Peer Learning in the Class or on Facebook? _x000D_ A Correlational Experiment on Learning Outcomes

This paper presents two interventions to improve the peer learning practice in an Information System course; namely (1) class-based peer tutoring in small groups and (2) discussions on Facebook group of the course. The article aims at comparing the correlations between the learning outcomes with class-based peer tutoring as well as with Facebook engagement. The findings show that although the learning outcomes are correlated with the both of these two interventions, the students’ engagement on Facebook has a stronger correlation with the learning outcomes. The study also reports the lessons learned in improving students’ engagement on the Facebook group of the course. The results have been discussed in the lens of Theory of Peer Learning and the future avenues of research have been suggested. This study also motivates teaching practitioners in Information Systems to improve peer learning practices by the use of social networking sites in their courses

Prisons and Drugs: A global review of incarceration, drug use and drug services. Report 12

Prisons play an important role in drug policy. They are used to punish people who break drug laws and they also hold a large number of people who have experience of drug use and drug problems. They therefore have an important part to play in attempts to reduce the harm caused by drugs. Imprisonment itself can be seen as one type of harm, as it causes problems for prisoners and their families and creates a large financial burden for taxpayers. Theseharms and costs are difficult to calculate, but there is little evidence that large scale imprisonment of drug offenders has had the desired results in deterring drug use or reducing drug problems (Bewley- Taylor, Trace, & Stevens, 2005). In this paper, we examine the international prevalence of drug users, drug use and related problems in prisons and we report on the problems that are related to the issue of drugs in prison. We go on to examine the international guidelines and effective responses that have been developed in this area in the last decade. The paper is a review of the literature, based on a search of bibliographic databases, including Medline, PubMed, ISI as well as EMBASE and contacts with researchers and practitioners in the field up to January 2007

A Distributed Architecture for Certificate-based Delegation of Business Process Accessibility in Virtual Organizations

In this paper, a distributed architecture has been proposed in order to support an authorization service more precisely in dynamically created Virtual Organizations (VO). In comparison to other existing architectures such as Akenti, VOMS and TAS, our architecture uses certificates on top a of the distributed agent architecture for managing requested resources among the VOs. The most obscure issue in distributed agents is finding the proper node that keeps the particular requested certificates In this paper, Chord’s Finger Table has been improved to add extra search abilities on the ring architecture of Chord. The process of locating keys can be implemented on the top of the improved Chord by associating a key with each data item, and storing the key/data item pair at the node to which the key maps. In this article, a theatrical analysis is presented for simulations, which shows improvement in the number of passed hops to locate keys in the proposed method in comparison of standard chord, so it’s more cost efficient

Can fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making improve Strategic planning by balanced scorecard?

Strategic management is momentous for organizational success and competitive advantage in an increasingly turbulent business environment. Balanced scorecard (BSC) is a framework for evaluating strategic management performance which translates strategy into action via various sets of performance measurement indicators. The main objective of this research is to develop a new fuzzy group Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) model for strategic plans selection process in the BSC. For this to happen, the current study has implemented linguistic extension of MCDM model for robust selection of strategic plans. The new linguistic reasoning for group decision making is able to aggregate subjective evaluation of the decision makers and hence create an opportunity to perform more robust strategic plans, despite of the vagueness and uncertainty of strategic plans selection process. A numerical example demonstrates possibilities for the improvement of BSC through applying the proposed model

New Model Reference Adaptive System Speed Observer for Field-Oriented Control Induction Motor Drives Using Neural Networks

One of the primary advantages of field-oriented controlled induction motor for high performance application is the capability for easy field weakening and the full utilization of voltage and current rating of the inverter to obtain a wide dynamic speed rangeThis paper describes a Model Reference Adaptive System (MRAS) based scheme using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for online speed estimation of sensorless vector controlled induction motor drive. The proposed MRAS speed observer uses the current model as an adaptive model. The neural network has been then designed and trained online by employing a back propagation network (BPN) algorithm. The estimator was designed and simulated in Matlab/Simulink. Simulation result shows a good performance of speed estimator. The simulation results show good performance in various operating conditions. Also Performance analysis of speed estimator with the change in resistances of stator is presented. Simulation results show this estimator robust to parameter variations especially resistances of stator

Seniors’ Perspective on Perceived Transfer Effects of Assistive Robots in Elderly Care: Capability Approach Analysis

There have been widespread critiques towards the lack of contextual approaches in the adoption theories. This paper argues that independent living plays a significant role in adoption of assistive technologies such as robots among seniors. Therefore, the present article introduces perceived transfer effects as a cognitive process in which elderly realize how assistive robots help them in their functional abilities to empower their capabilities required to live independently. The study conducts qualitative interviews to understand the constructs contributing to the perceived transfer effects of assistive robots from seniors’ perspective. The paper demonstrates the potentials of the capability approach in the context of assistive robots for elderly. The paper opens avenues of research in adoption of similar types of assistive technologies among elderly. The article also informs nursing and aged care professionals about the better adoption of robots as an alternative intervention to improve the everyday life of seniors

Hydro-mechanical modeling of two-phase fluid flow in deforming, partially saturated porous media with propagating cohesive cracks using the extended finite element method

In the present paper, a fully coupled numerical model is developed for the hydromechanical analysis of deforming, progressively fracturing porous media interacting with the flow of two immiscible, compressible wetting and non-wetting pore fluids. The governing equations involving the coupled two-phase fluid flow and deformation processes in partially saturated porous media containing cohesive cracks are derived within the framework of the generalized Biot theory. The displacement of the solid phase, the pressure of the wetting phase and the capillary pressure are taken as the primary unknowns of the three-phase formulation. A softening cohesive law is employed to describe the nonlinear behavior of the material in the fracture process zone. In order to account for the flux of the two fluid phases through the fracture faces, the mass balance equation for each flowing fluid inside the fully damaged zone and the cohesive zone is averaged over its cross section. The resulting equations provide mass couplings to the standard equations of the multiphase system. The effect of cracking and therefore change of porosity on the permeability of the damaged zone is also taken into account. To arrive at the discrete equations, the extended finite element method (XFEM) is utilized to discretize the weak form of the balance equations of mass and linear momentum in spatial domain along with the Generalized Newmark scheme for time domain discretization. By exploiting the partition of unity property of finite element shape functions, the evolving cohesive crack is simulated independently of the underlying finite element mesh and without continuous remeshing of the domain as the crack grows by adding enriched degrees of freedom to nodes whose support is bisected by the crack. For the numerical solution, the unconditionally stable direct time-stepping procedure is applied to solve the resulting system of strongly coupled non-linear algebraic equations using a Newton-Raphson iterative procedure. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the capability of the proposed method and the significant influence of the hydro-mechanical coupling between the continuum porous medium and the discontinuity on the results

Exploring the multifaceted neuroprotective actions of gallic acid: a review

Much attention has been recently given to the effect of diet compounds on physical and mental health. Gallic acid is a phenolic compound with antioxidant activity. This compound is widely presented in black tea leaves, green tea, apples, grapes, strawberries, and pineapples. During the past years, it has been reported that gallic acid is effective against nervous system's disorders including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, ischemia, and reperfusion, depression and anxiety. These indicate that gallic acid can be considered as a valuable agent for nutraceutical interventions. In this study, several clinical studies suggested that gallic acid can improve human health by preventing or delaying the onset of neurological diseases. The present study indicated the neuroprotective features of gallic acid including the pre-clinical evidence for its effects in AD and PD and other diseases related to the nervous system. Significant efforts are required to confirm the neuroprotective effects of gallic acid in treating the diseases related to the nervous system. Keywords:Gallic acid; neurodegenerative diseases; Parkinson; psychiatric disorder