Factors Influencing Learning Intention of Advanced Placement MOOCs: Insights from an Investigation into Information Technology Adoption

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have attracted recent scholarly attention, mainly because MOOCs have effectively made higher education accessible. However, MOOCs tend to have low completion rates, and many scholars have attempted to remedy this by investigating the psychological, cognitive, physiological, and demographic factors affecting completion rates. Nevertheless, most studies have rarely investigated the student’s information technology (IT) background, focusing instead on self-awareness, self-recognition, intrinsic motivation, or external factors. Thus, this study adopted the technology acceptance model (TAM) to explore factors affecting MOOC learning intention, specifically in advanced placement (AP) MOOCs. This study also recruited 435 student participants from a university in Taiwan who took MOOCs for AP. Questionnaires were used to analyze the factors affecting completion rates. The results revealed that personal and IT backgrounds significantly affected perceived ease of use (PEU); perceived usefulness (PU) significantly affected attitude toward use (ATU); PEU significantly affected ATU; PEU significantly affected PU; ATU significantly affected behavioral intention to use (BITU); PU significantly affected BITU; and BITU significantly affected course completion rates. The results suggest that universities first understand students’ personal and IT backgrounds before promoting their AP MOOCs， as this can assist students in their learning and provide the necessary support. . Furthermore, universities must also establish a complete course-provision process and formulate learning strategies to attract, guide, and inspire students to adapt to the learning modes that AP MOOCs entail. In doing so, students are more likely to perceive MOOC learning modes as being innovative and thus learn more effectively

Efficient Hardware Architecture for Correlation-Based Spike Detection and Unsupervised Clustering

This chapter presents a novel hardware architecture for correlation-based spike detection and unsupervised clustering. The architecture is able to utilize the information extracted from the results of spike clustering for efficient spike detection. The architecture supports the fast computation for the normalized correlation and OSORT operations. The normalized correlation is used for template matching for accurate spike detection. The OSORT algorithm is adopted for unsupervised classification of the detected spikes. The mean of spikes of each cluster produced by the OSORT algorithm is used as the templates for subsequent detection. The architecture adopts postnormalization technique for reducing the area costs. Modified OSORT operations are also proposed for facilitating unsupervised clustering by hardware. The proposed architecture is implemented by field programmable gate array (FPGA) for performance evaluation. In addition to attaining high detection and classification accuracy for spike sorting, experimental results reveal that the proposed architecture is an efficient design providing low area cost and high throughput for real-time offline spike sorting applications

Efficacy of the intracorporeal one-hand tie technique for renal pedicle control during hand-assisted retroperitoneoscopic nephroureterectomy

AbstractObjectiveThis study examined the efficacy of the intracorporeal one-hand tie technique for renal pedicle control during hand-assisted retroperitoneoscopic nephroureterectomy (HARN).MethodsThe intracorporeal one-hand tie technique was conducted in 32 consecutive patients with upper tract urothelial cancer that underwent HARN and open bladder cuff excision.ResultsAll suture ligatures were successful in securing the renal vessels, except one minor venous bleeding that occurred during vessel transection, which was then controlled by additional clips. The process of controlling the renal pedicle took an average of 12.4 minutes (range, 8–30 minutes). No pedicle control related morbidities were noted. By sparing the usage of endovascular clips and staplers, operative costs were reduced and associated malfunctions eliminated.ConclusionThe intracorporeal one-hand tie technique is an easy, reliable, and cost-effective method in controlling the renal pedicle during HARN. Its efficacy in pedicle control is beyond doubt

Acquisition of skills in digital rectal examination through supervised patient examination with real-time feedback in transrectal sonography room

AbstractObjectiveTo assess the acquisition digital rectal examination (DRE) skills by medical students through an alternative teaching method.Materials and methodsMedical students at the National Cheng-Kung University Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan in 2009 were assigned to receive training through supervised rectal examination (DRE) with real-time feedback in a transrectal sonography room during their standard urologic rotation. Students completed a questionnaire (before and after the training) regarding their experiences in performing DRE to assess their confidence levels. Direct observation of practical skills (DOPS) was used to assess the students' competence in performing DRE at the end of urologic rotation.ResultsA total of 75 students received the questionnaire, of which 72 (96%) responded. On average, every student had an experience of 6.6 supervised patient examinations with real-time feedback in a transrectal sonography room. Following the training, students were more confident in their ability to give an opinion based on their findings related to DRE. The overall rate of the students' ability to interpret the DRE findings after urologic rotation improved from 69% to 100% for identification of the prostate, from 14% to 60% for assessment of prostate size, from 32% to 95% to describe prostate consistency accurately, and from 9.8% to 64% to identify overt prostate cancer from benign prostate hyperplasia. All students met expectations or were above expectations according to the grading scale of performing DOPS.ConclusionStudents' skills and confidence with regard to performing DRE were improved significantly through supervised examination with real-time feedback in a transrectal sonography room

General Dynamics of Topology and Traffic on Weighted Technological Networks

For most technical networks, the interplay of dynamics, traffic and topology is assumed crucial to their evolution. In this paper, we propose a traffic-driven evolution model of weighted technological networks. By introducing a general strength-coupling mechanism under which the traffic and topology mutually interact, the model gives power-law distributions of degree, weight and strength, as confirmed in many real networks. Particularly, depending on a parameter W that controls the total weight growth of the system, the nontrivial clustering coefficient C, degree assortativity coefficient r and degree-strength correlation are all in consistence with empirical evidences.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure