Evaluating a Personal Learning Environment for Digital Storytelling

The evaluation of flexible and personal learning environments is extremely challenging. It should not be limited to the assessment of products, but should address the quality of educative experience with close monitoring. The evaluation of a PLE using digital storytelling is even more complicated, due to the unpredictability of the usage scenarios. This paper presents an evaluation methodology for PLEs using digital storytelling, using a participatory design approach. The results from an open validation trial indicate that this methodology is able to incorporate all necessary factors and that the selected evaluation tools are appropriate for addressing the quality of educative experience

Elecrronic port services

Στο σύγχρονο ταχέως μεταβαλλόμενο λιμενικό περιβάλλον, η ευελιξία και η καινοτομία είναι απαραίτητες για την επιβίωση, ενώ ευνοείται η ενσωμάτωση ΤΠΕ και η παροχή ηλεκτρονικών λιμενικών υπηρεσιών από τερματικούς σταθμούς εμπορευματοκιβωτίων. Η παρούσα έρευνα στοχεύει στην ανάπτυξη μίας μεθοδολογίας αξιολόγησης η οποία να είναι σε θέση να αξιολογήσει ηλεκτρονικές λιμενικές υπηρεσίες με μη συγκρίσιμα χαρατηριστικά με παράλληλη ενσωμάτωση όλων των παραγόντων που επηρεάζουν την υλοποίηση και λειτουργία τους. Μέσα από τη συγκριτική ανάλυση των δυνητικά κατάλληλων μεθόδων αξιολόγησης πραγματοποιηθήκε η τεκμηριωμένη επιλογή α) ενός συνδυασμού των AHP, QFD και SF ως καταλληλότερης μεθόδου για την αξιολόγηση ηλεκτρονικών λιμενικών υπηρεσιών που καλείται να επιλέξει ένας τερματικός σταθμός εμπορευματοκιβωτίων προς υλοποίηση και β) της BSC ως καταλληλότερης μεθόδου για την αξιολόγηση ηλεκτρονικών λιμενικών υπηρεσιών μετά την υλοποίησή τους. Η εφαρμογή του μεθοδολογικού πλαισίου πραγματοποιείται, μέσω μελέτης περίπτωσης στο Σ.ΕΜΠΟ. του ΟΛΠ. Μέσα από την εξέταση των αποτελεσμάτων αποδείχθηκε ότι η αξιολόγηση πληροφοριακών συστημάτων και ηλεκτρονικών λιμενικών υπηρεσιών στη λιμενική βιομηχανία επηρεάζεται από μια πληθώρα παραγόντων και πρέπει να εξετάζεται ακολουθώντας μία επεξηγηματική προσέγγιση. Το προσφερόμενο πλαίσιο αξιολόγησης καθώς και η ανάλυση του εξεταζόμενου προβλήματος με τον εντοπισμό και την εξέταση των παραγόντων που επηρεάζουν τη λήψη απόφασης, αποτελούν τη συμβολή των αποτελεσμάτων της παρούσας έρευνας

SmartPeach: Smart Farming Practices Enhance the Adaptation of Peach Crops to Climate Change

Nowadays, peach farms, and agriculture in general, face intensified challenges linked to pest control and irrigation needs, due to the effects of climate change. A contemporary and effective approach to these challenges is presented herein, which is based on the utilization of a smart farming system specialized in peach cultivation, in the framework of the SmartPeach project. A significant feature of the proposed smart farming system is its service-based approach, as its application does require technological investments from the farmers. The current research indicates a potential reduction of up to 25% of the total production cost due to optimization of irrigation and pest control applications, as well as an increase in farmers’ income up to 10% linked to improved product quality and yield

Αλγόριθμοι απόδοσης τρισδιάστατων γραφικών με πολλαπλά επίπεδα ανάλυσης με χρήση τεχνολογίας ανίχνευσης σημείου εστίασης βλέμματος για περιβάλλοντα εικονικής πραγματικότητας

Summarization: The wide-spread availability of consumer grade virtual reality head mounted displays, has transformed virtual reality to a commodity available for everyday use. Nowadays, nearly everything with a display can be used to immerse the user in a VR world. From Smart phones to game consoles, everything now has VR extensions such as the Samsung Gear VR and the PlayStation VR. All this constant evolution around the VR world demands constantly better and more detailed head mounted displays. With the increasing use of 4K-8K Ultra High Definition displays and the push towards higher pixel densities for head-mounted displays, the industry is pressured to meet market demands for intensive real-time rendering. Since the current processors cannot deal with the increased demands for excessive resolution on the head mounted displays, new techniques of rendering must be implemented. The human visual system is often assumed to be perfect despite limitations arising from a variety of different complexities and phenomena. Humans have two distinct vision systems: foveal and peripheral vision. Foveal vision is sharp and detailed, while peripheral vision lacks fidelity. This lack of fidelity in the peripheral vision system is what new techniques of rendering, the so called foveated rendering techniques, are trying to exploit. Perceptually lossless foveated rendering systems and methods, seek to increase rendering performance by lowering image quality in the periphery, while maintaining the user’s perception of full HD rendering. In this thesis, we are trying to gather insights on how beneficial may the adoption of these methods at a commercial level be, by implementing and evaluating our own foveated rendering approach. To do so, we are using a Head Mounted Display unit [the Nvis SX 111] and an eye-tracking device [the Arrington Viewpoint-EyeTracker]. The foveated rendering technique developed in this thesis renders at three different layers of resolution. Apart from the foveal layer, which surrounds the area that the user is looking at and has full HD resolution capabilities, and the peripheral layer, which contains everything that is in the user’s peripheral vision and renders at 40% of the full HD resolution, we implement another layer which functions as a transition layer between them. This last layer renders at 60% of the full HD resolution, and it was added so that the user doesn’t notice the massive difference in resolution at the border between the other two layers. In order to have a more accurate picture of the results and the functionality of the algorithm created, we conducted a number of experiments involving 19 students from the institution. The users were asked to enter a virtual world and complete a small game. While the users were immersed in the virtual environment, we were monitoring the performance of the algorithm. During these experiments, a 57% decrease in the number of pixels shaded was recorded. Most of these pixels belonged to the peripheral layer. This decrease leads to a maximum increase of 18.3% regarding the number of rendered frames per second. This increase in FPS is the fundamental objective of this dissertation. Since we have achieved such an increase in FPS, it is safe to assume that foveated rendering algorithms are capable of large reductions in rendering cost using the latest technologies

Identification of Two Commercial Pesticides by a Nanoparticle Gas-Sensing Array

This study presents the experimental testing of a gas-sensing array, for the detection of two commercially available pesticides (i.e., Chloract 48 EC and Nimrod), towards its eventual use along a commercial smart-farming system. The array is comprised of four distinctive sensing devices based on nanoparticles, each functionalized with a different gas-absorbing polymeric layer. As discussed herein, the sensing array is able to identify as well as quantify three gas-analytes, two pesticide solutions, and relative humidity, which acts as a reference analyte. All of the evaluation experiments were conducted in close to real-life conditions; specifically, the sensors response towards the three analytes was tested in three relative humidity backgrounds while the effect of temperature was also considered. The unique response patterns generated after the exposure of the sensing-array to the two gas-analytes were analyzed using the common statistical analysis tool Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The sensing array, being compact, low-cost, and highly sensitive, can be easily integrated with pre-existing crop-monitoring solutions. Given that there are limited reports for effective pesticide gas-sensing solutions, the proposed gas-sensing technology would significantly upgrade the added-value of the integrated system, providing it with unique advantages

Smart Farming Techniques for Climate Change Adaptation in Cyprus

Smart farming based on Internet of Things (IoT) technologies enables crop farmers to collect real-time data related to irrigation and plant protection processes, aiming to increase production volume, improve product quality, and predict diseases, while optimizing resources and farming processes. IoT devices can collect vast amounts of environmental, soil, and crop performance data, thus building time series data that can be analyzed to forecast and compute recommendations and deliver critical information to farmers in real time. In this sense, the added-value from the farmers’ perspective is that such smart farming techniques have the potential to deliver a more sustainable agricultural production, based on a more precise and resource-efficient approach in the complex and versatile agricultural environment. The aim of this study is to investigate possible advantages of applying the Smart Farming as a Service (SFaaS) paradigm, aiming to support small-scale farmers, by taking over the technological investment burden and offering next generation farming advice through the combined utilization of heterogeneous information sources. The overall results of the pilot application demonstrate a potential reduction of up to 22% on total irrigation needs and important optimization opportunities on pesticides use efficiency. The current work offers opportunities for innovation targeting and climate change adaptation options (new agricultural technologies), and could help farmers to reduce their ecological footprint