Development and Evaluation of an Educational Computer Game for a Certification Examination

Professional certification has become one of the important criteria for people to apply job positions in industries. Recently, computer-based learning has been widely adopted for helping students prepare for various professional certifications. However, most of the computer-based learning materials are not attractive to students, such that their learning performance is significantly affected owing to the lack of learning interests. Researchers have presented that joyful game-based learning can increase learner’s motive and pleasure. Therefore, this study builds a certification tutorial system containing two different modules that are the traditional e-version and the joyful game-based version. Moreover, an experiment has been conducted to explore the participants’ engagement and learning effectiveness of the proposed approach. Some terms are explained that the “prior knowledge” is represented by the “pre-test,” and the “level of effort” (equivalent to the “engagement”) is represented by the “experience” which is the cumulative number of correct answers. The result indicates that the traditional e-version may be slightly helpful for those participants with higher/middle prior knowledge and level of effort, and the joyful game-based version may be more helpful for those participants with lower prior knowledge and level of effort

Impaired Flush Response to Niacin Skin Patch Among Schizophrenia Patients and Their Nonpsychotic Relatives: The Effect of Genetic Loading

We previously reported familial aggregation in flush response to niacin skin patch among schizophrenia patients and their nonpsychotic relatives. However, little is known about whether this abnormal skin response is associated with genetic loading for schizophrenia. This study compared the niacin flush response in subjects from families with only one member affected with schizophrenia (simplex families) with those from families having a sib-pair with schizophrenia (multiplex families). Subjects were patients with schizophrenia and their nonpsychotic first-degree relatives from simplex families (176 probands, 260 parents, and 80 siblings) and multiplex families (311 probands, 180 parents, and 52 siblings) as well as 94 healthy controls. Niacin patches of 3 concentrations (0.001M, 0.01M, and 0.1M) were applied to forearm skin, and the flush response was rated at 5, 10, and 15 minutes, respectively, with a 4-point scale. More attenuated flush response to topical niacin was shown in schizophrenia probands and their relatives from multiplex families than in their counterparts from simplex families, and the differentiation was better revealed using 0.1M concentration of niacin than 0.01M or 0.001M. For the highest concentration of 0.1M and the longest time lag of 15 minutes, a subgroup of probands (23%), parents (27%), and siblings (19%) still exhibited nonflush response. Flush response to niacin skin patch is more impaired in schizophrenia patients and their relatives from families with higher genetic loading for schizophrenia, and this finding has implications for future genetic dissection of schizophrenia

Quick balance skill improvement after short-term training with error amplification feedback for older adults

Abstract This study investigated behavioral and cortical mechanisms for short-term postural training with error amplification (EA) feedback in the elderly. Thirty-six elderly subjects (65.7 ± 2.2 years) were grouped (control and EA, n = 18) for training in stabilometer balance under visual guidance. During the training session (8 training rounds of 60 s in Day 2), the EA group received visual feedback that magnified errors to twice the real size, whereas the control group received visual feedback that displayed real errors. Scalp EEG and kinematic data of the stabilometer plate and ankle joint were recorded in the pre-test (Day 1) and post-test (Day 3). The EA group (−46.5 ± 4.7%) exhibited greater post-training error reduction than that of the control group (−27.1 ± 4.0%)(p = 0.020), together with a greater decline in kinematic coupling between the stabilometer plate and ankle joint (EA: −26.6 ± 4.8%, control: 2.3 ± 8.6%, p = 0.023). In contrast to the control group, the EA group manifested greater reductions in mean phase-lag index (PLI) connectivity in the theta (4–7 Hz)(p = 0.011) and alpha (8–12 Hz) (p = 0.027) bands. Only the EA group showed post-training declines in the mean PLI in the theta and alpha bands. Minimal spanning tree analysis revealed that EA-based training led to increases in the diameter (p = 0.002) and average eccentricity (p = 0.004) of the theta band for enhanced performance monitoring and reduction in the leaf fraction (p = 0.030) of the alpha band for postural response with enhanced automaticity. In conclusion, short-term EA training optimizes balance skill, favoring multi-segment coordination for the elderly, which is linked to more sophisticated error monitoring with less attentive control over the stabilometer stance

A Minimum Delay Routing Protocol for Bluetooth Radio Networks

[[abstract]]Bluetooth is a low power and short range wireless communication technology. Device equipped with Bluetooth device can operate in the unlicensed 2.4G ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) band. Bluetooth adopts FHSS (frequency hopping spread spectrum) technique to resist radio interference and TDD (time division duplex) to simulate duplex communication. In previous Bluetooth routing protocols, the routing path with minimum number of hop count is chosen as the target route. However, the shortest routing path may pass through hot-spot nodes with heavy traffic which increase the delay time of packet delivery. According to queueing theory, there is a relation between traffic flow and delay time. In wireless network, heavy traffic flow implies long delay time. In this paper, we proposed a short delay routing protocol for Bluetooth radio system. The delay time is estimated in each link using query theory. Due to the operations of devices with roles of master, relay and slave are different, we also discuss three delay time estimation models based on query theory. Experimental results reveal that the proposed short delay routing protocol outperforms DSR-based Bluetooth routing protocol in terms of delay time

Experiencing the analects of confucius: an experiential game-based learning approach to promoting students' motivation and conception of learning

[[abstract]]The Analects of Confucius is an important course in the curriculum of Asian Studies in the Chinese community and around the world. Students have to learn a collection of the thoughts of Confucius which have shaped world history and the soul of China. However, educators have indicated that most students fail to understand its abstract thoughts, or even realize its spirit in their daily life experience. Meanwhile, with the advancements of technology, learning with computer games is currently a rapidly developing area of interest for researchers, teachers, material writers and application developers in the educational field. Several studies have shown that by properly incorporating learning contents into game scenarios, an experiential game-based learning approach might foster students' motivation to learn through experience. In addition, the experiential game-based approach is a learning method with great potential for motivating students and stimulating their willingness to engage in continuous and constant learning. Thus, in this study, an experiential digital game has been developed and presented to a fifth grade class learning the Analects of Confucius at an elementary school in Taipei city. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach by situating the experimental group in an experiential game-based learning scenario, while the control group learned with a conventional technology-enhanced learning system. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach effectively enhanced the students' learning effects in terms of their learning motivation, deep learning strategy and acceptance of the technology. As a consequence, it is concluded that an experiential digital game-based learning approach can help students understand the conception and meaning of learning, which is important for them to become life-long learners with positive learning attitudes