Dynamic Distance Learning Framework using Problem Based Assessment

Education is undergoing a major paradigm shift towards learning rather then teaching. Learning is no longer considered as a process transferring and distributing knowledge to the students. It is now viewed as a transformational process whereby students acquire facts, principles, and theories as conceptual tools for reasoning and problem solving in meaningful contexts. Internet is playing an important role for such student based learning. The objective of this paper is to develop an educational framework, using data mining technologies, with the help of Dynamic Web technologies (JSP and .net) that will be used by teachers to organize the course contents on the web according to existing infrastructure, experience, needs, and later on reorganizing it if necessary, depending upon the performance of students. The approach to organize the lecture content is based on the adaptive learning theory, incorporating Problem Based Learning (PBL) strategy. For on-line real time lectures and evaluations, we are using video conferencing tools (VCON Falcon IP, POLYCON view station FX) through IP, at a bandwidth of 1MB-DXX. Finally a good amount of emphasis is given on evaluation procedures that the tutor can adopt to evaluate the students, in order to provide them further course contents. Presently, the course syllabus and handouts on the web sites provided to the student are static in nature. Once distributed, these documents cannot be changed or modified, and also lack depth. When course materials are placed on the web, students can select a topic in the course outline and look at the description of a topic, and required reading assignments. Instructors can easily change schedules in these on-line documents and inform the students via e-mail. Students can also submit assignments, projects and take home exams electronically. A course home page is comprised of syllabus, assignments, projects and exams,readings and references, class presentation charts and student handouts. Students in a course are mostly assessed on the basis of the questions like why, how what, etc. In this way a student can be graded and ranked, which gives in turn provides the feedback to student for future improvements and challenges

Primary chiasmal sarcoid granuloma masquerading as glioma of the optic chiasm

A 37-year-old woman presented with a 6 months history of headaches and memory impairment. Examination showed no neurological deficit with normal vision. MRI scans showed an enlarged optic chiasm. There was no dural or leptomeningeal enhancement or hydrocephalus. Open biopsy of the suprasellar mass showed non-caseating chronic granulomatous inflammation compatible with sarcoidosis. Systemic features of sarcoid were absent. Patient showed marked improvement on steroid therapy

Information provenance for open distributed collaborative system

In autonomously managed distributed systems for collaboration, provenance can facilitate reuse of information that are interchanged, repetition of successful experiments, or to provide evidence for trust mechanisms that certain information existed at a certain period during collaboration. In this paper, we propose domain independent information provenance architecture for open collaborative distributed systems. The proposed system uses XML for interchanging information and RDF to track information provenance. The use of XML and RDF also ensures that information is universally acceptable even among heterogeneous nodes. Our proposed information provenance model can work on any operating systems or workflows.<br /

New method for square root of non-singular M-matrix

Square root of a matrix play an important role in many applications of matrix theory. In this paper, we propose a new iterative method for square root of a non-singular M-matrix. We first transform the matrix equation X2 – A=0 into special form of a non-symmetric algebraic Riccati equation (NARE), and then solve this special NARE by Newton method. Efficiency and effectiveness proved by theoretical analysis and numerical experiments. Keywords: - Matrix square root, M-matrix, Non-symmetric algebraic Riccati equation, Newton method

Distinct polytropic behavior of plasma during ICME-HSS Interaction

Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections (ICMEs) and High Speed Streams (HSSs) are noteworthy drivers of disturbance of interplanetary space. Interaction between them can cause several phenomena, such as; generation of waves, enhanced geo-effectiveness, particle acceleration, etc. However, how does thermodynamic properties vary during the ICME-HSS interaction remain an open problem. In this study, we investigated the polytropic behavior of plasma during an ICME-HSS interaction observed by STEREO and Wind spacecraft. We find that the ICME observed by the STEREO-A has polytropic index $\alpha = 1.0$, i.e., exhibiting isothermal process. Moreover, Wind spacecraft observed the HSS region, non-interacting ICME, and ICME-HSS interaction region. During each regions we found $\alpha$=1.8, $\alpha$=0.7, and $\alpha$=2.5, respectively. It implies that the HSS region exhibits a nearly adiabatic behaviour, ICME region is closely isothermal, and the ICME-HSS interaction region exhibits super-adiabatic behaviour. The insufficient expansion of the ICME due to the interaction with HSS triggers the system for heating and cooling mechanisms which dependent on the degrees of freedom of plasma components