Influences of the effective use of a computer simulation on learning in physical science

One of the most attractive instruments in science education is digital simulation. The investigations were conducted utilizing a pre-test and post-test methodology with Moroccan students enrolled in the second year of the natural sciences option secondary certificate at the Abdellah Laroui High School in the city of Fez. In this paper, we assess the effects of including a digital simulation on high school students’ understanding of RLC (a linear circuit containing an electrical resistance, an inductor, and a capacitor) (25 students). There is a substantial difference between the means of the tests administered to the control (M-Cont) and experimental (M-Exp) classes (M-Exp-M-Cont=15.32–3.08=2.24>0), based on a student’s analysis of the two classes’ test scores using a t-test. This study found that using a digital simulation in an educational setting allows for the acknowledgment of the added value and has a favorable impact on student learning, notably in the study of free oscillations in an RLC circuit

Towards NLP-based Semi-automatic Preparation of Content for Language Learning using LingoSnacks m-Learning Platform

Vocabulary growth is an important element for language learning but it requires repeated and varied exposure to the new words and their usage in different context. However preparing suitable learning content for effective language learning remains a challenging and time-consuming task. This paper reports the experience of designing and developing a m-Learning platform (named LingoSnacks) for semi-automatic preparation of content for language learning using Natural Language Processing (NLP) services. LingoSnacks Authoring Tools provide an environment of assisted authoring of learning content and delivering it to the learner in game-like interactive learning activities. Empirical testing results from teachers who used LingoSnacks indicate that the participants were able to ease their lessons preparation tasks. Also the resulting learning packages helped learners in vocabulary acquisition as the number of new vocabulary that they can recognize, recall and retain was significantly higher that participants who just used conventional lessons in a classroom

A Comparative Study of Multiple Object Detection Using Haar-Like Feature Selection and Local Binary Patterns in Several Platforms

Object detection has been attracting much interest due to the wide spectrum of applications that use it. It has been driven by an increasing processing power available in software and hardware platforms. In this work we present a developed application for multiple objects detection based on OpenCV libraries. The complexity-related aspects that were considered in the object detection using cascade classifier are described. Furthermore, we discuss the profiling and porting of the application into an embedded platform and compare the results with those obtained on traditional platforms. The proposed application deals with real-time systems implementation and the results give a metric able to select where the cases of object detection applications may be more complex and where it may be simpler

Getting Relational Database from Legacy Data-MDRE Approach

The previous management information systems turning on traditional mainframe environment are often written in COBOL and store their data in files; they are usually large and complex and known as legacy systems. These legacy systems need to be maintained and evolved due to several causes, including correction of anomalies, requirements change, management rules change, new reorganization, etc. But, the maintenance of legacy systems becomes over years extremely complex and highly expensive, In this case, a new or an improved system must replace the previous one. However, replacing those systems completely from scratch is also very expensive and it represents a huge risk. Nevertheless, they should be evolved by profiting from the valuable knowledge embedded in them. This paper proposes a reverse engineering process based on Model Driven engineering that presents a solution to provide a normalized relational database which includes the integrity constraints extracted from legacy data. A CASE tool CETL: (COBOL Extract Transform Load) is developed to support the proposal. Keywords: legacy data, reverse engineering, model driven engineering, COBOL metamodel, domain class diagram, relational database

Normalisation of imprecise temporal expressions extracted from text

Orientador : Prof. Dr. Marcos Didonet Del FabroCo-Orientador : Prof. Dr. Angus RobertsTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Exatas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Informática. Defesa: Curitiba, 05/04/2016Inclui referências : f. 95-105Resumo: Técnicas e sistemas de extração de informações são capazes de lidar com a crescente quantidade de dados não estruturados disponíveis hoje em dia. A informação temporal está entre os diferentes tipos de informações que podem ser extraídos a partir de tais fontes de dados não estruturados, como documentos de texto. Informações temporais descrevem as mudanças que acontecem através da ocorrência de eventos, e fornecem uma maneira de gravar, ordenar e medir a duração de tais ocorrências. A impossibilidade de identificar e extrair informação temporal a partir de documentos textuais faz com que seja difícil entender como os eventos são organizados em ordem cronológica. Além disso, em muitas situações, o significado das expressões temporais é impreciso, e não pode ser descrito com precisão, o que leva a erros de interpretação. As soluções existentes proporcionam formas alternativas de representar expressões temporais imprecisas. Elas são, entretanto, específicas e difíceis de generalizar. Além disso, a análise de dados temporais pode ser particularmente ineficiente na presença de erros ortográficos. As abordagens existentes usam métodos de similaridade para procurar palavras válidas dentro de um texto. No entanto, elas não são suficientes para processos erros de ortografia de uma forma eficiente. Nesta tese é apresentada uma metodologia para analisar e normalizar das expressões temporais imprecisas, em que, após a coleta e pré-processamento de dados sobre a forma como as pessoas interpretam descrições vagas de tempo no texto, diferentes técnicas são comparadas a fim de criar e selecionar o modelo de normalização mais apropriada para diferentes tipos de expressões imprecisas. Também são comparados um sistema baseado em regras e uma abordagem de aprendizagem de máquina na tentativa de identificar expressões temporais em texto, e é analisado o processo de produção de padrões de anotação, identificando possíveis fontes de problemas, dando algumas recomendações para serem consideradas no futuro esforços de anotação manual. Finalmente, é proposto um mapa fonético e é avaliado como a codificação de informação fonética poderia ser usado a fim de auxiliar os métodos de busca de similaridade e melhorar a qualidade da informação extraída.Abstract: Information Extraction systems and techniques are able to deal with the increasing amount of unstructured data available nowadays. Time is amongst the different kinds of information that may be extracted from such unstructured data sources, including text documents. Time describes changes which happen through the occurrence of events, and provides a way to record, order, and measure the duration of such occurrences. The inability to identify and extract temporal information from text makes it difficult to understand how the events are organized in a chronological order. Moreover, in many situations, the meaning of temporal expressions is imprecise, and cannot be accurately described, leading to interpretation errors. Existing solutions provide alternative ways of representing imprecise temporal expressions, though they are specific and hard to generalise. Furthermore, the analysis of temporal data may be particularly inefficient in the presence of spelling errors. Existing approaches use string similarity methods to search for valid words within a text. However, they are not rich enough to processes misspellings in an efficient way. In this thesis, we present a methodology to analyse and normalise of imprecise temporal expressions, in which, after collecting and pre-processing data on how people interpret vague descriptions of time in text, we compare different techniques in order to create and select the most appropriate normalisation model for different kinds of imprecise expressions. We also compare how a rule-based system and a machine learning approach perform on trying to identify temporal expression from text, and we analyse the process of producing gold standards, identifying possible sources of issues, giving some recommendations to be considered in future manual annotation efforts. Finally, we propose a phonetic map and evaluate how encoding phonetic information could be used in order to assist similarity search methods and improve information extraction quality

Second Screen Applications: A Multi-Platform Software Development Kit and Optimization of Human-Computer Interaction in Distributed Systems

This dissertation addresses various aspects of the term second screen and the challenges involved in the development of this type of application. The term and its characteristics have been clearly delineate by the means of a structured review of literature of 65 publications and an analysis of 19 currently available commercial applications. Furthermore, a content and technical classification were created to facilitate communication and the positing of future research activity in this area. The development of second screen applications is currently associated with a high effort, caused by the redundant implementation of multiple software platforms on both first and second screen side. In order to counteract this double multi-platform problem, an SDK was developed that facilitates the connection and communication process between the different application parts. The functionality of this 2ndS SDK was evaluated as reliable and performant and proven in several functional prototypes, which also served the purpose to examine existing and new forms of second screen interaction. In addition to addressing the technical challenges involved in the development of second screen applications, this work presents several results regarding the optimization of human-computer interaction in this type of application. These include a collection of 55 application components raised and validated in a mixed-method approach and insights into the attention behavior in such scenarios with corresponding recommendations derived from two eye-tracking studies. Furthermore, were concrete design guidelines from existing sources abstracted and evaluated with the help of a user study, and heuristics derived for the domain second screen and extended to a checklist for the efficient identification of problems. The results presented in this work are intended to be used in a usercentered design process and aim to ease the development of second screen applications with optimized interaction, and thereby contribute to their awareness and further distribution

Secularism in the Arab World: Contexts, Ideas and Consequences

Explores secularism and secularisation in Arab societies since the mid-19th century. This book is a translation of Aziz al-Azmeh’s seminal work Al-\u27Ilmaniya min mandhur mukhtalif that was first published in Beirut in 1992. Both celebrated and criticised for its reflections on Arab secularisation and secularism in the modern history of the Arab World, it is the only study to date to approach its subject as a set of historical changes which affected the regulation of the social, political and cultural order, and which permeated the concrete workings of society, rather than as an ideological discussion framed from the outset by the assumed opposition between Islam and secularism. The author takes a comprehensive analytical perspective to show that an almost imperceptible yet real, multi-faceted and objective secularising process has been underway in the Arab world since the 1850s. Traces the concrete secular transformations in Muslim societies which occurred at particular times and by specific social agencies Explores how secular changes influenced the functioning of different strata and groups, and the central attitudes of their members Devotes considerable attention to religious reform in the broader context of the developments studied, and of the ideological, political and institutional religious reactions to both Includes a new Preface by the author to introduce the English translationhttps://ecommons.aku.edu/uk_ismc_series_intranslation/1003/thumbnail.jp

Between syntax and morphology

Synopsis: This volume collects novel contributions to comparative generative linguistics that “rethink” existing approaches to an extensive range of phenomena, domains, and architectural questions in linguistic theory. At the heart of the contributions is the tension between descriptive and explanatory adequacy which has long animated generative linguistics and which continues to grow thanks to the increasing amount and diversity of data available to us. The chapters address research questions in comparative morphosyntax, including the modelling of syntactic categories, relative clauses, and demonstrative systems. Many of these contributions show the influence of research by Ian Roberts and collaborators and give the reader a sense of the lively nature of current discussion of topics in morphosyntax and morphosyntactic variation. This book is complemented by volume I available at https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/275 and volume III available at https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/277

Cloud computing and innovation: its viability, benefits, challenges and records management capabilities

This research investigated the potential benefits, risks and challenges, innovation properties and viability of cloud computing for records management on an Australian organisation within the mining software development sector. This research involved the use of a case study results analysis as well as a literature analysis. The literature analysis identified the ten potential benefits of cloud computing, as well as the ten risks and challenges associated with cloud computing. It further identified aspects, which needed to be addressed when adopting cloud computing in order to promote innovation within an organisation. The case study analysis was compared against a literature review of ten potential benefits of cloud computing, as well as the ten risks and challenges associated with cloud computing. This was done in order to determine cloud computing’s viability for records management for Company X (The company in the case study). Cloud computing was found to be viable for Company X. However, there were certain aspects, which need to be discussed and clarified with the cloud service provider beforehand in order to mitigate possible risks and compliance issues. It is also recommended that a cloud service provider who complies with international standards, such as ISO 15489, be selected. The viability of cloud computing for organisations similar to Company X (mining software development) followed a related path. These organisations need to ensure that the service provider is compliant with laws in their local jurisdiction, such as Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (Australia, 2011:14-15), as well as laws where their data (in the cloud) may be hosted. The benefits, risks and challenges of records management and cloud computing are applicable to these similar organisations. However, mitigation of these risks needs to be discussed with a cloud service provider beforehand. From an innovation perspective, cloud computing is able to promote innovation within an organisation, if certain antecedents are dealt with. Furthermore, if cloud computing is successfully adopted then it should promote innovation within organisations.Information ScienceM. Inf