Search results for: fathers’ education level

Authors: Yasaman Zeinali, Farid Khosravikia

Abstract:

This paper presents a multi-objective framework for sustainable urban development. The proposed framework aims to address different aspects of sustainability in urban development planning. These aspects include, but are not limited to education, health, job opportunities, architecture, culture, environment, mobility, energy, water, waste, and so on. Then, the proposed framework is applied to the Brackenridge Tract (an area in downtown Austin, Texas), to redevelop that area in a sustainable way. The detail of the implementation process is presented in this paper. The ultimate goal of this paper is to develop a sustainable area in downtown Austin with ensuring that it locally meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic, social, environmental, health as well as cultural aspects. Moreover, it helps the city with the population growth problem by accommodating more people in that area.

Keywords: Environmental impacts of human activities, sustainability, urban planning.

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Authors: Muhammad Nawaz, Sandeep N. Kundu, Farha Sattar

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Augmented reality sandbox adds new dimensions to education and learning process. It can be a core component of geoscience teaching and learning to understand the geographic contexts and landform processes. Augmented reality sandbox is a useful tool not only to create an interactive learning environment through spatial visualization but also it can provide an active learning experience to students and enhances the cognition process of learning. Augmented reality sandbox can be used as an interactive learning tool to teach geomorphic and landform processes. This article explains the augmented reality sandbox and the constructivism approach for geoscience teaching and learning, and endeavours to explore the ways to teach the geographic processes using the three-dimensional digital environment for the deep learning of the geoscience concepts interactively.

Keywords: Augmented Reality Sandbox, constructivism, deep learning, geoscience.

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Authors: Astrid de Leeuw, Pierre Valois

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Environmental education is the key to enhancing or changing students’ ways of thinking and acting in order to create an environmentally robust future for all. The present study investigates the beliefs of 812 primary school students, which merit consideration when developing educational interventions. Results of multiple regression analyses reveal that educational interventions should focus on promoting students’ feelings of control over pro-environmental behaviors (PEB). For example, schools could provide recycling bins on the premises. Furthermore, it is critical to develop positive attitudes in students by stressing the various benefits of PEB for keeping our planet clean and protecting wildlife. Unfortunately, our results indicate that students believe that PEB is boring and annoying. Suggestions are offered for making PEB more interesting and relevant. Further research is needed to test the effectiveness of interventions based on the present results.

Keywords: Pro-environmental behaviors, primary school students, theory of planned behavior, beliefs, educational interventions.

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Authors: I. Rodionov, A. Semenov, E. Gosteva, O. Sokolova

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The venture capital becomes more and more advanced and effective source of the innovation project financing, connected with a high-risk level. In the developed countries, it plays a key role in transforming innovation projects into successful businesses and creating the prosperity of the modern economy. In Russia, there are many necessary preconditions for creation of the effective venture investment system: the network of the public institutes for innovation financing operates; there is a significant number of the small and medium-sized enterprises, capable to sell production with good market potential. However, the current system does not confirm the necessary level of efficiency in practice that can be substantially explained by the absence of the accurate plan of action to form the national venture model and by the lack of experience of successful venture deals with profitable exits in Russian economy. This paper studies the influence of various factors on the venture industry development by the example of the IT-sector in Russia. The choice of the sector is based on the fact, that this segment is the main driver of the venture capital market growth in Russia, and the necessary set of data exists. The size of investment of the second round is used as the dependent variable. To analyse the influence of the previous round, such determinant as the volume of the previous (first) round investments is used. There is also used a dummy variable in regression to examine that the participation of an investor with high reputation and experience in the previous round can influence the size of the next investment round. The regression analysis of short-term interrelations between studied variables reveals prevailing influence of the volume of the first round investments on the venture investments volume of the second round. The most important determinant of the value of the second-round investment is the value of first–round investment, so it means that the most competitive on the Russian market are the start-up teams that can attract more money on the start, and the target market growth is not the factor of crucial importance. This supports the point of view that VC in Russia is driven by endogenous factors and not by exogenous ones that are based on global market growth.

Keywords: Venture industry, venture investment, determinants of the venture sector development, IT-sector.

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Authors: Wilfred Fritz

Abstract:

The accreditation process of engineering degree programmes is based on various reports evaluated by the relevant governing bodies of the institution of higher education. One of the aforementioned reports for the accreditation process is a self-assessment report which is to be completed by the applying institution. This paper seeks to emphasise the importance of analysis of internal quality management systems and self-examination processes in the engineering accreditation processes. A description of how the programme fulfils the criteria should be given. Relevant stakeholders all need to contribute in the writing and structuring of the self-assessment report. The last step is to gather evidence in the form of supporting documentation. In conclusion, the paper also identifies learning outcomes in a case study in seeking accreditation from an international relevant professional body.

Keywords: Accreditation, governing bodies, self-assessment report, quality management.

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Authors: Rossukhon Makaramani, Supanan Sittilerd

Abstract:

This study is about an application of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s “Learn Wisely” (LW) concept in instructional design and management process at the Faculty of Education, Suan Sunahdha Rajabhat University. The concept suggests four strategies for true learning. Related literature and significant LW methods in teaching and learning are also reviewed and then applied in designing a pedagogy learning module. The design has been implemented in three classrooms with a total of 115 sophomore student teachers. After one consecutive semester of managing and adjusting the process by instructors and experts using collected data from minutes, assessment of learning management, satisfaction and learning achievement of the students, it is found that the effective SSRU model of LW instructional method comprises of five steps.

Keywords: Instructional Design, Learn Wisely Strategy, Pedagogy Learning Module, Teaching Method.

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Authors: Sid-Ahmed. Selouani, Tang-Ho Lê, Chadia Moghrabi, Benoit Lanteigne, Jean Roy

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A Web-based learning tool, the Learn IN Context (LINC) system, designed and being used in some institution-s courses in mixed-mode learning, is presented in this paper. This mode combines face-to-face and distance approaches to education. LINC can achieve both collaborative and competitive learning. In order to provide both learners and tutors with a more natural way to interact with e-learning applications, a conversational interface has been included in LINC. Hence, the components and essential features of LINC+, the voice enhanced version of LINC, are described. We report evaluation experiments of LINC/LINC+ in a real use context of a computer programming course taught at the Université de Moncton (Canada). The findings show that when the learning material is delivered in the form of a collaborative and voice-enabled presentation, the majority of learners seem to be satisfied with this new media, and confirm that it does not negatively affect their cognitive load.

Keywords: E-leaning, Knowledge Network, Speech recognition, Speech synthesis.

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Authors: M. Kiarna, S. Junjira, S. Casey, M. Nolwazi, M. S. Marcos, A. T. Tatiana, L. Cassandra

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This paper details a rebrand design project developed for a non-profitable organization called Te Roopu Waiora (TRW), which is currently located in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. This social enterprise is dedicated to supporting the Māori community living with sensorial, physical and intellectual disabilities (whānau hauā). As part of a year three bachelor design brief, the rebrand project enabled students to reflect on Kaupapa Māori principles and appropriately address the values of the organisation. As such, the methodology used a pragmatic paradigm approach and mixed methods design practices involving a human-centred design to problem solving. As result, the student project culminated in the development in a range of cohesive design artefacts, aiming to improve the rentability and perception of the brand with the audience and stakeholders.

Keywords: Design in Aotearoa New Zealand, Kaupapa Māori, branding, design education, human-centered design.

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Authors: Boonlert Watjatrakul

Abstract:

Educational institutions increasingly adopt the students-as-customers concept to satisfy their students. Understanding students- perspectives on the use of this business concept in educational institutions is necessary for the institutions to effectively align these perspectives with their management practice. The study investigates whether students in technology and business disciplines have significantly different attitudes toward using the students-as-customers concept in educational institutions and explores the impact of treating students as customers in technology disciplines under students- perspectives. The results from quantitative and qualitative data analyses show that technology students, in contrast to business students, fairly disagree with educational institutions to treat students as customers. Treating students as customers in technology disciplines will have a negative influence on teaching performance, instructor-student relationships and educational institutions- aim, but a positive influence on service quality in educational institutions. The paper discusses the findings and concludes with implications and limitations of the study.

Keywords: Education, information technology, students-ascustomers, technology disciplines.

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Authors: Kazunori Nomura, Hiromichi Ogi, Masaumi Nakahara, Sou Watanabe, Atsuhiro Shibata

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Chemical Processing Facility of Japan Atomic Energy Agency is a basic research field for advanced back-end technology developments with using actual high-level radioactive materials such as irradiated fuels from the fast reactor, high-level liquid waste from reprocessing plant. In the nature of a research facility, various kinds of chemical reagents have been offered for fundamental tests. Most of them were treated properly and stored in the liquid waste vessel equipped in the facility, but some were not treated and remained at the experimental space as a kind of legacy waste. It is required to treat the waste in safety. On the other hand, we formulated the Medium- and Long-Term Management Plan of Japan Atomic Energy Agency Facilities. This comprehensive plan considers Chemical Processing Facility as one of the facilities to be decommissioned. Even if the plan is executed, treatment of the “legacy” waste beforehand must be a necessary step for decommissioning operation. Under this circumstance, we launched a collaborative research project called the STRAD project, which stands for Systematic Treatment of Radioactive liquid waste for Decommissioning, in order to develop the treatment processes for wastes of the nuclear research facility. In this project, decomposition methods of chemicals causing a troublesome phenomenon such as corrosion and explosion have been developed and there is a prospect of their decomposition in the facility by simple method. And solidification of aqueous or organic liquid wastes after the decomposition has been studied by adding cement or coagulants. Furthermore, we treated experimental tools of various materials with making an effort to stabilize and to compact them before the package into the waste container. It is expected to decrease the number of transportation of the solid waste and widen the operation space. Some achievements of these studies will be shown in this paper. The project is expected to contribute beneficial waste management outcome that can be shared world widely.

Keywords: Chemical Processing Facility, medium- and long-term management plan of JAEA Facilities, STRAD project, treatment of radioactive waste.

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Authors: Abdur-Rahman M. A., R. M. Mohd. Ali, R. A. I. R. Yaacob.

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In the fifteenth century, the Malacca Empire emerged as the centre of Islamic civilization in the Malay Archipelago. The history had been recorded in Sulalat Al-Salatin, an important literary source about the genealogy of all Kings in Malacca. The objective of this study was to analyze the understanding of sayings from Prophet Muhammad among Malays in Malacca during the fifteenth century through all of the hadith quoted in Sulalat Al-Salatin. This study used content analysis methodology to validate the sayings where all of them were critically analyzed and compared with the classical hadith sources from prominent Muslim scholars. As a result, only two out of the four quotations were considered as authentic sayings of Prophet Muhammad. This study also showed the importance of the palace as the centre of the Islamic education system and the role played by Muslim preachers from outside of Malacca to propagate Islam in Malacca.

Keywords: Hadith in Malay Annals, Malay Annals, SejarahMelayu, Sulalat Al-Salatin.

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Authors: Jin Si, Yanzhong Wang

Abstract:

The essence of the 21st century is knowledge economy. Knowledge has become the key resource of economic growth and social development. Construction industry is no exception. Because of the characteristic of complexity, project manager can't depend only on information management. The only way to improve the level of construction project management is to set up a kind of effective knowledge accumulation mechanism. This paper first introduced the IFC standard and the concept of ontology. Then put forward the construction method of the architectural engineering domain ontology based on IFC. And finally build up the concepts, properties and the relationship between the concepts of the ontology. The deficiency of this paper is also pointed out.

Keywords: Construction Engineering, IFC, Ontology

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Authors: H. Naciba, C. Le Bas, C. Mothe, T.U. Nguyen-Thi

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Organizational innovation favors technological innovation, but does it also influence technological innovation persistence? This article investigates empirically the pattern of technological innovation persistence and tests the potential impact of organizational innovation using firm-level data from three waves of the French Community Innovation Surveys. Evidence shows a positive effect of organizational innovation on technological innovation persistence, according to various measures of organizational innovation. Moreover, this impact is more significant for complex innovators (i.e., those who innovate in both products and processes). These results highlight the complexity of managing organizational practices with regard to the firm-s technological innovation. They also add to comprehension of the drivers of innovation persistence, through a focus on an often forgotten dimension of innovation in a broader sense.

Keywords: Organizational Innovation, Technological Innovation, Persistence

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Authors: Z.F. Fadzil, H.S. Hashim, A.I. Che-Ani, S. Aziz

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Campus sustainability is the goal of a university striving for sustainable development. This study found that of 17 popular approaches, two comprehensive campus sustainability assessment frameworks were developed in the context of Sustainability in Higher Education (SHE), and used by many university campuses around the world. Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating Systems (STARS) and the Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework (CSAF) approaches are more comprehensive than others. Therefore, the researchers examined aspects and elements used by CSAF and STARS in the approach to develop a campus sustainability assessment framework for Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). Documents analysis found that CSAF and STARS do not focus on physical development, especially the construction industry, as key elements of campus sustainability assessment. This finding is in accordance with the Sustainable UKM Programme which consists of three main components of sustainable community, ecosystem and physical development.

Keywords: Campus sustainability, campus sustainability assessment, sustainability assessment framework, sustainable campus

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Authors: Ali Poureslami, Hossein Borhanifar, Seyed Ali Alavian

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In this paper, we implement a modern serial backplane platform for telecommunication inter-rack systems. For combination high reliability and low cost protocol property, we applied high level data link control (HDLC) protocol with low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) bus for card to card communicated over backplane. HDLC protocol is a high performance with several operation modes and is famous in telecommunication systems. LVDS bus is a high reliability with high immunity against electromagnetic interference (EMI) and noise.

Keywords: Backplane, BLVDS, HDLC, EMI, I2C, LCT, OSC, SFP, SNMP.

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Authors: V. Thamizh Arasan, G. Dhivya

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Traffic Density provides an indication of the level of service being provided to the road users. Hence, there is a need to study the traffic flow characteristics with specific reference to density in detail. When the length and speed of the vehicles in a traffic stream vary significantly, the concept of occupancy, rather than density, is more appropriate to describe traffic concentration. When the concept of occupancy is applied to heterogeneous traffic condition, it is necessary to consider the area of the road space and the area of the vehicles as the bases. Hence, a new concept named, 'area-occupancy' is proposed here. It has been found that the estimated area-occupancy gives consistent values irrespective of change in traffic composition.

Keywords: Density Measurement, Heterogeneity, Occupancy, Traffic Flow.

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Authors: P. Saravanan, A. Vasumathi

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The authors conducted a study for the sample size of 75 HR managers from an Indian IT company through systematic sampling method. This study identifies that the female employees are facing lesser conflict than the male employees against their managers within the organization. There is a positive correlation between gender and conflict management with the superior towards the work. There is a significant variance between age and response towards appraisal system, succession planning and employee engagement. The education qualification plays a major role in determining the compensation factor for the employees working in the organization. The study determines the impact of demographic profile on strategic HRM practices and its challenges faced by HR managers in IT firm, India.

Keywords: Strategic Human resource management, Change agent, Employee engagement, Performance management, Succession planning and Conflict management.

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Authors: Appanah Rao Appadu, Muhammad Zaid Dauhoo

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In this paper, we have combined some spatial derivatives with the optimised time derivative proposed by Tam and Webb in order to approximate the linear advection equation which is given by = 0. Ôêé Ôêé + Ôêé Ôêé x f t u These spatial derivatives are as follows: a standard 7-point 6 th -order central difference scheme (ST7), a standard 9-point 8 th -order central difference scheme (ST9) and optimised schemes designed by Tam and Webb, Lockard et al., Zingg et al., Zhuang and Chen, Bogey and Bailly. Thus, these seven different spatial derivatives have been coupled with the optimised time derivative to obtain seven different finite-difference schemes to approximate the linear advection equation. We have analysed the variation of the modified wavenumber and group velocity, both with respect to the exact wavenumber for each spatial derivative. The problems considered are the 1-D propagation of a Boxcar function, propagation of an initial disturbance consisting of a sine and Gaussian function and the propagation of a Gaussian profile. It is known that the choice of the cfl number affects the quality of results in terms of dissipation and dispersion characteristics. Based on the numerical experiments solved and numerical methods used to approximate the linear advection equation, it is observed in this work, that the quality of results is dependent on the choice of the cfl number, even for optimised numerical methods. The errors from the numerical results have been quantified into dispersion and dissipation using a technique devised by Takacs. Also, the quantity, Exponential Error for Low Dispersion and Low Dissipation, eeldld has been computed from the numerical results. Moreover, based on this work, it has been found that when the quantity, eeldld can be used as a measure of the total error. In particular, the total error is a minimum when the eeldld is a minimum.

Keywords: Optimised time derivative, dissipation, dispersion, cfl number, Nomenclature: k : time step, h : spatial step, β :advection velocity, r: cfl/Courant number, hkrβ= , w =θ, h : exact wave number, n :time level, RPE : Relative phase error per unit time step, AFM :modulus of amplification factor

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Authors: Ahmad T. Al-Taani, Abdullah M. AL-Issa

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In this work we propose a novel Steganographic method for hiding information within the spatial domain of the gray scale image. The proposed approach works by dividing the cover into blocks of equal sizes and then embeds the message in the edge of the block depending on the number of ones in left four bits of the pixel. The proposed approach is tested on a database consists of 100 different images. Experimental results, compared with other methods, showed that the proposed approach hide more large information and gave a good visual quality stego-image that can be seen by human eyes.

Keywords: Data Embedding, Cryptography, Watermarking, Steganography, Least Significant Bit, Information Hiding.

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Authors: Steven W. Carruthers

Abstract:

The purpose of the present research is to equate two test forms as part of a study to evaluate the educational effectiveness of the ARTé: Mecenas art history learning game. The researcher applied Item Response Theory (IRT) procedures to calculate item, test, and mean-sigma equating parameters. With the sample size n=134, test parameters indicated “good” model fit but low Test Information Functions and more acute than expected equating parameters. Therefore, the researcher applied equipercentile equating and linear equating to raw scores and compared the equated form parameters and effect sizes from each method. Item scaling in IRT enables the researcher to select a subset of well-discriminating items. The mean-sigma step produces a mean-slope adjustment from the anchor items, which was used to scale the score on the new form (Form R) to the reference form (Form Q) scale. In equipercentile equating, scores are adjusted to align the proportion of scores in each quintile segment. Linear equating produces a mean-slope adjustment, which was applied to all core items on the new form. The study followed a quasi-experimental design with purposeful sampling of students enrolled in a college level art history course (n=134) and counterbalancing design to distribute both forms on the pre- and posttests. The Experimental Group (n=82) was asked to play ARTé: Mecenas online and complete Level 4 of the game within a two-week period; 37 participants completed Level 4. Over the same period, the Control Group (n=52) did not play the game. The researcher examined between group differences from post-test scores on test Form Q and Form R by full-factorial Two-Way ANOVA. The raw score analysis indicated a 1.29% direct effect of form, which was statistically non-significant but may be practically significant. The researcher repeated the between group differences analysis with all three equating methods. For the IRT mean-sigma adjusted scores, form had a direct effect of 8.39%. Mean-sigma equating with a small sample may have resulted in inaccurate equating parameters. Equipercentile equating aligned test means and standard deviations, but resultant skewness and kurtosis worsened compared to raw score parameters. Form had a 3.18% direct effect. Linear equating produced the lowest Form effect, approaching 0%. Using linearly equated scores, the researcher conducted an ANCOVA to examine the effect size in terms of prior knowledge. The between group effect size for the Control Group versus Experimental Group participants who completed the game was 14.39% with a 4.77% effect size attributed to pre-test score. Playing and completing the game increased art history knowledge, and individuals with low prior knowledge tended to gain more from pre- to post test. Ultimately, researchers should approach test equating based on their theoretical stance on Classical Test Theory and IRT and the respective  assumptions. Regardless of the approach or method, test equating requires a representative sample of sufficient size. With small sample sizes, the application of a range of equating approaches can expose item and test features for review, inform interpretation, and identify paths for improving instruments for future study.

Keywords: Effectiveness, equipercentile equating, IRT, learning games, linear equating, mean-sigma equating.

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Authors: Ashkan Izadi, Vic Ciesielski

Abstract:

We describe a work with an evolutionary computing algorithm for non photo–realistic rendering of a target image. The renderings are produced by genetic programming. We have used two different types of strokes: “empty triangle" and “filled triangle" in color level. We compare both empty and filled triangular strokes to find which one generates more aesthetic pleasing images. We found the filled triangular strokes have better fitness and generate more aesthetic images than empty triangular strokes.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, Evolutionary programming, Geneticprogramming, Non photo–realistic rendering.

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Authors: Khajornjit Bunnag

Abstract:

The purposes of this research are: 1) to study the media literacy of early teenagers, and 2) to study the interaction between gender and timing of media exposure that affects the media literacy of teenagers. The sample of the study included 400 young people aged between 11 to 17 and who were living in Bangkok. The data was collected using questionnaires. Two-way ANOVA was used in analyzing the collected data. The result revealed that gender and timing of media exposure affected the media literacy of early teenagers with statistical significance at the level of 0.05.

Keywords: Gender, Media Literacy, Teenager, Timing of Media Exposure.

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Authors: Vinko Lešić, Mario Vašak, Anita Martinčević, Marko Gulin, Antonio Starčić, Hrvoje Novak

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With 40% of total world energy consumption, building systems are developing into technically complex large energy consumers suitable for application of sophisticated power management approaches to largely increase the energy efficiency and even make them active energy market participants. Centralized control system of building heating and cooling managed by economically-optimal model predictive control shows promising results with estimated 30% of energy efficiency increase. The research is focused on implementation of such a method on a case study performed on two floors of our faculty building with corresponding sensors wireless data acquisition, remote heating/cooling units and central climate controller. Building walls are mathematically modeled with corresponding material types, surface shapes and sizes. Models are then exploited to predict thermal characteristics and changes in different building zones. Exterior influences such as environmental conditions and weather forecast, people behavior and comfort demands are all taken into account for deriving price-optimal climate control. Finally, a DC microgrid with photovoltaics, wind turbine, supercapacitor, batteries and fuel cell stacks is added to make the building a unit capable of active participation in a price-varying energy market. Computational burden of applying model predictive control on such a complex system is relaxed through a hierarchical decomposition of the microgrid and climate control, where the former is designed as higher hierarchical level with pre-calculated price-optimal power flows control, and latter is designed as lower level control responsible to ensure thermal comfort and exploit the optimal supply conditions enabled by microgrid energy flows management. Such an approach is expected to enable the inclusion of more complex building subsystems into consideration in order to further increase the energy efficiency.

Keywords: Energy-efficient buildings, Hierarchical model predictive control, Microgrid power flow optimization, Price-optimal building climate control.

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Authors: Siti Nor Zawani Ahmmad, Eileen Su Lee Ming, Yeong Che Fai, Fauzan Khairi bin Che Harun

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The increasingly sophisticated technologies have now been able to provide assistance for surgeons to improve surgical performance through various training programs. Equally important to learning skills is the assessment method as it determines the learning and technical proficiency of a trainee. A consistent and rigorous assessment system will ensure that trainees acquire the specific level of competency prior to certification. This paper reviews the methods currently in use for assessment of surgical skill and some modern techniques using computer-based measurements and virtual reality systems for more quantitative measurements

Keywords: assessment, surgical skill, checklist, global rating, virtual reality

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Authors: Rajneesh Rani, Renu Dhir, G. S. Lehal

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Script identification is one of the challenging steps in the development of optical character recognition system for bilingual or multilingual documents. In this paper an attempt is made for identification of English numerals at word level from Punjabi documents by using Gabor features. The support vector machine (SVM) classifier with five fold cross validation is used to classify the word images. The results obtained are quite encouraging. Average accuracy with RBF kernel, Polynomial and Linear Kernel functions comes out to be greater than 99%.

Keywords: Script identification, gabor features, support vector machines.

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Authors: L. C. H. Jayarathna, W. M. N. Fernando

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Academics and researchers are interested in the effects of social media on college students, with a specific focus on the most popular social media website; Facebook. Previous studied have found contradictory result on the relationship between Facebook usage and the student engagement with positive, detrimental and no significant relationships. However, these studies were limited to western higher education system. This paper fills a gap in the literature by using a sample (300) of Sri Lankan management undergraduates to examine the relationship between Facebook usage and student engagement. Student engagement was measured 35 item scale based on the National Survey of Student Engagement and Facebook usage by Facebook intensity scale. Descriptive statistics, path analysis and structural equation modeling were applied as statistical tools and techniques. Results indicate that student engagement scale was significantly negatively related with the Facebook usage with the influence from student engagement on Facebook usage.

Keywords: Facebook Intensity, Social Networking Sites, Student Engagement.

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Authors: Yuri Nikitin, Veronika Rukas

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Within the framework of the FP7 project "START" the cooperation with European research centres has had a positive impact on raising the level of innovation researches and the introduction of innovations Institute for Superhard Materials of the National Academy of Sciences (ISM NAS) of Ukraine in the economy of Europe and Ukraine, which in turn permits to speeds up the way for Ukrainian science to the European research area through the creation in Ukraine the scientific organizations of innovative type.

Keywords: Programs of the EU, innovative scientific results, innovation competence of the staff, commercialization in business of industry of the Europe and Ukraine.

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Authors: Vartan Agopian

Abstract:

Millions of Syrian families have been displaced since the beginning of the Syrian war, and the negative effects of post-war trauma have shown detrimental effects on the mental health of refugee children. While educational strategies have focused on vocational training and academic achievement, little has been done to include music in the school curriculum to help these children improve their mental health. The literature of music education and psychology, on the other hand, shows the positive effects of music on traumatized children, especially when it comes to dealing with stress. This paper presents a brief literature review of trauma, music therapy, and music in the classroom, after having introduced the Syrian war and refugee situation. Furthermore, the paper highlights the benefits of using music with traumatized children from the literature and offers strategies for teachers (such as singing, playing an instrument, songwriting, and others) to include music in their classrooms to help Syrian refugee children deal with post-war trauma.

Keywords: Children, music, refugees, Syria, war.

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Authors: J. Lam, R. Chan

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The adoption of e-learning in Hong Kong has been increasing rapidly in the past decade. To understand the e-learning experiences of the students, the School of Professional and Continuing Education of The University of Hong Kong conducted a survey. The survey aimed to collect students- experiences in using learning management system, their perceived e-learning advantages, barriers in e-learning and preferences in new e-learning development. A questionnaire with 84 questions was distributed in mid 2012 and 608 valid responds were received. The analysis results showed that the students found e-learning helpful to their study. They preferred interactive functions and mobile features. Blended learning mode, both face-to-face learning mode integrated with online learning and face-to-face learning mode supplemented with online resources, were preferred by the students. The results of experiences of Hong Kong students in e-learning provided a contemporary reference to the e-learning practitioners to understand the e-learning situation in Asia.

Keywords: E-learning, blended learning, learning experience, learning management system.

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Authors: Sorcha Bennett, Joe Sullivan

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Triple-Level Cell (TLC) NAND Flash memory at, and below, 20nm (nanometer) is still largely unexplored by researchers, and with the ever more commonplace existence of Flash in consumer and enterprise applications there is a need for such gaps in knowledge to be filled. At the time of writing, there was little published data or literature on TLC, and more specifically reliability testing, with a further emphasis on both endurance and retention. This paper will give an introduction to NAND Flash memory, followed by an overview of the relevant current research on the reliability of Flash memory, along with the planned future work which will provide results to help characterise the reliability of TLC memory.

Keywords: TLC NAND flash memory, reliability, endurance, retention, trade-off, raw flash, patterns.

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