Development of New Models for Vision-Based Human Activity Recognition

Els mètodes de reconeixement d'accions permeten als sistemes intel·ligents reconèixer accions humanes en vídeos de la vida quotidiana. No obstant, molts mètodes de reconeixement d'accions donen taxes notables d’error de classificació degut a les grans variacions dins dels vídeos de la mateixa classe i als canvis en el punt de vista, l'escala i el fons. Per reduir la classificació incorrecta , proposem un nou mètode de representació de vídeo que captura l'evolució temporal de l'acció que succeeix en el vídeo, un nou mètode per a la segmentació de mans i un nou mètode per al reconeixement d'activitats humanes en imatges fixes.Los métodos de reconocimiento de acciones permiten que los sistemas inteligentes reconozcan acciones humanas en videos de la vida cotidiana. No obstante, muchos métodos de reconocimiento de acciones dan tasas notables de error de clasificación debido a las grandes variaciones dentro de los videos de la misma clase y los cambios en el punto de vista, la escala y el fondo. Para reducir la clasificación errónea, Łproponemos un nuevo método de representación de video que captura la evolución temporal de la acción que ocurre en el video completo, un nuevo método para la segmentación de manos y un nuevo método para el reconocimiento de actividades humanas en imágenes fijas.Action recognition methods enable intelligent systems to recognize human actions in daily life videos. However, many action recognition methods give noticeable misclassification rates due to the big variations within the videos of the same class, and the changes in viewpoint, scale and background. To reduce the misclassification rate, we propose a new video representation method that captures the temporal evolution of the action happening in the whole video, a new method for human hands segmentation and a new method for human activity recognition in still images

Exploring the factors affecting MOOC retention: a survey study

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) hold the potential to open up educational opportunities to a global audience. However, evidence suggests that only a small proportion of MOOC participants go on to complete their courses and relatively little is understood about the MOOC design and implementation factors that influence retention. This paper reports a survey study of 379 participants enrolled at university in Cairo who were encouraged to take a MOOC of their own choice as part of their development. 122 participants (32.2%) went onto to complete an entire course. There were no significant differences in completion rates by gender, level of study (undergraduate or postgraduate) or MOOC platform. A post-MOOC survey of students’ perceptions found that MOOC Course Content was a significant predictor of MOOC retention, with the relationship mediated by the effect of content on the Perceived Effectiveness of the course. Interaction with the instructor of the MOOC was also found to be significant predictor of MOOC retention. Overall these constructs explained 79% of the variance in MOOC retention

Monitoring Asthma in School-aged Children using the Forced Oscillation Technique

Background: Diagnosing asthma in school-aged children can be difficult, as spirometry can be challenging and even when successful is often normal when the patient is stable. Forced Oscillation Technique (FOT) could offer a rapid, non-invasive alternative test that reflects the resistance and reactance of the lungs during spontaneous breathing, requiring minimal patient cooperation. Aims: To assess FOT measurements in children with acute, stable and uncontrolled asthma before and after bronchodilator administration (BDR), while also comparing the FOT to other lung function tests. Methods: Children aged 5–16 years with stable controlled or uncontrolled asthma or doctor-diagnosed asthma attacks were eligible. A control group of healthy children in the same age range was also included. After obtaining informed consent, we assessed FOT using waveforms of 5–37 Hz and 7–41 Hz, before and after bronchodilation with salbutamol inhalation in asthma patients only. We reported, each at 5 or 7 Hz, the (i) resistance (Rrs5 or Rrs7), (ii) differences in resistance over the frequency range to 20 Hz (Rrs5-20 or Rrs7-20), (iii) reactance (Xrs5 or Xrs7) and (iv) area under the reactance curve (AX). Results: FOT was feasible in cases of stable controlled and uncontrolled asthma and in children with asthma attacks. Of the reported parameters, AX best discriminated between asthmatic and healthy children. FOT measurements were more sensitive in children with stable asthma with diagnoses confirmed by objective tests than in those with incomplete or no evidence. In addi-tion, FOT measurements at 5–37 Hz and 7–41 Hz showed significant airway improvements following bronchodilator in children with acute and uncontrolled asthma, with no significant differences between measurements at different frequencies. Conclusion: FOT measurements, including the assessment of BDR, are feasible in school-aged children with asthma. FOT is a useful method that could be applied alongside additional objective testing methods in asthmatic children.</p

Flipping the classroom to improve learning with MOOCs technology

The use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is increasing worldwide and brings a revolution in education. The application of MOOCs has technological but also pedagogical implications. MOOCs are usually driven by short video lessons, automatic correction exercises, and the technological platforms can implement gamification or learning analytics techniques. However, much more analysis is required about the success or failure of these initiatives in order to know if this new MOOCs paradigm is appropriate for different learning situations. This work aims at analyzing and reporting whether the introduction of MOOCs technology was good or not in a case study with the Khan Academy platform at our university with students in a remedial Physics course in engineering education. Results show that students improved their grades significantly when using MOOCs technology, student satisfaction was high regarding the experience and for most of the different provided features, and there were good levels of interaction with the platform (e.g., number of completed videos or proficient exercises), and also the activity distribution for the different topics and types of activities was appropriate.This work has been supported by the “eMadrid” project (Regional Government of Madrid) under grant S2013/ICE-2715, the “RESET” project (Ministry of Economy and Competiveness) under grant TIN2014-53199-C3-1-R, the IRENE project (Ministry of Economy and Competiveness) under grant PT-2012-1036-370000 and the European Erasmus SHEILA project under grant 562080-EPP-1-2015-BE-EPPKA3-PI-FORWARD.Publicad