Authoring with Retudisauth adaptive dialogues for text comprehension

AbstractIn this work is presented the process of authoring adaptive dialogues for informatics text comprehension using the authoring tool of ReTuDiS (Reflective Tutorial Dialogue System), which is based on text comprehension theories. Previous study resulted in student's profiles depending on their prior knowledge and students were given the appropriate text with text activities according to their profiles. Students organized text representations with different structure: relational, transformational and teleological. The purpose of this study is to design and test educational material of personalized dialogue activities for text comprehension appropriate for each student, depending on student's text representation. Dialogues are tested by groups of participating students before the authoring tool is used to incorporate the material in ReTuDiS. Feedback provided by the system, in the form of personalized dialogues, promotes reflection and is expected to help students improve their text comprehension skills. The system is accessible throughout the web and can be tested in real classroom conditions

An open learning environment for the diagnosis, assistance and evaluation of students based on artificial intelligence

The personalized diagnosis, assistance and evaluation of students in open learning environments can be a challenging task, especially in cases that the processes need to be taking place in real-time, classroom conditions. This paper describes the design of an open learning environment under development, designed to monitor the comprehension of students, assess their prior knowledge, build individual learner profiles, provide personalized assistance and, finally, evaluate their performance by using artificial intelligence. A trial test has been performed, with the participation of 20 students, which displayed promising results

Wide bandgap semiconductor radiation detectors for extreme environments

Wide bandgap semiconductor photodiodes were investigated for their suitability as radiation detectors for high temperature applications (≥ 20 °C), through measurements, calculations of key parameters of the devices, and relating the results back to the material, geometry of the detectors, environment under which the detectors were investigated, and previously published work. Three families of photodiodes were examined. 4H-SiC vertical Schottky UV photodiodes with Ni2Si interdigitated contacts were characterised for their response under dark and UV illumination. Electrical characterisation up to 120 °C and room temperature responsivity measurements (210 nm to 380 nm) suggested that the devices could operate at low UV light intensities, even at high visible and IR backgrounds without the use of filters, and at high temperatures. 4H-SiC Schottky photodiode detector arrays with planar thin NiSi contacts were investigated for X-ray (≤ 35 keV) detection and photon counting spectroscopy at 33 °C. The electrical characterisation of the devices up to 140 °C and subsequent analysis suggested that the devices are likely to operate as high temperature X-ray spectrometers. Results characterising GaAs p+-i-n+ mesa photodiode detectors for their room temperature visible and near infrared responsivity (580 nm to 870 nm), as well as their high temperature (≤ 60 °C) X-ray detection performance (at 5.9 keV) are presented. GaAs p+-i-n+ mesa photodiodes were also shown to be suitable for β- particle (electron) spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (≤ 21 keV) at 33 °C. The X-ray and electron spectroscopic measurements were supported by a comprehensive treatment of the noise components in charge sensitive preamplifiers. Calculations showed the potential benefits of using a SiC, rather than Si, JFET as the input transistor of such a preamplifier operating at high temperatures. The spectroscopic measurements, using both the 4H-SiC and GaAs photodiodes, are presented along with noise analysis to detangle the different noise components present in the reported spectrometers, identify the dominant source of noise, and suggest potential improvements for future spectrometers using the reported devices

Υπογονιμότητα και Ψυχολογικές Επιπτώσεις

Σκοπός: Η υπογονιμότητα και η θεραπεία υποβοηθούμενης αναπαραγωγής συχνά επιδρούν επιβαρυντικά στην ψυχολογία των υπογόνιμων γυναικών. Στόχος της παρούσας εργασίας ήταν η διερεύνηση του ρόλου της υπογονιμότητας στα επίπεδα του στρες, του άγχους, της κατάθλιψης και της ποιότητας ζωής των γυναικών. Υλικό – Μέθοδοι: Το δείγμα της μελέτης συνίσταται σε 100 υπογόνιμες γυναίκες που υποβάλλονταν σε τεχνικές υποβοηθούμενης αναπαραγωγής και συγκεκριμένα σε εξωσωματική γονιμοποίηση. Τα ερωτηματολόγια που χορηγήθηκαν ήταν: το Fertility Problem Inventory (FPI) για την μέτρηση του στρες της υπογονιμότητας, το Spielberger – State – Trait Anxiety Scale (STAI) για την μέτρηση του περιστασιακού και δομικού άγχους, το FertiQol International Questionnaire για την μέτρηση της ποιότητας ζωής και το Depression Questionnaire – Center of Epidemiological Studies (CESD) για την μέτρηση της κατάθλιψης. Η στατιστική ανάλυση των δεδομένων έγινε με το στατιστικό πακέτο SPSS και αφορούσε μονοπαραγοντικές και πολυπαραγοντικές αναλύσεις. Αποτελέσματα: Η μελέτη μας έδειξε ότι το άγχος, η κατάθλιψη και το στρες είναι ανάλογα με την ποιότητα ζωής και πως όσο χαμηλότερο είναι το επίπεδο ποιότητας ζωής τόσο υψηλότερα είναι τα επίπεδα του στρες, της κατάθλιψης και του άγχους. Επίσης έδειξε ότι δημογραφικοί παράγοντες όπως το μορφωτικό επίπεδο και η οικογενειακή κατάσταση επηρεάζουν τα επίπεδα άγχους και στρες. Συμπεράσματα: Τα συμπεράσματα της μελέτης συζητούνται στα πλαίσια εφαρμογής μεθόδων υποστηρικτικής φροντίδας, παρεμβάσεων μείωσης του ψυχολογικού στρες και συμβουλευτικής, σε υπογόνιμες γυναίκες που υποβάλλονται σε θεραπεία υπογονιμότητας .Aim: Infertility and infertility treatment usually impact negatively on women’s psychological status. The aim of this thesis was to explore the impact of infertility on fertility-related stress, anxiety, depression and quality of life. Methods: The sample consisted of 100 infertile women undergoing fertility treatment (in vitro fertilization). The instruments that have been used were the Fertility Problem Inventory (FPI) for measuring fertility-related stress, the Spielberger – State – Trait Anxiety Scale (STAI) for measuring state and trait anxiety, the FertiQol International Questionnaire for measuring quality of life in infertility, and the Depression Questionnaire – Center of Epidemiological Studies (CESD) for measuring the depressive symptomatology. The statistical analysis conducted through SPSS package 22 and univariate and multivariate analyses were incorporated. Results: This study showed that anxiety, depression and stress were negatively influenced by the low quality of life. More specifically, as long the quality of life was rated low the levels of anxiety, stress and depression were high. In addition, demographic features such as educational level and marital condition associated with anxiety and stress levels. Conclusion: The study findings are discussed in the context of development and implementation of supportive care methods, stress reduce interventions and counseling, of infertile women undergoing fertility treatmen

Improving safety in physical human-robot collaboration via deep metric learning

Direct physical interaction with robots is becoming increasingly important in flexible production scenarios, but robots without protective fences also pose a greater risk to the operator. In order to keep the risk potential low, relatively simple measures are prescribed for operation, such as stopping the robot if there is physical contact or if a safety distance is violated. Although human injuries can be largely avoided in this way, all such solutions have in common that real cooperation between humans and robots is hardly possible and therefore the advantages of working with such systems cannot develop its full potential. In human-robot collaboration scenarios, more sophisticated solutions are required that make it possible to adapt the robot’s behavior to the operator and/or the current situation. Most importantly, during free robot movement, physical contact must be allowed for meaningful interaction and not recognized as a collision. However, here lies a key challenge for future systems: detecting human contact by using robot proprioception and machine learning algorithms. This work uses the Deep Metric Learning (DML) approach to distinguish between non-contact robot movement, intentional contact aimed at physical human-robot interaction, and collision situations. The achieved results are promising and show show that DML achieves 98.6% accuracy, which is 4% higher than the existing standards (i.e. a deep learning network trained without DML). It also indicates a promising generalization capability for easy portability to other robots (target robots) by detecting contact (distinguishing between contactless and intentional or accidental contact) without having to retrain the model with target robot data

Αυτοδιάλογος: Γνωστικές λειτουργίες, φαινομενολογία και η σημασία του στην ανάπτυξη του ατόμου

O αυτοδιάλογος, γνωστός επίσης και ως αυτό-ομιλία, εμπλέκεται στις θεωρίες της γλώσσας, των εκτελεστικών λειτουργιών του ατόμου, της ψυχοπαθολογίας και της γνωστικής ανάπτυξης. Παρά το γεγονός ότι οι γνώσεις μας συνεχώς εμπλουτίζονται σε σχέση με την ανάπτυξη, τη λειτουργία και τη φαινομενολογία του αυτοδιαλόγου, εντούτοις οι μελέτες σε σχέση με αυτό το φαινόμενο, ειδικά στην Ελλάδα είναι περιορισμένες. Αυτή η βιβλιογραφική έρευνα εξετάζει το ιστορικοφιλοσοφικό υπόβαθρο και τις υπάρχουσες πλέον διακεκριμένες θεωρητικές προσεγγίσεις σε σχέση με τον αυτοδιάλογο, όπως και μία πληθώρα μεθοδολογιών που έχουν χρησιμοποιηθεί ή μπορεί να χρησιμοποιηθούν στο μέλλον για την εξερεύνησή του, όπως εξετάζει και τους περιορισμούς τους, προτού παρατεθούν στοιχεία σχετικά με την ανάπτυξη και τη λειτουργία της αυτό-ομιλίας σε παιδιά και ενήλικες. Η μελέτη ολοκληρώνεται εξετάζοντας τις διαφορετικές μορφές εμφάνισής του σε άτομα με αναπτυξιακές και γνωστικές δυσκολίες ή αναπηρίες και σε άτομα με ψυχοπαθολογικά χαρακτηριστικά, αλλά και αναλύοντας τις προοπτικές για μελλοντική έρευνα στον ελλαδικό χώρο.Inner Speech, also known as Self-Talk, is involved in the theories of language, one's executive functions, psychopathology, and cognitive development. Although our knowledge is constantly improving regarding the development, function and phenomenology of inner speech, studies on this phenomenon, especially in Greece, are limited. This literature review examines the historical-philosophical background and existing most distinguished theoretical approaches to self-talk, as well as a variety of methodologies that have been or may be used in the future, in addition to their limitations, before listing data on the development and functioning of inner speech in children and adults. We conclude by examining different forms of inner speech in people with developmental and cognitive difficulties or disabilities, in people with psychopathological characteristics and by exploring the prospects for future research in Greece

Η συγκατάθεση στα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης

Η παρούσα εργασία πραγματεύεται το θέμα της συγκατάθεσης στα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης. Οι δυνατότητες που παρέχουν οι ιστότοποι κοινωνικής δικτύωσης ενώ αρχικά εμφανίστηκαν εξαιρετικά δελεαστικές για τους χρήστες του διαδικτύου άρχισαν σιγά σιγά να προκαλούν προβληματισμούς λόγω της εισβολής τους στην ιδιωτική σφαίρα του ατόμου. Οι πάροχοι των υπηρεσιών κοινωνικής δικτυώσεως στηρίχθηκαν στο γεγονός ότι οι ίδιοι οι χρήστες επιθυμούν να δημοσιεύσουν προσωπικά τους δεδομένα και αυτή η δημοσιοποίηση στηρίζεται αποκλειστικά στη βούλησή τους. Σκοπός της παρούσας είναι να ασχοληθεί με την σύγκρουση της τεχνολογίας με την ιδιωτικότητα του ατόμου και να διευρενήσει αν τα ισχύοντα νομικά εργαλεία μπορούν να επιλύσουν τα αναφυόμενα ζητήματα. Αναλύεται το υπάρχον νομοθετικό πλαίσιο σε σχέση με την νομιμότητα της συγκατάθεσης στα μέσα κοινωνικής δικτύωσης και ερευνάται πόσο τα ισχύοντα νομικά εργαλεία επαρκούν για την αποτελεσματική προστασία της ιδιωτικότητας του ατόμου.This paper addresses the issue of social media consent. The possibilities offered by social networking sites, while initially appearing to be extremely attractive to internet users, slowly began to cause concerns due to their intrusion into the private sphere of the individual. The providers of social networking services have relied on the fact that the users themselves wish to publish their personal data and this disclosure is based solely on their will. The purpose of this is to deal with the conflict of technology with the privacy of the individual and to expand whether the existing legal tools can resolve the emerging issues. The existing legal framework regarding the legality of consent on social media is analyzed and it is investigated whether the current legal tools are sufficient to effectively protect the privacy of the individual

Oxidative Thermal Sintering and Redispersion of Rh Nanoparticles on Supports with High Oxygen Ion Lability

The thermal sintering under oxidative conditions of Rh nanoparticles supported on oxides characterized by very different oxygen storage capacities (OSC) and labilities was studied at 750 and 850 °C. Under sintering conditions, significant particle growth occurred for Rh/γ-Al2O3 (up to 120% at 850 °C). In striking contrast, Rh/ACZ (alumina–ceria–zirconia) and Rh/CZ (ceria–zirconia) exhibited marked resistance to sintering, and even moderate (ca. −10% at 850 °C) to pronounced (ca. −60% at 850 °C) redispersion of the Rh. A model is proposed based on a double-layer description of metal–support interactions assigned to back-spillover of labile oxygen ions onto the Rh particles, accompanied by trapping of atomic Rh by the resulting surface oxygen vacancies. This model accounts for the observed resistance to sintering and actual redispersion of Rh, consistent with both alternative sintering mechanisms, namely Ostwald ripening (OR) or particle migration and coalescence (PMC)

Support Induced Effects on the Ir Nanoparticles Activity, Selectivity and Stability Performance under CO2 Reforming of Methane.

The production of syngas (H2 and CO)-a key building block for the manufacture of liquid energy carriers, ammonia and hydrogen-through the dry (CO2-) reforming of methane (DRM) continues to gain attention in heterogeneous catalysis, renewable energy technologies and sustainable economy. Here we report on the effects of the metal oxide support (γ-Al2O3, alumina-ceria-zirconia (ACZ) and ceria-zirconia (CZ)) on the low-temperature (ca. 500-750 ∘C) DRM activity, selectivity, resistance against carbon deposition and iridium nanoparticles sintering under oxidative thermal aging. A variety of characterization techniques were implemented to provide insight into the factors that determine iridium intrinsic DRM kinetics and stability, including metal-support interactions and physicochemical properties of materials. All Ir/γ-Al2O3, Ir/ACZ and Ir/CZ catalysts have stable DRM performance with time-on-stream, although supports with high oxygen storage capacity (ACZ and CZ) promoted CO2 conversion, yielding CO-enriched syngas. CZ-based supports endow Ir exceptional anti-sintering characteristics. The amount of carbon deposition was small in all catalysts, however decreasing as Ir/γ-Al2O3 > Ir/ACZ > Ir/CZ. The experimental findings are consistent with a bifunctional reaction mechanism involving participation of oxygen vacancies on the support's surface in CO2 activation and carbon removal, and overall suggest that CZ-supported Ir nanoparticles are promising catalysts for low-temperature dry reforming of methane (LT-DRM)