Behaviour Profiling using Wearable Sensors for Pervasive Healthcare

In recent years, sensor technology has advanced in terms of hardware sophistication and miniaturisation. This has led to the incorporation of unobtrusive, low-power sensors into networks centred on human participants, called Body Sensor Networks. Amongst the most important applications of these networks is their use in healthcare and healthy living. The technology has the possibility of decreasing burden on the healthcare systems by providing care at home, enabling early detection of symptoms, monitoring recovery remotely, and avoiding serious chronic illnesses by promoting healthy living through objective feedback. In this thesis, machine learning and data mining techniques are developed to estimate medically relevant parameters from a participant‘s activity and behaviour parameters, derived from simple, body-worn sensors. The first abstraction from raw sensor data is the recognition and analysis of activity. Machine learning analysis is applied to a study of activity profiling to detect impaired limb and torso mobility. One of the advances in this thesis to activity recognition research is in the application of machine learning to the analysis of 'transitional activities': transient activity that occurs as people change their activity. A framework is proposed for the detection and analysis of transitional activities. To demonstrate the utility of transition analysis, we apply the algorithms to a study of participants undergoing and recovering from surgery. We demonstrate that it is possible to see meaningful changes in the transitional activity as the participants recover. Assuming long-term monitoring, we expect a large historical database of activity to quickly accumulate. We develop algorithms to mine temporal associations to activity patterns. This gives an outline of the user‘s routine. Methods for visual and quantitative analysis of routine using this summary data structure are proposed and validated. The activity and routine mining methodologies developed for specialised sensors are adapted to a smartphone application, enabling large-scale use. Validation of the algorithms is performed using datasets collected in laboratory settings, and free living scenarios. Finally, future research directions and potential improvements to the techniques developed in this thesis are outlined

Do Workers’ Remittances Boost Human Capital Development?

This study examines the influence of workers’ remittances along with the economic governance system on human capital development in 17 countries having low income, lower middle, upper middle and high income levels by using the annual panel between 1996 and 2013. Overall, results of fixed-effects model reveal that workers’ remittances have significantly positive impact on the human capital development. Results also reveal the positive and significant impact of all selected variables of economic governance system on human capital. It is concluded that the strong economic governance system strengthens the association between workers’ remittances and human capital during the aforementioned time period. JEL Classification: F24, J23 Keywords: Remittances, Economic Governance System, Human Capital Developmen

USE OF DIAGRAMS AS INSTRUCTIONAL AIDS IN TEACHING OF GEOMETRICAL CONCEPTS AT SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL

Angle is a complex topic defined in a variety of contexts; some define angle to be as a pair of rays coming from a single point, as a rotation about a single point, or in a curve. Due to the multiple definitions of angle students get confused as to what an angle truly consists of. This study paid close attention to the misconceptions high school geometry students’ hold about the concept of angle and how to help them gain a more conceptual understanding of this essential concept with the use of different Diagrams. The main idea behind the conduction of this study is to investigate the effect of use of diagrams as instructional aids on the conceptual understanding of angles. The study hypothesizes that angle can be learned using interactive Diagrams. The results of this study showed that diagrams which based on different A.V aids was shown to be more beneficial for the students who used to clear the concept of angles

Do Exchange Rates Fluctuations Influence Gold Price in G7 Countries? New Insights from a Nonparametric Causality-in-Quantiles Test

In the recent era, gold is considered an essential investment source, a source of hedging inflation, and a medium of monetary exchange. The gold and exchange rate nexus become prominent after events like sovereign debt crisis, subprime mortgage crisis, low-interest rate problem, and global financial market solvency. These events attract the attention of researchers and academician for investigating the dynamics of the relationship between gold and exchange rates, and the majority of the studies discusses the linear dynamics, but the non-linear dynamics are ignored. Therefore, the current research investigates the non-linear dynamics of gold price and exchange rate relationship in G7 countries using the new technique named the nonparametric causality approach. This study uses monthly data from the years 1995(January)-2017 (March). The empirical results show that exchange rate return causes gold prices in four out of G7, especially at the low tails. This study also gives valuable insights for monetary policymakers, gold exporter’s international portfolio managers, and hedge fund managers