A Series-Elastic Robot for Back-Pain Rehabilitation

Robotics research has been broadly expanding into various fields during the past decades. It is widely spread and best known for solving many technical necessities in different fields. With the rise of the industrial revolution, it upgraded many factories to use industrial robots to prevent the human operator from dangerous and hazardous tasks. The rapid development of application fields and their complexity have inspired researchers in the robotics community to find innovative solutions to meet the new desired requirements of the field. Currently, the creation of new needs outside the traditional industrial robots are demanding robots to attend to the new market and to assist humans in meeting their daily social needs (i.e., agriculture, construction, cleaning.). The future integration of robots into other types of production processes, added new requirements that require more safety, flexibility, and intelligence in robots. Areas of robotics has evolved into various fields. This dissertation addresses robotics research in four different areas: rehabilitation robots, biologically inspired robots, optimization techniques, and neural network implementation. Although these four areas may seem different from each other, they share some research topics and applications

Freedom In Teaching Applied To Computer Science Education And Its Relationship To Accreditation And Diversity

Much of the literature reviewed on the subject of freedom in teaching seems to emphasize that it is not only highly desirable and appreciated but deeply embedded in the core of the teaching profession. Although freedom in teaching has been used to mean freedom of academic institutions, instructors and students, but it has focused mostly on freedom of instructors in classrooms to discuss materials relevant to their courses and in their research. The intention behind this paper is not to look for evidence to support what is already known, but rather to contribute to the understanding of the subject by extending what is meant by the term freedom in teaching to cover freedom of disciplines. This paper seeks to use this extension to propose that freedom in teaching can help addressing and responding to many challenges that face a rapidly changing discipline such as the discipline of Computer Science. The paper focuses on how freedom in teaching computer science at both program and course levels may play a pivot role in responding to some of the discipline’s challenges. The paper also seeks to link freedom in teaching to issues such as diversity, accreditation and learning objects. The paper concludes by discussing the disadvantages and burdens that may come with freedom in teaching. Although that this paper focuses on the discipline of Computer Science as a case to study, but the arguments and discussion may be generalized to cover other disciplines that face similar challenges

The Role of the Property Tax in Urban Land Speculation

This article reports the results of an extensive survey of owners of undeveloped land in and outside the Shashemene City. After identifying several distinct owner types, the authors demonstrate that changes in ownership, as well as in the character and use of land, begin more than twenty years before the rural countryside is actually converted to urban use. These findings have important implications for the design and implementation of policies attempting to control or direct urban growth. In particular, a simple dynamic model that explains the optimum length of time to hold a parcel of land from a market was developed and its properties were analyzed both qualitatively and numerically. One finding is that the speculator will hold the land for the marginal period only if the difference between present net rates of return exceeds the difference between discounted expected per cent returns. On the other hand, if land speculators held land for one year, property tax increased by 0.000079 birr per year, which is inappropriate methods to control land speculation . Keywords:  Land speculation; Model; Property tax; Speculators; Sprawling. DOI: 10.7176/JEES/9-1-0

The Relationship Between Living Arrangement, Academic Performance, and Engagement Among First-Year College Students

One way students become engaged in their undergraduate experience is through place of residence. Factors associated with high academic performance suggest high levels of engagement in campus life. This study investigated the relationship between living arrangement and the academic performance of first-year, full-time undergraduate students. The researcher also considered age, gender, race/ethnicity, and key characteristics of student engagement as moderating factors in the relationship between living arrangement and the academic performance. Students enrolled at a four-year, public research university located in Southeastern Virginia were utilized for this study. The final participant group consisted of 870 first-year, full-time students who participated in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) in 2010 and indicated living arrangement as residential (dormitory or other campus housing) or commuter (residence within walking/driving distance of the institution). Grade Point Average (GPA) measured academic performance. Data related to the moderator variables were collected from the NSSE. Through a non-experimental, comparative design, a series of regression analyses were used to understand the relationship between living arrangement and academic performance and whether the aforementioned moderator variables moderated the relationship between living arrangement and academic performance. The results revealed significant differences between residential and commuter students regarding academic performance; commuters demonstrated higher GPAs than residents. However, the effect size suggested this finding is inconclusive. With the exception of level of academic challenge, the results did not support moderator effects of age, gender, race/ethnicity, and the remaining characteristics of student engagement on the relationship. However, level of academic challenge demonstrated a moderator effect in the relationship between living arrangement and academic performance. The relationship between living arrangement and academic performance was stronger for both residential and commuter students as a result of level of academic challenge. This research provided outcomes and implications that revealed how living arrangement and student engagement can influence academic performance. While the results of this study challenged the perception that commuter students have lower academic performance than residential students, this study also supported prior literature that suggests the amount of time and energy students and institutions invest in the college experience is related to students\u27 academic success. However, regardless of living arrangement, it is important for faculty and administrators to work together to ensure the academic success of all students

Copper and manganese forms in Lake Edku sediments, Alexandria, Egypt

Lake Edku is one of the Nile Delta lakes. It is subjected to contaminations by several anthropogenic materials such as trace elements and other wastes. The distribution of the different chemical forms of copper and manganese has been studied using sequential extraction techniques. Chemical analysis of the sediments shows that CaCO sub(3) ranged from 3.7% to 9.6% and organic matter from 3.06% to 8.11%. The results indicate that the distribution of manganese among the six chemical forms in the sediments of the lake obeys the following order: Mn-residual>Mn-carbonate>Mn-moderately reducible>Mn-organic form>Mn-exchangeable > Mn-easily reducible fraction. Also, the data revealed that more than 50% of the total manganese was found in the residual form, while the remainder was distributed among the other forms. In contrast, more than 70% of the total copper content was associated with the five chemical forms (exchangeable, carbonate, easily and moderately reducible and organic forms). Generally, the enrichment of manganese in the residual form revealed the important role in building up of clay minerals, while the distribution of copper among the different forms reflects an important role in biological and biochemical processes

Media advocacy and policy making in Egypt: Sexual harassment as a case study

Egypt is undergoing many reforms and advocates seek to get policy makers to adopt some policy changes that can resolve many of the social problems faced by the nation. Sexual Harassment (SH) is a serious problem that needs integrated efforts among advocates, media, policy makers and the public to fight it. Media advocacy incorporates them altogether; the media direct the light on the advocates\u27 policy goals and solutions to influence policy makers and generate favorable public debate. The objective of the study is to examine to what extent media advocacy on SH issue in Egypt is strategically employed. It reviews the planning, implementation, media and policy outcomes of the media advocacy campaign on SH issue as well as its influential factors. This study is an attempt to bridge the gap between media and policy studies. For the methodology, the study employed the qualitative method using case study approach on SH. It conducted eighteen in depth interviews using the triangulation approach among three main segments; advocates, media experts and policy makers. Focusing events proved to be an effective media access strategy and the corner stone behind the outcomes of the media advocacy campaign. These outcomes were translated in some policy changes including legislative amendments and security policies. However, advocates did not address all dimensions of the problem definition of SH. Coalition building is necessary for advocates to unite their efforts and strengthen media advocacy. The unprofessional media performance negatively influenced media advocacy. There was no opposition to the SH issue, but rather a strong cultural barrier. Media proved to be influential on policy makers especially when reinforced with the public support. Overall, the communication strategy of the media advocacy campaign on SH had its strengths and weaknesses