Preserving a combat commander’s moral agency: The Vincennes Incident as a Chinese Room

We argue that a command and control system can undermine a commander’s moral agency if it causes him/her to process information in a purely syntactic manner, or if it precludes him/her from ascertaining the truth of that information. Our case is based on the resemblance between a commander’s circumstances and the protagonist in Searle’s Chinese Room, together with a careful reading of Aristotle’s notions of ‘compulsory’ and ‘ignorance’. We further substantiate our case by considering the Vincennes Incident, when the crew of a warship mistakenly shot down a civilian airliner. To support a combat commander’s moral agency, designers should strive for systems that help commanders and command teams to think and manipulate information at the level of meaning. ‘Down conversions’ of information from meaning to symbols must be adequately recovered by ‘up conversions’, and commanders must be able to check that their sensors are working and are being used correctly. Meanwhile ethicists should establish a mechanism that tracks the potential moral implications of choices in a system’s design and intended operation. Finally we highlight a gap in normative ethics, in that we have ways to deny moral agency, but not to affirm it

Bone: An Acute Buffer of Plasma Sodium during Exhaustive Exercise?

Both hyponatremia and osteopenia separately have been well documented in endurance athletes. Although bone has been shown to act as a “sodium reservoir” to buffer severe plasma sodium derangements in animals, recent data have suggested a similar function in humans. We aimed to explore if acute changes in bone mineral content were associated with changes in plasma sodium concentration in runners participating in a 161 km mountain footrace. Eighteen runners were recruited. Runners were tested immediately pre- and post-race for the following main outcome measures: bone mineral content (BMC) and density (BMD) via dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA); plasma sodium concentration ([Na+]p), plasma arginine vasopressin ([AVP]p), serum aldosterone concentration ([aldosterone]s), and total sodium intake. Six subjects finished the race in a mean time of 27.0±2.3 h. All subjects started and finished the race with [Na+]p within the normal range (137.7±2.3 and 136.7±1.6 mEq/l, pre- and post-race, respectively). Positive correlations were noted between change (Δ; post-race minus pre-race) in total BMC (grams) and [Na+]p (mEq/l) (r=0.99;

Using “First Principles of Instruction” to Design Secondary School Mathematics Flipped Classroom: The Findings of Two Exploratory Studies

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Asynchronous online discussion: Instructor facilitation vs. peer facilitation

Asynchronous online discussion forums have been widely used in schools and universities. They form an integral part of e-learning and blended learning. Many researchers and educators use asynchronous online discussion activity to develop student thinking skills, problem solving skills, and others. There are many factors that may affect student participation in asynchronous online discussion forums such as discussion topics, group size, ground rules of the discussion forums, facilitation skills, and others. We believe that facilitators play an important role in the success of asynchronous online discussion. Usually instructors or students serve as facilitators for online discussion activities. In this study, we explore participants" preference in terms of facilitator (instructor facilitator vs. peer facilitator). In addition, we also found out the reasons for their preference. © 2010 Wing Sum Cheung & Khe Foon Hew.published_or_final_versio

Examining facilitators' habits of mind in an asynchronous online discussion environment: A two cases study

Asynchronous online discussion has been widely used by faculty members and students in schools and universities. Previous research has examined how factors such as the discussion activity, knowledge about the discussion topic, and the behaviour of other participants can affect learner participation. This study explored student facilitators' influence in promoting learners' participation in terms of their exhibited habits of mind. The following habits of mind of the facilitators were examined: (a) awareness of own thinking, (b) accurate and seeks accuracy, (c) open minded, (d) taking a position when the situation warrants it, and (e) sensitive to other. A two-cases study methodology approach was used in this study. The habits of "awareness of own thinking" and "open minded" were found to be exhibited more often by the student facilitators in the two cases. When we zoomed into the top 30% of the forums in terms of learners' participation, we also found that the frequency of habits of mind, "awareness of own thinking" and "open minded", were exhibited more often by the facilitators.published_or_final_versio

Interference-based dynamic pricing for WCDMA networks using neurodynamic programming

Copyright © 2007 IEEEWe study the problem of optimal integrated dynamic pricing and radio resource management, in terms of resource allocation and call admission control, in a WCDMA network. In such interference-limited network, one's resource usage also degrades the utility of others. A new parameter noise rise factor, which indicates the amount of interference generated by a call, is suggested as a basis for setting price to make users accountable for the congestion externality of their usage. The methods of dynamic programming (DP) are unsuitable for problems with large state spaces due to the associated ldquocurse of dimensionality.rdquo To overcome this, we solve the problem using a simulation-based neurodynamic programming (NDP) method with an action-dependent approximation architecture. Our results show that the proposed optimal policy provides significant average reward and congestion improvement over conventional policies that charge users based on their load factor.Siew-Lee Hew and Langford B. Whit

A review of research methodologies used in studies on mobile handheld devices in K-12 and higher education settings

Mobile handheld devices are increasingly being used in education. In this paper, we undertook a review of empirical based articles to summarise the current research regarding the use of mobile handheld devices (personal digital assistants/PDAs, palmtops, and mobile phones) in K-12 and higher education settings. This review was guided by the following four questions: (a) How are mobile handheld devices such as PDAs, palmtops, and mobile phones used by students and teachers? (b) What types of research methods have been applied using such devices? (c) What data collection methods are used in the research? and (d) What research topics have been conducted on these handheld devices in education settings, as well as their related findings? We summarise and discuss some major findings from the research, as well as several limitations of previous empirical studies. We conclude by providing some recommendations for future research related to mobile handheld devices in education settings.published_or_final_versio

Using asynchronous online discussion in education: lessons learned over the last ten years

Over the last ten years we have been exploring the educational use of asynchronous online discussion (AOD) at a university in Singapore. While the advantages of using AOD have been widely reported, the challenges or problems of using it have received lesser attention. This paper briefly reports the three main challenges we faced in actual lesson implementations of AOD in the last ten years. These challenges are “Assignment mode”, “No time for discussion”, and “lack of in-depth critical thinking”. In addition, we also made some suggestions to overcome them.postprin

Exploring the use of asynchronous online discussion and vicarious learning in Citizenship Education: a case study of a Singapore School

This paper is part of a larger study investigating how teachers can foster positive student attitude toward their country. Specifically, in this paper presentation, we described the use of vicarious experience along with asynchronous online discussion forums at a Singapore primary school in an attempt to teach one major citizenship education messages – Singapore is our homeland; this is where we belong. In an asynchronous online discussion environment, students have more time to make explicit their preexisting personal beliefs about Singapore, and reflect on them – one of the key prerequisites of promoting belief change. Vicarious experience is learning through the experience of others. In our case, it was students learning through the experience of other people such as teachers, and their peers of what Singapore meant to them by means of written narratives, pictures or video clips. We provide some preliminary findings about what students felt about this learning approach, as well as the challenges in conducting it.postprin

Incorporating Meaningful Gamification in a Blended Learning Research Methods Class: Examining Student Learning, Engagement, and Affective Outcomes

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