700 research outputs found

    Grounds for a Third Place : The Starbucks Experience, Sirens, and Space

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    My goal in this dissertation is to help demystify or “filter” the “Starbucks Experience” for a post-pandemic world, taking stock of how a multi-national company has long outgrown its humble beginnings as a wholesale coffee bean supplier to become a digitally-integrated and hypermodern café. I look at the role Starbucks plays within the larger cultural history of the coffee house and also consider how Starbucks has been idyllically described in corporate discourse as a comfortable and discursive “third place” for informal gathering, a term that also prescribes its own radical ethos as a globally recognized customer service platform. Attempting to square Starbucks’ iconography and rhetoric with a new critical methodology, in a series of interdisciplinary case studies, I examine the role Starbucks’ “third place” philosophy plays within larger conversations about urban space and commodity culture, analyze Starbucks advertising, architecture and art, and trace the mythical rise of the Starbucks Siren (and the reiterations and re-imaginings of the Starbucks Siren in art and media). While in corporate rhetoric Starbucks’ “third place” is depicted as an enthralling adventure, full of play, discovery, authenticity, or “romance,” I draw on critical theory to discuss how it operates today as a space of distraction, isolation, and loss

    Flipping Army Conscripts’ Training with the Support of ADL Learning Assets – Rewards and Challenges in the Context of Finnish Army Reserve Officer Training

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    In this article, we explore the experiences of military instructors with the introduction and application of the pedagogic method of the flipped classroom when supported by advanced distributed learning (ADL). The data were collected from interviews with eight instructors from the Reserve Officer School in the Finnish Defence Forces, all of whom have employed flipped classroom and ADL methods in their conscript training. The findings showed that the approach towards ADL and flipped classroom pedagogy varied, ranging from rejection to a focus on rewards and benefits, and from neutrality to an active appreciation of its potential for development. The motives reflecting these pedagogical and learning technology innovations were related to instructors, learners, subject matters, pedagogical methods, technology, resources, and the structures of the military education system. We suggest that scholars and practitioners of military pedagogy should focus on developing better technology infrastructure and accessibility for the end-user, the self-regulation and study skills of conscripts, and on applying modern pedagogical methods in practice. Further, the capacity of the military instructor to successfully employ learning technologies is contingent on the implementation of specific measures and strategies

    Design of an E-learning system using semantic information and cloud computing technologies

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    Humanity is currently suffering from many difficult problems that threaten the life and survival of the human race. It is very easy for all mankind to be affected, directly or indirectly, by these problems. Education is a key solution for most of them. In our thesis we tried to make use of current technologies to enhance and ease the learning process. We have designed an e-learning system based on semantic information and cloud computing, in addition to many other technologies that contribute to improving the educational process and raising the level of students. The design was built after much research on useful technology, its types, and examples of actual systems that were previously discussed by other researchers. In addition to the proposed design, an algorithm was implemented to identify topics found in large textual educational resources. It was tested and proved to be efficient against other methods. The algorithm has the ability of extracting the main topics from textual learning resources, linking related resources and generating interactive dynamic knowledge graphs. This algorithm accurately and efficiently accomplishes those tasks even for bigger books. We used Wikipedia Miner, TextRank, and Gensim within our algorithm. Our algorithm‘s accuracy was evaluated against Gensim, largely improving its accuracy. Augmenting the system design with the implemented algorithm will produce many useful services for improving the learning process such as: identifying main topics of big textual learning resources automatically and connecting them to other well defined concepts from Wikipedia, enriching current learning resources with semantic information from external sources, providing student with browsable dynamic interactive knowledge graphs, and making use of learning groups to encourage students to share their learning experiences and feedback with other learners.Programa de Doctorado en Ingeniería Telemática por la Universidad Carlos III de MadridPresidente: Luis Sánchez Fernández.- Secretario: Luis de la Fuente Valentín.- Vocal: Norberto Fernández Garcí

    Generation Z’s Perceptions of Hunting and Conservation Efforts in Arkansas

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    Hunting participation numbers have steadily declined since the 1980s and Generation Z is not engaging in hunting. Hunting is one of the most effective tools for managing wildlife populations and ensuring the success and local ecosystem conservation. Many wildlife stewardship institutions, such as Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in Arkansas, are funded by sales taxes imposed on firearms, ammo, and archery equipment. With a decline in hunting participation, it is imperative state-run wildlife stewardship organizations and other hunting institutions learn the best practices for communicating with younger generations. This study sought to understand Generation Z’s perceptions of hunting and conservation in Arkansas. Additionally, research sought to learn where Generation Z receives information on hunting and conservation and what information is telling them. Finally, the research sought to learn how Generation Z prefers to spend time outdoors, if not hunting. The Outdoor Recreation Adoption Model guided the study to explore how societal support and information consumption impacted an individual’s opinions and behaviors. The study utilized a mixed-methods explanatory design with the follow-up explanations variant to achieve the research goals. Subjects were selected using stratified purposeful sampling and surveyed using Qualtrics. Following the surveys, 23 survey respondents participated in semi-structured interviews. Survey closed-ended questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Follow-up interviews and open-ended questions were analyzed using the constant comparative method and NVivo 11 coding software. The results showed Generation Z preferred hunting for food over hunting for sport and Generation Z saw a connection between hunting and environmental conservation because of population management for deer and invasive species. Respondents were consuming information on seasons, animal populations, and trophy hunting in Africa, and their top communication channels were friends and family, websites, and social media platforms including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook. Finally, most respondents spent their time outdoors walking and enjoy spending their time outdoors walking and hiking, among other activities. The results indicated that state-run wildlife stewardship organizations should focus on promoting the ecological and monetary benefits of hunting and individual stories and motivations of current hunters, particularly on social media accounts. Additionally, these organizations should create avenues for those who do not hunt to connect and learn from seasoned hunters

    Machine Learning Algorithm for the Scansion of Old Saxon Poetry

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    Several scholars designed tools to perform the automatic scansion of poetry in many languages, but none of these tools deal with Old Saxon or Old English. This project aims to be a first attempt to create a tool for these languages. We implemented a Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) model to perform the automatic scansion of Old Saxon and Old English poems. Since this model uses supervised learning, we manually annotated the Heliand manuscript, and we used the resulting corpus as labeled dataset to train the model. The evaluation of the performance of the algorithm reached a 97% for the accuracy and a 99% of weighted average for precision, recall and F1 Score. In addition, we tested the model with some verses from the Old Saxon Genesis and some from The Battle of Brunanburh, and we observed that the model predicted almost all Old Saxon metrical patterns correctly misclassified the majority of the Old English input verses

    Evaluación de la Accesibilidad y Adaptabilidad de Objetos de Aprendizaje y cursos online a través de estándares y metadatos

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    El emprendimiento ha adquirido relevancia como tema de investigación en los últimos años. El individuo emprendedor tiene un rol influyente en la economía, por lo que entender sus motivaciones y aspiraciones es clave en esta investigación. El emprendimiento puede considerarse desde dos perspectivas, a nivel individual y desde el punto de vista de la organización, tratando así el intraemprendimiento o emprendimiento corporativo. Así pues, este trabajo tiene como objetivo principal analizar los diferentes niveles en los que se desarrolla la actividad emprendedora y entender el vínculo existente con las soft skills, permitiendo así considerar esta actividad como elemento de dinamización. Para abordar el objetivo general planteado se ha estudiado en primera instancia la literatura anterior vinculada con el concepto de emprendimiento, la cual queda vinculada al entorno individual y organizacional. Posteriormente, se analizan las habilidades o soft skills determinantes como elementos influyentes que permiten el desarrollo y crecimiento emprendedor. De esta forma, se consigue abordar la repercusión de la actividad emprendedora e intraemprendedora desde una perspectiva general. En esta línea, elementos como la creatividad y el conocimiento han quedado vinculados a lo largo de toda la investigación, puesto que los emprendedores requieren la actualización constante de conocimientos, y la búsqueda y el aprovechamiento de las oportunidades existentes. En consecuencia, esta investigación contribuye con el gap existente en la literatura y permite poner en valor las capacidades más relevantes en el entramado laboral, permitiendo con esto analizar los nuevos vínculos entre la sociedad y la iniciativa emprendedora. Las primeras aproximaciones de la investigación se han desarrollado a través del análisis de la base de datos European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO), la cual ha permitido destacar las cualidades y competencias clave en el desarrollo emprendedor. A su vez, se ha realizado, como primer artículo de la tesis un análisis bibliométrico del concepto de emprendimiento. Con esto se ha conseguido destacar a los investigadores más representativos en este ámbito, y entender las redes y conexiones existentes entre ellos. De igual forma, se han destacado las palabras innovación y formación vinculadas a este concepto siendo clave para continuar con la investigación en el tema. A nivel del individuo se ha desarrollado un análisis de las motivaciones del emprendedor, quedando reflejado en el segundo artículo de la tesis. En este caso, la investigación ha examinado cómo influyen las variables de creatividad, comunicación y liderazgo en la decisión de convertirse en emprendedor en una situación prepandémica y en la situación actual, considerada como la nueva normalidad. En este sentido, la motivación emprendedora ha destacado por quedar influenciada por factores como la incertidumbre. Además, las variables creatividad, comunicación y liderazgo no son representativas en la presencia de emprendedores potenciales en la situación post-pandémica de nueva normalidad, sin embargo, sí que lo eran antes de la Covid-19. Por consiguiente, se vuelve necesario mencionar que debido a la Covid-19 se desarrolló un análisis comparativo, enriqueciendo en gran medida los resultados obtenidos. Por último, y debido a la dificultad que supone acceder a los datos estratégicos internos de las organizaciones, se han estudiado las variables que impactan en la estrategia de la empresa a través del desarrollo de una encuesta a 241 pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYMES). Esto, ha permitido considerar la influencia que ha tenido cada variable destacada en el análisis anterior, creatividad, comunicación y liderazgo, en la organización. En consecuencia, a través del tercer artículo se consigue un análisis en profundidad de la repercusión de la formación y las skills determinantes en la estrategia empresarial. Se investiga en este artículo si esas variables impactan directamente en el desarrollo de iniciativas intraemprendedoras. La investigación destaca la relevancia de la formación de los empleados en las organizaciones como componente diferencial y generador de valor. Así pues, la formación en habilidades y competencias les permitirá desarrollar actividades emprendedoras, lo que ayudará a la toma de decisiones estratégicas y a la diferenciación en el actual mercado competitivo y cambiante

    “Go Ahead and Erect the Buildings Themselves:” An Archaeological Study of Three Black Schools in Gloucester County, Virginia

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    The focus of this research is on how daily life at and community use of Black schools in Gloucester County, Virginia changed as both the symbol and physical structure of the schoolhouse underwent shifts in perception and discourse from the 1880s through the 1950s. The historical record suggests there were major shifts in how Black schoolhouses were viewed by Black communities in those seventy years. In the 1870s and 1880s, even public schools in poor conditions were celebrated as an achievement after centuries of education being legally prohibited and the Black fight for public education after emancipation. By the 1910s, as Black schools were left out of a national movement for school improvement, there were increasing petitions for more monetary aid and public discussion of unequal conditions. In the 1920s, Gloucester got its first Rosenwald schools, new modern high-quality schoolhouses that were points of pride. Twenty years later, after two decades of neglect by school authorities, these same schools became the focus of the growing Civil Rights movement and a symbol of the discrimination faced by Black communities across the Jim Crow South. I use archaeological evidence from three Black schools in Gloucester, Woodville (44GL523), Bethel (44GL273), and Glenns/Dragon (44GL550) along with historical documents and oral histories to address what, if any, changes in daily life and community use occurred over this seventy-year period. The evidence is used to examine shifts in schoolhouse structures, education, daily life, and community events in Gloucester’s Black schools.Doctor of Philosoph

    Enhancing the role of the libraries in South African Higher Education Institutions through Research Data Management: A case study of Cape Peninsula University of Technology

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    Research Data Management (RDM) is one of the top trends in academic libraries. Academic libraries are faced with the challenge of implementing RDM services. Libraries that are not yet offering support for research data may be at the stage of developing RDM services. The main objective of this study was to identify the experiences of one institution, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), in the introduction and implementation of RDM services with the intention of informing other SA HEIs about their offerings and experiences. The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) Lifecycle Model was used to guide the investigation in this study. The model helped to achieve the study's sub-objectives, which were: to establish to what extent RDM services have been adopted at CPUT, to identify experiences of librarians, and to make recommendations for successful implementation of RDM services. This is a qualitative case study in which data were collected through document analysis and interviews. The study found that CPUT Libraries offer data management planning assistance, storage and management of data, and guidance and training in support of RDM. The experiences of CPUT in the introduction and implementation of RDM that the study highlighted are the crucial role played by library management, the development of staff skills, the challenge of librarian workloads and attitudes, and researcher reluctance to engage with RDM and institutional partnerships. The study recommends among other things: piloting of the RDM project; continuous advocacy for RDM; reaching out to the research community for needs assessments and to provide necessary RDM training; implementation of RDM policy; and institutional, national and international partnerships

    Automatic management tool for attribution and monitorization of projects/internships

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    No último ano académico, os estudantes do ISEP necessitam de realizar um projeto final para obtenção do grau académico que pretendem alcançar. O ISEP fornece uma plataforma digital onde é possível visualizar todos os projetos que os alunos se podem candidatar. Apesar das vantagens que a plataforma digital traz, esta também possui alguns problemas, nomeadamente a difícil escolha de projetos adequados ao estudante devido à excessiva oferta e falta de mecanismos de filtragem. Para além disso, existe também uma indecisão acrescida para selecionar um supervisor que seja compatível para o projeto selecionado. Tendo o aluno escolhido o projeto e o supervisor, dá-se início à fase de monitorização do mesmo, que possui também os seus problemas, como o uso de diversas ferramentas que posteriormente levam a possíveis problemas de comunicação e dificuldade em manter um histórico de versões do trabalho desenvolvido. De forma a responder aos problemas mencionados, realizou-se um estudo aprofundado dos tópicos de sistemas de recomendação aplicados a Machine Learning e Learning Management Systems. Para cada um desses grandes temas, foram analisados sistemas semelhantes capazes de solucionar o problema proposto, tais como sistemas de recomendação desenvolvidos em artigos científicos, aplicações comerciais e ferramentas como o ChatGPT. Através da análise do estado da arte, concluiu-se que a solução para os problemas propostos seria a criação de uma aplicação Web para alunos e supervisores, que juntasse as duas temáticas analisadas. O sistema de recomendação desenvolvido possui filtragem colaborativa com factorização de matrizes, e filtragem por conteúdo com semelhança de cossenos. As tecnologias utilizadas no sistema centram-se em Python no back-end (com o uso de TensorFlow e NumPy para funcionalidades de Machine Learning) e Svelte no front-end. O sistema foi inspirado numa arquitetura em microsserviços em que cada serviço é representado pelo seu próprio contentor de Docker, e disponibilizado ao público através de um domínio público. O sistema foi avaliado através de três métricas: performance, confiabilidade e usabilidade. Foi utilizada a ferramenta Quantitative Evaluation Framework para definir dimensões, fatores e requisitos(e respetivas pontuações). Os estudantes que testaram a solução avaliaram o sistema de recomendação com um valor de aproximadamente 7 numa escala de 1 a 10, e os valores de precision, recall, false positive rate e F-Measure foram avaliados em 0.51, 0.71, 0.23 e 0.59 respetivamente. Adicionalmente, ambos os grupos classificaram a aplicação como intuitiva e de fácil utilização, com resultados a rondar o 8 numa escala de 1 em 10.In the last academic year, students at ISEP need to complete a final project to obtain the academic degree they aim to achieve. ISEP provides a digital platform where all the projects that students can apply for can be viewed. Besides the advantages this platform has, it also brings some problems, such as the difficult selection of projects suited for the student due to the excessive offering and lack of filtering mechanisms. Additionally, there is also increased difficulty in selecting a supervisor compatible with their project. Once the student has chosen the project and the supervisor, the monitoring phase begins, which also has its issues, such as using various tools that may lead to potential communication problems and difficulty in maintaining a version history of the work done. To address the mentioned problems, an in-depth study of recommendation systems applied to Machine Learning and Learning Management Systems was conducted. For each of these themes, similar systems that could solve the proposed problem were analysed, such as recommendation systems developed in scientific papers, commercial applications, and tools like ChatGPT. Through the analysis of the state of the art, it was concluded that the solution to the proposed problems would be the creation of a web application for students and supervisors that combines the two analysed themes. The developed recommendation system uses collaborative filtering with matrix factorization and content-based filtering with cosine similarity. The technologies used in the system are centred around Python on the backend (with the use of TensorFlow and NumPy for Machine Learning functionalities) and Svelte on the frontend. The system was inspired by a microservices architecture, where each service is represented by its own Docker container, and it was made available online through a public domain. The system was evaluated through performance, reliability, and usability. The Quantitative Evaluation Framework tool was used to define dimensions, factors, and requirements (and their respective scores). The students who tested the solution rated the recommendation system with a value of approximately 7 on a scale of 1 to 10, and the precision, recall, false positive rate, and F-Measure values were evaluated at 0.51, 0.71, 0.23, and 0.59, respectively. Additionally, both groups rated the application as intuitive and easy to use, with ratings around 8 on a scale of 1 to 10
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