Predicting Students Performance in Online Education through Deep Learning Model

This epidemic has prompted the development of Education 4.0, virtual learning, and the demand to adapt educational practices to meet the needs of younger demographics. A rising epidemic has necessitated the shutdown of campuses where education programs are now being carried out online in educational institutions all over the globe. The report includes a study on the effectiveness and perceptions of students toward digital learning during the pandemic. A Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Particle swarm optimization model, which forecasts the student’s learning rates, are used to tackle this issue. This study will categorize student performance into low, medium, and high grades to forecast student achievement. The Kaggle student’s performance assessment database is utilized to gather the student information logs, which are then pre-processed to eliminate noise and redundant data. The CNN derives features based on the student’s attention and arbitrary patterns sequencing by examining the pre-processed information. Then, utilizing the Minimum Redundancy Maximum Relevance (mRMR) approach, the retrieved characteristics are evaluated. The lowest one that treats each characteristic individually is chosen as the greatest feature by mRMR. CNN uses stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) to calculate the characteristic weights, which are then modified for improved extracting features. Finally, the CNN-WOA method forecasts the final academic achievement forecast outcome. Studies revealed that the suggested approach outperforms existing ones in terms of accuracy, precision, recall, and F-score while requiring less computing time

Mobile Computing in Physics Analysis - An Indicator for eScience

This paper presents the design and implementation of a Grid-enabled physics analysis environment for handheld and other resource-limited computing devices as one example of the use of mobile devices in eScience. Handheld devices offer great potential because they provide ubiquitous access to data and round-the-clock connectivity over wireless links. Our solution aims to provide users of handheld devices the capability to launch heavy computational tasks on computational and data Grids, monitor the jobs status during execution, and retrieve results after job completion. Users carry their jobs on their handheld devices in the form of executables (and associated libraries). Users can transparently view the status of their jobs and get back their outputs without having to know where they are being executed. In this way, our system is able to act as a high-throughput computing environment where devices ranging from powerful desktop machines to small handhelds can employ the power of the Grid. The results shown in this paper are readily applicable to the wider eScience community.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Presented at the 3rd Int Conf on Mobile Computing & Ubiquitous Networking (ICMU06. London October 200

Determining the radial distribution function of water using electron scattering: A key to solution phase chemistry

High energy electron scattering of liquid water (H2O) at near-ambient temperature and pressure was performed in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) to determine the radial distribution of water, which provides information on intra- and intermolecular spatial correlations. A recently developed environmental liquid cell enables formation of a stable water layer, the thickness of which is readily controlled by pressure and flow rate adjustments of a humid air stream passing between two silicon nitride (Si3N4) membranes. The analysis of the scattering data is adapted from the x-ray methodology to account for multiple scattering in the H2O:Si3N4 sandwich layer. For the H2O layer, we obtain oxygen–oxygen (O–O) and oxygen–hydrogen (O–H) peaks at 2.84 Å and 1.83 Å, respectively, in good agreement with values in the literature. This demonstrates the potential of our approach toward future studies of water-based physics and chemistry in TEMs or electron probes of structural dynamics

The Mechanical Properties of Titin within a Sarcomere?

Titin is a structural protein in muscle that spans the half sarcomere from z-band to M-line. Although there are selected studies on titin’s mechanical properties from tests on isolated molecules or titin fragments, little is known about its behavior within the structural confines of a sarcomere. Here, we tested the hypothesis that titin properties might be reflected well in single myofibrils. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to measure the passive mechanical properties of isolated single myofibrils and evaluate whether these properties reflect the basic mechanical properties of the titin molecule. Single myofibrils from rabbit psoas were prepared for measurement of passive stretch-shortening cycles at lengths where passive titin forces become important. Three repeat stretch-shortening cycles with magnitudes between 1.0-3.0μm/sarcomere were performed at a speed of 0.1μm/s·sarcomere and repeated after a ten minute rest at zero force. These tests were performed in a relaxation solution (passive) and an activation solution (active) where cross-bridge attachment was inhibited with butanedione monoxime. Myofibrils behaved viscoelastically producing an increased efficiency with repeat stretch-shortening cycles, but a decreased efficiency with increasing stretch magnitudes. Furthermore, we observed a first distinct inflection point in the force-elongation curve at an average sarcomere length of 3.5μm that was associated with an average force of 68±5nN/mm-1. This inflection point was thought to reflect Ig domain unfolding and was missing after a ten minute rest at zero force, suggesting a lack of spontaneous Ig domain refolding. These passive myofibrillar properties are consistent with those observed in isolated titin molecules, suggesting that the mechanics of titin are well preserved in isolated myofibrils, and thus, can be studied readily in myofibrils, rather than in the extremely difficult and labile single titin preparations

Effect of heat, pH and coating process with stearic acid using a fluidized bed granulator on viability of probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri C 10

This study was conducted to investigate the use of a fluidized bed granulator to coat a probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri C 10 with stearic acid with a view to enhance its survival rate during storage. L reuteri C 10 cells of two treatments, namely, freeze-dried cells incorporated with trehalose and sucrose as cryoprotectants prior to freeze-drying, and freeze-dried cells without any incorporation of cryoprotectants were evaluated. Since the pH of stearic acid is 5.5 and the melting point is 57.23°C, and the inlet temperature of the fluidized bed granulator could be as high as 70°C, a preliminary study was initiated to determine the tolerance of L. reuteri C 10 cells to heat exposure from 58 to 70°C and acidic conditions of pH 4 to 6 for 60 min, during which the cell viabilities were determined every 15 min. In the coating process, 2:3 ratio of freeze-dried L. reuteri C 10 cells and stearic acid, fluidization air of 20 to 50 rpm, coating rate of 40 to 80 g/min and inlet and outlet temperatures of between 50 to 70°C were assessed for optimization of the fluidized bed granulator. Results of the  preliminary study showed that freeze-dried L. reuteri C 10 cells incorporated with cryoprotectants exhibited significantly (P < 0.05) less cell loss than cells without cryoprotectants when exposed to 62°C for 15 to 60 min, 64 °C for 15 to 30 min, 66°C for 30 min and 68°C for 15 to 30 min. Freeze-dried L. reuteri C 10 cells with cryoprotectants were also able to survive for 15 min at 70°C, but not freeze-dried L. reuteri C 10 cells without cryoprotectants. Freeze-dried L. reuteri C 10 cells with or without cryoprotectants could tolerate acidic conditions and there was growth and increase in cell viability at pH 4, 5 and 6. However, cells with cryoprotectants had significantly (P < 0.05) more growth when exposed to pH 5 for 30 to 60 min, and pH 6 for 15 to 60 min than cells without cryoprotectants. The application of a fluidized bed granulator to coat L. reuteri C 10 cells with or without cryoprotectants with melted stearic was not successful in this study because the fluidized bed granulator could not maintain the temperature of stearic acid above its melting point which led to clogging of the tube and spray nozzle of the fluidized bed granulator or resulted in the formation of a big lump of stearic acid and L. reuteri C 10 cells instead of uniform coated cell granules. Installation of a temperature jacket on the fluidized bed granulator may be necessary to control the temperature of stearic acid in the tube and spray nozzle above melting point.Key words: Coating, fluidized bed granulator, Lactobacillus reuteri C10, stearic acid

Potential of eucalyptus plantation in Malaysia

Eucalyptus is known as one of the fast growing species and recognised as a potential plantation species. Eucalyptus appear to be a genus with the greatest potential to provide supplemental fiber in many parts of the world. Likewise Eucalyptus species have been planted in several areas in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak for several decades with mixed results. A study was undertaken to identify the drive, motivation, issues and challenges faced by the Eucalyptus planted in Malaysia. Motivational factors to grow and process Eucalyptus were being perceived as a potentially profitable species. Pulp and paper, sawn timber, laminated timber, woodchip, plywood and veneer were identified as the preferred final products. Planters and industry players had no issues or problems in the supply of Eucalyptus seedlings as almost all of them had their own orchard or nursery. All the industry players are of the opinion that the government should support the establishment of Eucalyptus plantation industry by providing financial assistance and by promoting more research and development activities to ensure the sustainability of the trees, as well as, the wood quality. The study revealed that Eucalyptus planters are not dependent on the local timber market, and that export market offers much greater possibilities. Eucalyptus is expected to progress as an important species in Malaysia with future opportunities for growth

Offset-fed UWB antenna with multi-slotted ground plane

This paper presents the design and results of an offset feed Ultrawideband(UWB) antenna with a multiple-slotted ground plane. The antenna consists of a square shaped radiator, a feed slightly offset from the middle along the radiator side and a ground plane with multiple rectangular slots. Simulation results show that the antenna can achieve a wide bandwidth from 3.3 to 18 GHz. © 2011 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe 2011 International Workshop on Antenna Technology (iWAT), Hong Kong, China, 7-9 March 2011. In Proceedings of iWAT, 2011, p. 432-43

Conjugate Heat Transfer for a Vertical Flat Plate with Heat Generation Effect

The heat generation effect on natural convection flow along and conduction inside a vertical flat plate is investigated. The developed governing equations with the associated boundary conditions for this analysis are transferred to dimensionless forms using a local non-similar transformation. The transformed non-linear equations of the non-dimensional equations are then solved using the implicit finite difference method with Keller box-scheme. Numerical results are found for different values of the heat generation parameter, conjugate conduction parameter and Prandtl number. The overall investigation of the velocity, temperature, skin friction and heat transfer rate are presented graphically

What is the association between religious affiliation and children’s altruism?

Decety et al. [1] examined the relationships between household religiosity and sociality in children sampled from six countries. We were keenly interested in Decety et al. [1]’s conclusions about a negative relationship between religiosity and generosity — measured with the Dictator Game — as our team has investigated related questions, often with potentially contrasting findings 2, 3, 4 and 5. We argue here that, after addressing peculiarities in their analyses, Decety et al. [1]’s data are consistent with a different interpretation

Analytical reasoning task reveals limits of social learning in networks

Social learning -by observing and copying others- is a highly successful cultural mechanism for adaptation, outperforming individual information acquisition and experience. Here, we investigate social learning in the context of the uniquely human capacity for reflective, analytical reasoning. A hallmark of the human mind is our ability to engage analytical reasoning, and suppress false associative intuitions. Through a set of lab-based network experiments, we find that social learning fails to propagate this cognitive strategy. When people make false intuitive conclusions, and are exposed to the analytic output of their peers, they recognize and adopt this correct output. But they fail to engage analytical reasoning in similar subsequent tasks. Thus, humans exhibit an 'unreflective copying bias,' which limits their social learning to the output, rather than the process, of their peers' reasoning -even when doing so requires minimal effort and no technical skill. In contrast to much recent work on observation-based social learning, which emphasizes the propagation of successful behavior through copying, our findings identify a limit on the power of social networks in situations that require analytical reasoning