Efficiency of Web-Based, Computer and Mobile Software Applications in Facilitating Teaching and Learning of Chemical Concepts

Some of the most commonly used technologies for chemistry education are web-based, mobile, and computer software applications. Thus, this study investigated the teachers’ perceptions of the efficiency of web-based, mobile, and computer software applications in facilitating the teaching and learning of chemical concepts. The study adopted a survey research design to cover a large, scattered population in the shortest possible time. The survey was developed from the literature of related studies. About 266 responses were retrieved from an estimated population of 700 chemistry teachers in both public and private secondary schools, polytechnics and monotechnics, colleges of education, and universities across the Sokoto metropolis. The obtained data was computed and analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. The result of the study reveals that chemistry teachers considered web-based, mobile, and computer software applications efficient in delivering effective classroom and laboratory instructions

Fast Genome-Wide QTL Association Mapping on Pedigree and Population Data

Since most analysis software for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) currently exploit only unrelated individuals, there is a need for efficient applications that can handle general pedigree data or mixtures of both population and pedigree data. Even data sets thought to consist of only unrelated individuals may include cryptic relationships that can lead to false positives if not discovered and controlled for. In addition, family designs possess compelling advantages. They are better equipped to detect rare variants, control for population stratification, and facilitate the study of parent-of-origin effects. Pedigrees selected for extreme trait values often segregate a single gene with strong effect. Finally, many pedigrees are available as an important legacy from the era of linkage analysis. Unfortunately, pedigree likelihoods are notoriously hard to compute. In this paper we re-examine the computational bottlenecks and implement ultra-fast pedigree-based GWAS analysis. Kinship coefficients can either be based on explicitly provided pedigrees or automatically estimated from dense markers. Our strategy (a) works for random sample data, pedigree data, or a mix of both; (b) entails no loss of power; (c) allows for any number of covariate adjustments, including correction for population stratification; (d) allows for testing SNPs under additive, dominant, and recessive models; and (e) accommodates both univariate and multivariate quantitative traits. On a typical personal computer (6 CPU cores at 2.67 GHz), analyzing a univariate HDL (high-density lipoprotein) trait from the San Antonio Family Heart Study (935,392 SNPs on 1357 individuals in 124 pedigrees) takes less than 2 minutes and 1.5 GB of memory. Complete multivariate QTL analysis of the three time-points of the longitudinal HDL multivariate trait takes less than 5 minutes and 1.5 GB of memory

Designing an Educational and Intelligent Human-Computer Interface for Older Adults

As computing devices continue to become more heavily integrated into our lives, proper design of human-computer interfaces becomes a more important topic of discussion. Efficient and useful human-computer interfaces need to take into account the abilities of the humans who will be using such interfaces, and adapt to difficulties that different users may face – such as the particular difficulties older users must face. However, various issues in the design of human-computer interfaces for older users yet exist: a wide variance of ability is displayed by older adults, which can be difficult to design for. Motions and notions found intuitive by younger users can be anything but for the older user. Properly-designed devices must also assist without injuring the pride and independence of the users – thus, it’s understood that devices designed “for the elderly” may encounter a poor reception when introduced to the ageing community. Affective computing gives current researchers in HCI a useful opportunity to develop applications with interfaces that detect mood and attention via nonverbal cues and take appropriate actions accordingly. Current work in affective computing applications with older adult users points to possibilities reducing feelings of loneliness in the older adult population via these affective applications. However, we believe that everyday applications – such as chat programs or operating systems – can also take advantage of affective computing principles to make themselves more accessible for older adults, via communication enhancement. In this thesis, we document a variety of work in the field of developing human-computer interfaces for the older adult user, and the various requirements each of these studies confirm regarding human-computer interaction design for the elderly. We then explain how integration of affective computing can positively affect these designs, and outline a design approach for proper human-computer interfaces for the elderly which take into account affective computing principles. We then develop a case study around a chat application – ChitChat – which takes these principles and guidelines into account from the beginning, and give several examples of real-world applications also built with these guidelines. Finally, we conclude by summarizing the broader impacts of this work

Towards Understanding and Developing Virtual Environments to Increase Accessibilities for People with Visual Impairments

The primary goal of this research is to investigate the possibilities of utilizing audio feedback to support effective Human-Computer Interaction Virtual Environments (VEs) without visual feedback for people with Visual Impairments. Efforts have been made to apply virtual reality (VR) technology for training and educational applications for diverse population groups, such as children and stroke patients. Those applications had already shown effects of increasing motivations, providing safer training environments and more training opportunities. However, they are all based on visual feedback. With the head related transfer functions (HRTFs), it is possible to design and develop considerably safer, but diversified training environments that might greatly benefit individuals with VI. In order to explore this, I ran three studies sequentially: 1) if/how users could navigate themselves with different types of 3D auditory feedback in the same VE; 2) if users could recognize the distance and direction of a virtual sound source in the virtual environment (VE) effectively; 3) if users could recognize the positions and distinguish the moving directions of 3D sound sources in the VE between the participants with and without VI. The results showed some possibilities of designing effective Human-Computer Interaction methods and some understandings of how the participants with VI experienced the scenarios differently than the participants without VI. Therefore, this research contributed new knowledge on how a visually impaired person interacts with computer interfaces, which can be used to derive guidelines for the design of effective VEs for rehabilitation and exercise

Connecting with the Y Generation: an analysis of factors associated with the academic performance of foundation IS students

[Abstract]: A strategy to overcome challenges associated with teaching a foundation Information Systems (IS) course to large cohorts of Business students has been highly successful. To further refine the strategy, a survey was conducted to better understand attitudes and computer experience of the students. This study revealed that factors such as gender, age, study mode, type of secondary school attended, level of previous computing studies, perceived knowledge, frequency of use and attitudes towards using computers did not predict academic performance. Academic performance and characteristics of students belonging to the Y Generation were also compared with those of the Older Generation. Differences between these generations were found to exist in relation to perceived knowledge, level of previous computing studies, and experience of formal computing studies. It is imperative that educators be aware of the characteristics of the growing Y Generation students. This research has raised critical curriculum issues for the development of foundation IS pedagogy

COTGAME: Cotton Insect Pest Management Simulation Game

An interactive version of the Cotton and Insect Management (CIM) model was developed to aid individuals in improving their insect pest management decision making skills. This version, COTGAME, allowed the user to encounter situations and make decisions during the simulated cotton crop growing season. The intermediate results of these decisions were immediately delivered in the form of a report on the current status of the crop and insect populations. Based on the information presented in this status report, the user would make additional management decisions and take tactical actions. Once the harvest date had been reached, the economics of the simulated production season was presented to allow the user to evaluate the decisions. The use of COTGAME has been a way to apply the technology in a detailed crop growth model to improving insect pest management skills

Evolutionary Computation in High Energy Physics

Evolutionary Computation is a branch of computer science with which, traditionally, High Energy Physics has fewer connections. Its methods were investigated in this field, mainly for data analysis tasks. These methods and studies are, however, less known in the high energy physics community and this motivated us to prepare this lecture. The lecture presents a general overview of the main types of algorithms based on Evolutionary Computation, as well as a review of their applications in High Energy Physics.Comment: Lecture presented at 2006 Inverted CERN School of Computing; to be published in the school proceedings (CERN Yellow Report

Sistem Administrasi Kependudukan dan Inventarisasi Desa Kulu Kabupaten Pekalongan Menggunakan Borland Delphi 7.0

Kulu village head's office is a government agency which serves airport administration and inventory for the village people associated with the elements of geographical, social, economic, political, and cultural as well as interconnected with other areas.Technological developments in Village Head Office Kulu been computerized but has not had an application program that can assist employees in carrying out and run the job.Development and technological progress is urgently needed now in Kulu Village Head Office to support and improve the quality in providing services to the public.Steps being taken in this research is data collection is done based on field studies, namely through observational studies, a review is carried directly to the administrative section and the inventory in the village hall kulu. Development of systems using object-oriented analysis with the waterfall method, followed by the design which includes process design, database design, and user interface.Implementation of the design is the result of encoding by using a programming language that has been set.The result is Application Administration and Inventory Population System at Village Head Office Kulu Using Borland Delphi 7.0.This application was developed using information technology-based computer applications with MySQL databas