Intelligent Personalized Searching

Search engine is a very useful tool for almost everyone nowadays. People use search engine for the purpose of searching about their personal finance, restaurants, electronic products, and travel information, to name a few. As helpful as search engines are in terms of providing information, they can also manipulate people behaviors because most people trust online information without a doubt. Furthermore, ordinary users usually only pay attention the highest-ranking pages from the search results. Knowing this predictable user behavior, search engine providers such as Google and Yahoo take advantage and use it as a tool for them to generate profit. Search engine providers are enterprise companies with the goal to generate profit, and an easy way for them to do so is by ranking up particular web pages to promote the product or services of their own or their paid customers. The results from search engine could be misleading. The goal of this project is to filter the bias from search results and provide best matches on behalf of users’ interest

Culturally Responsive Literacy Instruction and Social–Emotional Teaching Practices for Linguistically Diverse Learners in the United States

This dissertation includes two previous research studies with a central theme to sustain and advance culturally and linguistically responsive practices in literacy instruction, which are essential for promoting diversity and equity. This work highlights the need for a more holistic approach to English language teaching that integrates culturally responsive teaching and social–emotional learning. Culturally responsive teaching recognizes the importance of cultural and linguistic diversity in the classroom. Social–emotional learning focuses on developing students’ emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills, which are critical for academic success and overall well-being. Both studies call for a greater diversity of language teacher preparation curricula and teaching practices that incorporates cultural and social–emotional competencies into coursework to empower teachers to effectively engage students from diverse backgrounds and make literacy learning experiences relevant to their communities and meaningful to their cultural identities. The findings of these studies reveal implications for teacher education and literacy instruction for diverse learners. There are several potential research directions highlighted in the final chapter

Waterlloon 凝光: 共用居住環境的燈光設計

...This project involves designing a lighting device that maximises fun and entertainment and also provides high placement flexibility that enables users to engage in various activities in their own living environments. The Waterlloon (water x balloon) lighting system design allows flexible placement of lighting in a fun and entertaining way... ...本項目設計的照明設備，就能充分融合趣味和娛樂元素，同時能靈活安裝於不同地方，讓用家在自己的生活天地中從事各種活動。凝光燈光系統的設計兼備趣味和娛樂元素，而且十分靈活，可以安裝於家中不同角落... Award: Merit奬項: 優異

International Students’ Responses to Explicit Instruction on Vocabulary Learning Strategies: Implications for EAP Courses

Given that the importance of understanding the academic language is strongly associated with the academic vocabulary size, vocabulary knowledge is regarded as one of the most crucial areas of language competence to bolster academic achievement. The present study investigates the effectiveness of two different strategies of vocabulary acquisition in English including 1) learning from sample sentences and 2) learning from word parts. Results are significant for immediate testing and reveal the beneficial role of explicit instruction on vocabulary learning strategies that increases international students’ English vocabulary learning ability. The study also discusses survey responses from the participants in relation to their use of vocabulary learning strategies and their own approaches to acquiring new vocabulary words. It is recommended that self-learning strategies should be explicitly taught in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs to help students acquire words from higher levels in academic settings. Some implications for teachers include integrating a variety of learning strategies and multimodal activities into vocabulary instruction and engaging students in learning pronunciation, common rules of word stress, word context, and word parts while encountering unfamiliar words

Pain assessment and possible mechanism of delayed onset muscle soreness

Muscle pain is felt during exercise or daily activities for several days after performing unaccustomed exercise, which is referred to as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Many people experience DOMS, but its underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. One of the challenges in the investigation of DOMS is its subjective nature, which makes the assessment ambiguous, thus establishing a standardised protocol is necessary. The present thesis scrutinised muscle pain assessments (Study 1, Study 2), developed a new assessment of muscle pain focusing on muscle fascia (Study 3), and investigated why DOMS is reduced after the second than the first bout of eccentric exercise (Study 4). From these studies, DOMS was thought to be more associated with connective tissue than muscle fibre damage and inflammation. In Study 1, the relationship between pain level assessed by a visual analogue scale (VAS) and pain sensitivity assessed by pressure pain threshold (PPT) was examined. Thirty-one healthy young men performed 10 sets of 6 maximal isokinetic eccentric contractions with their non-dominant arm. Before and 1 - 4 days after the exercise, muscle pain perceived upon palpation of the biceps brachii at three sites (5, 9, and 13 cm above the elbow crease) was assessed by VAS with a 100 mm line (0 = no pain, 100 = extremely painful), and PPT of the same sites was determined by an algometer. The VAS increased after exercise and peaked two days post-exercise, while the PPT decreased most at 1 day post-exercise and did not return to baseline for 4 days following exercise (P Muscle pain induced by elbow flexor eccentric exercise was investigated using different assessments in Study 2. Ten untrained men performed 10 sets of 6 maximal isokinetic eccentric contractions of the elbow flexors with one arm. Maximal voluntary isometric contraction torque (MVC), range of motion (ROM) and serum creatine kinase (CK) activity were measured before, immediately after, and 1 to 5 days after exercise as indirect markers of muscle damage. PPT of 50 sites over an exercised upper arm, VAS with a 100-mm line for pain level upon static pressure by a cuff and fingers, and palpation of the biceps brachii at three sites (3, 9, and 15 cm above the elbow crease) and different palpation methods (longitudinal, transverse and circular movements) on the mid-belly of biceps were assessed. Large decreases in MVC and ROM, and significant increases in serum CK activity indicated muscle damage. A significant difference (P In Study 3, changes in the electrical pain threshold (EPT) of the biceps brachii fascia, biceps brachii muscle and brachialis fascia following eccentric elbow flexor contractions, and the relationship between EPT and VAS or PPT were investigated. Ten healthy untrained men performed two eccentric exercise bouts (ECC1, ECC2) consisting of 10 sets of 6 maximal isokinetic eccentric contractions of the elbow flexors with the same arm separated by 4 weeks. Changes in MVC, ROM, VAS and PPT were smaller (P The purpose of Study 4 was to investigate the magnitude of muscle lengthening during the first and second bout of eccentric exercise bouts and whether the muscle length changes are associated with the magnitude of DOMS and changes in other indirect markers of muscle damages between bouts. Ten healthy untrained men performed two eccentric exercise bouts (ECC1, ECC2) consisting of 10 sets of 6 maximal isokinetic eccentric contractions of the elbow flexors using the same arm separated by 4 weeks. Changes in MVC, ROM, muscle thickness, ultrasound echo intensity, serum CK activity and muscle soreness (VAS) were smaller (