Stacking-based uncertainty modelling of statistical and machine learning methods for residential property valuation

Estimating real estate prices helps to adapt informed policies to regulate the real estate market and assist sellers and buyers to have a fair business. This study aims to estimate the price of residential properties in District 5 of Tehran, Capital of Iran, and model its associated uncertainty. The study implements the Stacking technique to model uncertainties by integrating the outputs of basic models. Basic models must have a good performance for their combinations to have acceptable results. This study employs four statistical and machine learning models as basic models: Random Forest (RF), Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Weighted K-Nearest Neighbour (WKNN), and Support Vector Regression (SVR) to estimate the price of residential properties. The results show that the integrated output is more accurate for the quadruple combination mode than for any of the binary and triple combinations of the basic models. Comparing the Stacking technique with the Voting technique, it is shown that the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) reduces from 10.18% to 9.81%. Hence we conclude that our method performs better than the Voting technique.</p

The impact of computer game-making on the creativity of elementary students

Background and Objectives: Today Computer games are one of the most effective media among various educational media. However, playing games can be used as a training method in education process. But in the opinion of many researchers, the making the game by the students can have deeper effects and it is an instructive and enjoyable experience for people, especially students. Computer game-making will stimulate thinking and creativity because in this action individual engaged in the multi-dimension activities. Due to the computer game-making by students is the new phenomenon and lack of enough research on the impact of this activity on creativity, there is a need for more research in this area. In this regard, the main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of computer game-making on the creativity of elementary male students and sub-objectives were include: 1-Investigating the effect of computer game-making on the fluid dimension of creativity. 2- Investigating the effect of computer game making on the originality dimension of creativity. 3-Investigating the effect of computer game making on the flexibility dimension of creativity. 4- Investigating the effect of computer game making on the expansion dimension of creativity. Materials and Methods: The research method in this study was a quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The statistical population was all boys' primary schools in the city of Islamshahr. One of these schools was selected. The sample of this study was 40 students from fourth to sixth grade who were selected using simple random sampling method and were randomly assigned to the control and experimental groups. The data collection tool was the Torrance Form B Creativity Test, which includes four subscales: fluidity, flexibility, originality, and expansion. The method of data collection was survey and the method of data analysis was differential t-test. Findings: Data analysis showed that computer game-making had a positive effect on creativity and its dimensions. Regarding the sub-hypotheses, the results showed that the mean score of the fluidity dimension of creativity in the experimental group was 9.21 with a standard deviation of 4.52 and the mean score of the control group was 2.25 with a standard deviation of 1.43. Analysis of the data showed that the experimental group experienced more changes in the creative fluid dimension than the control group and their fluidity increased  compare to before playing, (sig 0.001). Therefore, the research hypothesis was confirmed at the level of P Conclusion: game-making involves the user in a real multidimensional problem, and it can provide the context for fostering creativity. Game-making required the presentation of new ideas in the process of designing and producing games, and students saw the result of their work objectively, they had an inner motivation to keep working and continued to complete their ideas as well as come up with new ideas, and this is the point that has been emphasized in theories of creativity.   ===================================================================================== COPYRIGHTS  ©2020 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.  ====================================================================================

The Mineral Biochar Alters the Biochemical and Microbial Properties of the Soil and the Grain Yield of Hordeum vulgare L. under Drought Stress

Biochar improves soil physical, biochemical, and microbial properties, leading to the amelioration of soil fertility, which, in turn, results in better growth and yield in crop plants. The current study aimed to evaluate whether using different levels of biochar can enhance soil characteristics and plant attributes. Accordingly, an experimental study was conducted in 2022 using a randomized complete block design with four replications (n = 4) in the experimental glasshouse of the University of Zanjan, in which two regimes of irrigation (D0, full irrigation as the control; D1, water scarcity was applied immediately after the flowering stage for two weeks) and four levels of natural mineral biochar (0% as the control treatment, 0.25, 0.5, and 1% of soil weight) were applied. The results indicated that drought substantially decreased the organic carbon content of the soil and the grain yield while increasing the available phosphorous, soil carbohydrate content, and microbial biomass of the soil. Biochar could considerably alter the means of the studied soil quality parameters and the barley grain yield. Adding biochar could be considered a valid strategy to increase the resistance of plants to drought

Validating Printed and Electronic Version of Digital Natives Assessment Scale (DNAS)

Background and Objective: The educational system, each decade, faces special audience as learners. These students have special educational characteristics, needs, interests, and preferences that significantly improve the policies, quantity, and quality of the educational system services. The emergence of a generational phenomenon in academic discourses are addressed with themes such as "students of this period of time" and issues such as the differences between the students of the current period of time and the past with respect to motivation, scientific perseverance, academic interests, and academic ethics. The subject of the differences between the learners of one period and another is referred to as the generation gap. Generational issues are one of the most important themes in the field of education, especially higher education. In the early years of the 21st century, some theories about the new generation entering universities were proposed stating that these learners have certain characteristics due to their birth and growth in the age of technology. Labels such as Digital Natives, Millennial, Network Generation, and Digital Learner have been set. The present study aims to validate the Digital Native Characteristics Scale (DNAS). Methods: Regarding to the issue of validity consideration in electronic versions of the instruments; therefore, electronic and printed versions of this scale validated by descriptive-survey method. The population included 7320 undergraduate students of Birjand University who were studying in the academic year 2017-2018. The number of samples in the present study was 374 students who selected from 10 faculties of Birjand University based on the table of sample size of Krejcie and Morgan and using cluster sampling method. The sampling method was such that one class was randomly selected in each faculty, and about 50% of the class population randomly completed the Digital Natives Measurement Scale  electronically and the other 50% in print. Findings: The results of exploratory factor analysis showed that both electronic and printed versions had satisfactory validity and reliability. The scale revealed 4 features for digital natives, including: (1) grow up with technology; (2) reliance on the graphic in communication; (3) multitasking; and (4) instant feedback. The electronic version and printed version explained 65.71% and 62.43% of the variance respectively. The total reliability was obtained by Cronbach alpha for the electronic and printed version were α = 0.89 and α = 0.91 respectively. All four identified components in both print and electronic versions had optimum reliability. Conclusion: Comparing the psychometric characteristics of the two electronic and printed formats in the present study did not show a significant difference between these versions. According to the research findings that have confirmed the construct validity and reliability of this scale, this instrument can be used in future research for the purpose of measuring the characteristics of digital natives in Iranian culture and at the academic community. However, pre-university courses it require more research. Also, this instrument can be used for educational design and teaching purposes by educational designers and can be used to adapt the training to the characteristics of this generation. Despite the optimal validity and reliability of the scale in this research, it is recommended that new instruments be designed and validated in future research considering the findings of the present study and using generational theories in Iran.   ===================================================================================== COPYRIGHTS  ©2020 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.  ====================================================================================

Impact use of education model based on mobile learning environments on Social peresence and teaching peresence for intellectual schools students in mathematical lesson

Background and Objective:Mobile learning is a subset of e-learning and focuses on the use of portable learning tools. This method of learning allows learning regardless of time and place. In learning, students are able to learn from a variety of sources around the world. This enrichment leads to effective and meaningful learning. In addition, learners in this environment can change their learning environment and use a variety of learning experiences. The role of social (communication) and managerial processes (teaching and classroom skills) is also important in this regard. The purpose of this research is Impact use of education model based on mobile learning environments on Social peresence and teaching peresence for Smart schools students in mathematical lesson. Methods: in this research goal, a mixed methods research was used. In this research we used quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design with control group. Research statistical population included all girl students studying in Tehran Smart schools. In order to select the sample size using multi-stage cluster sampling method from among smart schools in Tehran, one school was selected and finally 15 people were in the experimental group and 15 people in the control group. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to test the first and second hypotheses of the study. Findings: The results showed that the application of this model was effective on all dimensions of social presence and teaching presence in the experimental group compared to the control group (in the post-test). Conclusion:. The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of the application of mobile learning model based on social presence and attendance of smart school learners in mathematics. The results of the analysis of research data indicate that the application of mobile learning model has a positive effect on social presence and the presence of smart school students teaching in mathematics. Students in the mobile learning management system scored higher than the other group trained in the traditional environment. This indicates the effectiveness of the environment designed for mobile learning in terms of social presence and teaching.   ===================================================================================== COPYRIGHTS  ©2019 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original authors and source are cited. No permission is required from the authors or the publishers.  ====================================================================================

Impact analysis of accidents on the traffic flow based on massive floating car data

The wide usage of GPS-equipped devices enables the mass recording of vehicle movement trajectories describing the movement behavior of the traffic participants. An important aspect of the road traffic is the impact of anomalies, like accidents, on traffic flow. Accidents are especially important as they contribute to the the aspects of safety and also influence travel time estimations. In this paper, the impact of accidents is determined based on a massive GPS trajectory and accident dataset. Due to the missing precise date of the accidents in the data set used, first, the date of the accident is estimated based on the speed profile at the accident time. Further, the temporal impact of the accident is estimated using the speed profile of the whole day. The approach is applied in an experiment on a one month subset of the datasets. The results show that more than 72% of the accident dates are identified and the impact on the temporal dimension is approximated. Moreover, it can be seen that accidents during the rush hours and on high frequency road types (e.g. motorways, trunks or primaries) have an increasing effect on the impact duration on the traffic flow

The burden of disease and injury in Iran 2003

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The objective of this study was to estimate the burden of disease and injury in Iran for the year 2003, using Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) at the national level and for six selected provinces.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Methods developed by the World Health Organization for National Burden of Disease (NBD) studies were applied to estimate disease and injury incidence for the calculation of Years of Life Lost due to premature mortality (YLL), Years Lived with Disability (YLD), and DALYs. The following adjustments of the NBD methodology were made in this study: a revised list with 213 disease and injury causes, development of new and more specific disease modeling templates for cancers and injuries, and adjustment for dependent comorbidity. We compared the results with World Health Organization (WHO) estimates for Eastern Mediterranean Region, sub-region B in 2002.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We estimated that in the year 2003, there were 21,572 DALYs due to all diseases and injuries per 100,000 Iranian people of all ages and both sexes. From this total number of DALYs, 62% were due to disability premature deaths (YLD) and 38% were due to premature deaths (YLL); 58% were due to noncommunicable diseases, 28% – to injuries, and 14% – to communicable, maternal, perinatal, and nutritional conditions. Fifty-three percent of the total number of 14.349 million DALYs in Iran were in males, with 36.5% of the total due to intentional and unintentional injuries, 15% due to mental and behavioral disorders, and 10% due to circulatory system diseases; and 47% of DALYs were in females, with 18% of the total due to mental and behavioral disorders, 18% due to intentional and unintentional injuries, and 12% due to circulatory system diseases. The disease and injury causes leading to the highest number of DALYs in males were road traffic accidents (1.071 million), natural disasters (548 thousand), opioid use (510 thousand), and ischemic heart disease (434 thousand). The leading causes of DALYs in females were ischemic heart disease (438 thousand), major depressive disorder (420 thousand), natural disasters (419 thousand), and road traffic accidents (235 thousand). The burden of disease at the province level showed marked variability. DALY estimates by Iran's NBD study were higher than those for EMR-B by WHO.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The health and disease profile in Iran has made the transition from the dominance of communicable diseases to that of noncommunicable diseases and road traffic injuries. NBD results are to be used in health program planning, research, and resource allocation and generation policies and practices.</p