The psychology and technology mix : exploring the design of a gamified solution using persuasive technology

Abstract: As the world stands at the brink of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, educators have had to reconsider their teaching practises and the impact thereof. Technological advancement, however, cannot progress without taking into account the human element of the intended end users. This paper uses a case study approach to explore how educators can apply persuasive technology frameworks in designing gamified solutions in order to increase student motivation to work consistently and to assist them with taking ownership of their learning process. We use the example of a gamified solution which was developed for students enrolled in a financial management module at the University of Johannesburg. The gamified solution introduces a new approach to creating an environment that is conducive to students being motivated to work consistently during the semester. Through the use of choice architecture, this gamified solution nudges the students to make right decisions for themselves without infringing on their freedom of choice. This paper also highlights the importance of applying multidisciplinary perspectives into intervention development. In particular, the gamified solution discussed in this paper, incorporates principles from: behavioural economics, persuasive technology theories, and educational psychology. Broadly, this paper tackles the question on how innovations within the context of the fourth industrial revolution can be used to re-engineer the delivery of tertiary education towards student-centred approaches

System-Generated Digital Forensic Evidence in Graphic Design Applications

Graphic design applications are often used for the editing and design of digital art. The same applications can be used for creating counterfeit documents such as identity documents (IDs), driver’s licences, passports, etc. However, the use of any graphic design application leaves behind traces of digital information that can be used during a digital forensic investigation. Current digital forensic tools examine a system to find digital evidence, but they do not examine a system specifically for the creating of counterfeit documents created through the use of graphic design applications. The paper in hand reviews the system-generated digital forensic evidence gathered from certain graphic design applications, which indicates that a counterfeit document was created. This inference is made by associating the digital forensic information gathered with the possible actions taken, more specifically, the scanning, editing, saving and printing of counterfeit documents. The digital forensic information is gathered by analysing the files generated by the particular graphic design application used for creating the document. The acquired digital forensic information is corroborated to the creation of counterfeit documents and interpreted accordingly. In the end determining if a system was utilised for counterfeiting

System-Generated Digital Forensic Evidence in Graphic Design Applications

Graphic design applications are often used for the editing and design of digital art. The same applications can be used for creating counterfeit documents such as identity documents (IDs), driver’s licences, passports, etc. However, the use of any graphic design application leaves behind traces of digital information that can be used during a digital forensic investigation. Current digital forensic tools examine a system to find digital evidence, but they do not examine a system specifically for the creating of counterfeit documents created through the use of graphic design applications. The paper in hand reviews the system-generated digital forensic evidence gathered from certain graphic design applications, which indicates that a counterfeit document was created. This inference is made by associating the digital forensic information gathered with the possible actions taken, more specifically, the scanning, editing, saving and printing of counterfeit documents. The digital forensic information is gathered by analysing the files generated by the particular graphic design application used for creating the document. The acquired digital forensic information is corroborated to the creation of counterfeit documents and interpreted accordingly. In the end determining if a system was utilised for counterfeiting. Keywords: Digital evidence, Digital forensic, Digital forensic artifacts, Graphic design applications

Devulcanisation of truck tyre tread vulcanisates in supercritical carbon dioxide using diphenyl disulphide and 2,2- dithiobis(benzothiazole)

A lot of work has been done in the recycling industry in an effort to increase the amount of reclaimed rubber used in new tyre formulations. The major drawback has been inferior physical and mechanical properties of reclaimed/virgin rubber blends in comparison to the virgin rubber material. Deterioration in these properties has been identified to be a result of chain degradation during reclamation processes as well as presence of crosslinks in the final reclaim product. Devulcanisation techniques have gained precedence due to the relatively improved properties of devulcanised/virgin rubber blends. The concept of devulcanisation is to reverse vulcanisation, resulting in total or partial cleavage of crosslinks. In this way, chain degradation is minimised while crosslink scission is maximised, thereby resulting in good quality devulcanised rubber. However, due to the persistence of chain degradation and crosslinks during devulcanisation processes, a very limited number of reports have claimed success in achieving this goal. Therefore there is still the need to develop a devulcanisation method that ensures improved quality and productivity of devulcanised rubber. Typical truck tyre tread vulcanisates were used for optimisation of time, temperature, heating rate, pressure and amount of devulcanising agent while monitoring percentage devulcanisation in supercritical carbon dioxide medium. Optimisation of the devulcanisation conditions was done by employing a twolevel central composite design in the isothermal and non-isothermal heating stages. This was followed by a single factor analysis of devulcanisation conditions in the non-isothermal stage. The effect of the presence of carbon black was investigated by comparing the percentage devulcanisation of carbon black filled and unfilled samples. The results show that supercritical carbon dioxide is an effective medium of devulcanisation using diphenyl disulphide (DD) and 2,2-dithiobis(benzothiazole) (MBTS). The relatively higher degree of devulcanisation observed during the non-isothermal stage compared to the isothermal stage, led to a shift of focus to non-isothermal devulcanisation. Temperature and time were found to have a significant antagonistic effect on the percentage devulcanisation, while changes in pressure above critical point and mass of devulcanising agent showed no effect on percentage devulcanisation. The heating rate was determined by the set-point, of which 180 ℃ set-point temperature resulted in desirable degree of devulcanisation for both DD and MBTS. 76.18 ± 5.50 % devulcanisation in 5 minutes at 102 ℃ was observed for DD whilst 70.92 ± 4.10 % devulcanisation in 4 minutes at 97 ℃ was observed for MBTS. Changes in pressure above critical point and mass of devulcanising agent used in devulcanisation showed no significant effect in the percentage devulcanisation and so they were kept constant at 80 bars and 1.00 % v (of weight of rubber sample) devulcanisation agent, respectively. The presence of carbon black was found to have an effect on the degree of devulcanisation; 87.95 % and 81.33 % devulcanisation was observed for unfilled samples devulcanised using DD and MBTS respectively. Thermogravimetric analysis of the natural rubber/styrene butadiene rubber (NR/SBR respectively) relative composition of devulcanisates indicated uneven devulcanisation when using DD, whereas MBTS did not show any form of preference. DD showed preference for NR devulcanisation over SBR. Further analysis of the sol and gel fractions were performed using; Differential Scanning Calorimetry, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Gel Permeation Chromatography and Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectroscopy. Application of the optimised conditions to devulcanise ground tyre rubber (GTR) resulted in relatively lower degrees of devulcanisation for both DD and MBTS; 41.22 ± 4.22 and 22.41 ± 1.97 respectively. The differences in the degree of devulcanisation of the laboratory prepared vulcanisates and the GTR was determined to be due to sample differences; i.e. sample constituents, particle dimensions and crosslink network (crosslink distribution in particular)

Educators enacting non-formal education policy: case of three schools in Masvingo District, Zimbabwe-an exploration.

Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.The Zimbabwean school model for the enactment of teaching and learning of Non-Formal Education Policy (NFEP) programmes is a recent development. The policy mandated the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE), the powers to promote an alternative pathway, in order to increase access and quality education. The school- model offers new opportunities to out-of-school children, youths and adults, coupled with new insights to researchers and educators, its enactment has largely remained unexplored, against a background of resources shortages that include the lack of the discipline’s curriculum and trained educators. The ministry imposed a formal education curriculum and hired educators who are deficient in Non-Formal Education’s (NFE) technical, pedagogic and content knowledge (TPACK). The study sought to analyse the educators’ forms of enactment in the teaching and learning of the NFEP; programmes in order to contribute to debates on improving NFE. Literature on the study’s phenomenon produced three forms of enactment: the acknowledged, the communal, and the committed. The study used the three forms of enactment as an analytic lens through which to understand how educators’ enacted teaching and learning and accounted for their particular enactments. From the literature also emerged the cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), which underpinned the study and facilitated access to in-depth exploration of the data. The key formal education curriculum concepts were incorporated in CHAT, in order to invigorate in-depth explorations of the educators’ influence in teaching and learning. The case-study approach facilitated access to in-depth data, guided by the qualitative research methodology and interpretive research paradigm. A purposive, convenience sample of seven participants was used to generate data, using semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and document analysis methods. The guided analysis process that was hedged on the curriculum concepts in the CHAT produced eight themes that framed data generation, presentation, analysis, and interpretation. A modified version of the CHAT, the enactment activity theory (EAT), later emerged, emphasising the economic factors to enactments. The study’s findings suggested that the three forms of enactment were instrumental in guiding the teaching and learning, in the context of teaching goals, where different programmes had divergent goals that demanded unique forms of enactment. The findings revealed educators’ limited understanding of key enactment concepts, due to deficient TPACK, limited material resources and financial incentives. Hence, there were contradictions and inconsistencies in enactment practices. The study recommends the continued use of forms of enactments. The MoPSE should adopt an integrated curriculum that harmonises curriculum issues in order to diffuse tensions regarding the curriculum in-use, educators’ TPACK and working conditions. Further research, founded on this explorative study should be conducted, in order to increase measures of transferability of the findings

Strategies to Accelerate HIV Care and Antiretroviral Therapy Initiation After HIV Diagnosis: A Randomized Trial.

: Determine the effectiveness of strategies to increase linkage to care after testing HIV positive at mobile HIV testing in South Africa. : Unmasked randomized controlled trial. : Recruitment of adults testing HIV positive and not currently in HIV care occurred at 7 mobile HIV counseling and testing units in urban, periurban, and rural South Africa with those consenting randomized 1:1:1:1 into 1 of 4 arms. Three strategies were compared with standard of care (SOC): point-of-care CD4 count testing (POC CD4), POC CD4 plus longitudinal strengths-based counseling (care facilitation; CF), and POC CD4 plus transport reimbursement (transport). Participants were followed up telephonically and through clinic records and analyzed with an intention-to-treat analysis. : From March 2013 to October 2014, 2558 participants were enrolled, of whom 160 were excluded postrandomization. Compared with the SOC arm where 298 (50%) reported having entered care, linkage to care was 319 (52%) for POC CD4, hazard ratio (HR) 1.0 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.89 to 1.2, P = 0.6]; 331 (55%) for CF, HR: 1.1 (95% CI: 0.84 to 1.3, P = 0.2); and 291 (49%) for transport, HR 0.97 (95% CI: 0.83 to 1.1, P = 0.7). Linkage to care verified with clinical records that occurred for 172 (29%) in the SOC arm; 187 (31%) in the POC CD4 arm, HR: 1.0 (95% CI: 0.86 to 1.3, P = 0.6); 225 (38%) in the CF arm, HR: 1.4 (95% CI: 1.1 to 1.7, P = 0.001); and 180 (31%) in the transport arm, HR: 1.1 (95% CI: 0.88 to 1.3, P = 0.5). : CF improved verified linkage to care from 29% to 38%.<br/

Tuberculosis active case finding: uptake and diagnostic yield among minibus drivers in urban South Africa.

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) active case finding is a part of TB control in areas of higher TB prevalence. Congested public transportation settings may be areas of increased TB transmission. We evaluated the uptake and diagnostic yield of an active TB screening program among minibus drivers in a large public transportation facility in Johannesburg, South Africa. METHODS: Over an eight month period, we intensively recruited minibus drivers for TB screening with a goal of 80% uptake among the estimated 2000 drivers. All participants were screened for TB symptoms, offered HIV testing, and had sputum collected for smear microscopy and liquid culture. RESULTS: 686 drivers were screened for TB, representing an uptake of only 34% of all drivers (43% of the target screening). Ten drivers (1.5%) were culture positive for TB, nine of whom were sputum smear microscopy negative. Factors associated with previously undiagnosed TB included a history of incarceration (odds ratio [OR] 5.5, 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 27.3) and HIV positivity (OR 5.3, 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 26.3). CONCLUSIONS: We identified undiagnosed pulmonary TB cases among drivers but at a level that may be insufficient to justify systematic case finding in this population considering the poor uptake

Understanding the dynamics of HIV testing services in South African primary care facilities

Facility-based HIV testing services remains underutilized in many settings, including South Africa—even in the context of opt-out testing. Additionally, linkages to care are often not made in a timely manner after an HIV diagnosis, limiting access to ART and the possibility of viral suppression. This brief summarizes findings from formative research conducted by Project SOAR and The Aurum Institute to understand the dynamics of HIV testing services and the key constraints to its optimal delivery

Detecting Learning Patterns in Tertiary Education Using K-Means Clustering

Abstract: We are in the era where various processes need to be online. However, data from digital learning platforms are still underutilised in higher education, yet, they contain student learning pat- terns, whose awareness would contribute to educational development. Furthermore, the knowledge of student progress would inform educators whether they would mitigate teaching conditions for critically performing students. Less knowledge of performance patterns limits the development of adaptive teaching and learning mechanisms. In this paper, a model for data exploitation to dynamically study students progress is proposed. Variables to determine current students progress are defined and are used to group students into different clusters. A model for dynamic clustering is proposed and related cluster migration is analysed to isolate poorer or higher performing students. K-means clustering is performed on real data consisting of students from a South African tertiary institution. The proposed model for cluster migration analysis is applied and the corresponding learning patterns are revealed