physiological). EMG is used as a diagnostics tool for identifying neuromuscular diseases, assessing low-back pain and muscle fatigue in general. In order to study the EMG signal for detecting fatigue in a muscle, we have taken a real problem which touches the tramway conductor the handle bar. For the study, we have used a typical autonomous platform in order to get signals at real time. In our case study, we were confronted with complex problem to do our experiments in a tram. This type of problem is recurring among students. To teach our students the method to solve this kind of problem, we built a similar system. Through this study, we realized a lot of objectives such as making the equipment for simulation, the study of detection of muscle fatigue and especially how to manage a study of biomedical looking.

Keywords: EMG, health platform, conductor’s tram, muscle fatigue.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1725
2679 Named Entity Recognition using Support Vector Machine: A Language Independent Approach

Authors: Asif Ekbal, Sivaji Bandyopadhyay

Abstract:

Named Entity Recognition (NER) aims to classify each word of a document into predefined target named entity classes and is now-a-days considered to be fundamental for many Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks such as information retrieval, machine translation, information extraction, question answering systems and others. This paper reports about the development of a NER system for Bengali and Hindi using Support Vector Machine (SVM). Though this state of the art machine learning technique has been widely applied to NER in several well-studied languages, the use of this technique to Indian languages (ILs) is very new. The system makes use of the different contextual information of the words along with the variety of features that are helpful in predicting the four different named (NE) classes, such as Person name, Location name, Organization name and Miscellaneous name. We have used the annotated corpora of 122,467 tokens of Bengali and 502,974 tokens of Hindi tagged with the twelve different NE classes 1, defined as part of the IJCNLP-08 NER Shared Task for South and South East Asian Languages (SSEAL) 2. In addition, we have manually annotated 150K wordforms of the Bengali news corpus, developed from the web-archive of a leading Bengali newspaper. We have also developed an unsupervised algorithm in order to generate the lexical context patterns from a part of the unlabeled Bengali news corpus. Lexical patterns have been used as the features of SVM in order to improve the system performance. The NER system has been tested with the gold standard test sets of 35K, and 60K tokens for Bengali, and Hindi, respectively. Evaluation results have demonstrated the recall, precision, and f-score values of 88.61%, 80.12%, and 84.15%, respectively, for Bengali and 80.23%, 74.34%, and 77.17%, respectively, for Hindi. Results show the improvement in the f-score by 5.13% with the use of context patterns. Statistical analysis, ANOVA is also performed to compare the performance of the proposed NER system with that of the existing HMM based system for both the languages.

Keywords: Named Entity (NE), Named Entity Recognition (NER), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Bengali, Hindi.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3404
2678 Remarks on Some Properties of Decision Rules

Authors: Songlin Yang, Ying Ge

Abstract:

This paper shows that some properties of the decision rules in the literature do not hold by presenting a counterexample. We give sufficient and necessary conditions under which these properties are valid. These results will be helpful when one tries to choose the right decision rules in the research of rough set theory.

Keywords: set, Decision table, Decision rule, coverage factor.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1413
2677 Preliminary Overview of Data Mining Technology for Knowledge Management System in Institutions of Higher Learning

Authors: Muslihah Wook, Zawiyah M. Yusof, Mohd Zakree Ahmad Nazri

Abstract:

Data mining has been integrated into application systems to enhance the quality of the decision-making process. This study aims to focus on the integration of data mining technology and Knowledge Management System (KMS), due to the ability of data mining technology to create useful knowledge from large volumes of data. Meanwhile, KMS vitally support the creation and use of knowledge. The integration of data mining technology and KMS are popularly used in business for enhancing and sustaining organizational performance. However, there is a lack of studies that applied data mining technology and KMS in the education sector; particularly students- academic performance since this could reflect the IHL performance. Realizing its importance, this study seeks to integrate data mining technology and KMS to promote an effective management of knowledge within IHLs. Several concepts from literature are adapted, for proposing the new integrative data mining technology and KMS framework to an IHL.

Keywords: Data mining, Institutions of Higher Learning, Knowledge Management System, Students' academic performance.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2142
2676 Longitudinal Vibration of a Micro-Beam in a Micro-Scale Fluid Media

Authors: M. Ghanbari, S. Hossainpour, G. Rezazadeh

Abstract:

In this paper, longitudinal vibration of a micro-beam in micro-scale fluid media has been investigated. The proposed mathematical model for this study is made up of a micro-beam and a micro-plate at its free end. An AC voltage is applied to the pair of piezoelectric layers on the upper and lower surfaces of the micro-beam in order to actuate it longitudinally. The whole structure is bounded between two fixed plates on its upper and lower surfaces. The micro-gap between the structure and the fixed plates is filled with fluid. Fluids behave differently in micro-scale than macro, so the fluid field in the gap has been modeled based on micro-polar theory. The coupled governing equations of motion of the micro-beam and the micro-scale fluid field have been derived. Due to having non-homogenous boundary conditions, derived equations have been transformed to an enhanced form with homogenous boundary conditions. Using Galerkin-based reduced order model, the enhanced equations have been discretized over the beam and fluid domains and solve simultaneously in order to obtain force response of the micro-beam. Effects of micro-polar parameters of the fluid as characteristic length scale, coupling parameter and surface parameter on the response of the micro-beam have been studied.

Keywords: Micro-polar theory, Galerkin method, MEMS, micro-fluid.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 655
2675 Analysis of Suitability of Online Assessment by Maintaining Critical Thinking

Authors: Mohamed Chabi, Mohammad Shahid Jamil, Mahmoud I Syam

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to determine whether paper assessment especially in the subject mathematics will ever be completely replaced by online assessment using Learning Management System and Content Management System such as blackboard. Testing students has moved from the traditional scribbling and sketching on paper towards working online on a screen and keyboard. It is found that online assessment by using selective types of questions like multiple choices, true or false and final answer questions don’t reflect the actual understanding of students in solving the problems and teachers can’t determine the weakness points of students. In addition, it is showed that OBMCQs are a very good tool for self-assessment and when teachers are testing for knowledge and facts. But when it comes to the skills, OBMCQs are poor tools for measuring the ability to apply knowledge to complex math problem. 

Keywords: Paper assessment, online assessment, learning management system, content management system.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2038
2674 An Approach to Correlate the Statistical-Based Lorenz Method, as a Way of Measuring Heterogeneity, with Kozeny-Carman Equation

Authors: H. Khanfari, M. Johari Fard

Abstract:

Dealing with carbonate reservoirs can be mind-boggling for the reservoir engineers due to various digenetic processes that cause a variety of properties through the reservoir. A good estimation of the reservoir heterogeneity which is defined as the quality of variation in rock properties with location in a reservoir or formation, can better help modeling the reservoir and thus can offer better understanding of the behavior of that reservoir. Most of reservoirs are heterogeneous formations whose mineralogy, organic content, natural fractures, and other properties vary from place to place. Over years, reservoir engineers have tried to establish methods to describe the heterogeneity, because heterogeneity is important in modeling the reservoir flow and in well testing. Geological methods are used to describe the variations in the rock properties because of the similarities of environments in which different beds have deposited in. To illustrate the heterogeneity of a reservoir vertically, two methods are generally used in petroleum work: Dykstra-Parsons permeability variations (V) and Lorenz coefficient (L) that are reviewed briefly in this paper. The concept of Lorenz is based on statistics and has been used in petroleum from that point of view. In this paper, we correlated the statistical-based Lorenz method to a petroleum concept, i.e. Kozeny-Carman equation and derived the straight line plot of Lorenz graph for a homogeneous system. Finally, we applied the two methods on a heterogeneous field in South Iran and discussed each, separately, with numbers and figures. As expected, these methods show great departure from homogeneity. Therefore, for future investment, the reservoir needs to be treated carefully.

Keywords: Carbonate reservoirs, heterogeneity, homogeneous system, Dykstra-Parsons permeability variations (V), Lorenz coefficient (L).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1791
2673 Research of Database Curriculum Construction under the Environment of Massive Open Online Courses

Authors: Wang Zhanquan, Yang Zeping, Gu Chunhua, Zhu Fazhi, Guo Weibin

Abstract:

Recently, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are becoming the new trend of education. There are many problems under the environment of Database Principle curriculum teaching process in MOOCs, such as teaching ideas and theories which are out of touch with the reality, how to carry out the technical teaching and interactive practice in the MOOCs environment, thus the methods of database course under the environment of MOOCs are proposed. There are three processes to deal with problem solving in the research, which are problems proposed, problems solved, and inductive analysis. The present research includes the design of teaching contents, teaching methods in classroom, flipped classroom teaching mode under the environment of MOOCs, learning flow method and large practice homework. The database designing ability is systematically improved based on the researching methods.

Keywords: Problem solving-driven, MOOCs, teaching art, learning flow.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1335