The effect of feature composition on the localization accuracy of visual SLAM systems

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping, SLAM, for mobile robots using a single camera, has attracted several researchers in the recent years. In this paper, we study the effect of feature point geometrical composition on the associated localization errors. The study will help to design an efficient feature management strategy that can reach high accuracy using fewer features. The basic idea is inspired from camera calibration literature which requires calibration target points to have significant perspective effect to derive accurate camera parameters. When the scene have significant perspective effect, it is expected that this will reduce the errors since it implicitly comply with the utilized perspective projection model. Experiments were done to explore the effect of scene features composition on the localization errors using the state of the art visual Mono SLAM algorithm

PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH DECISION-MAKING STYLES AMONG AL-AZHAR TEACHERS

Purpose: The research aimed to identify the relationship between psychological empowerment and decision-making Styles among Al-Azhar teachers. The research also aimed to identify the differences in teachers' levels on the (psychological empowerment and decision-making styles) scale according to the variable (gender). Methodology: The research sample consisted of (556) male and female teachers in Al-Azhar. The research tools included a psychological empowerment scale and decision-making styles scale. The researcher used descriptive methods. To process the results and validate the hypotheses, the researcher used the correlation coefficients and t-test. Main Findings: The results show that there is a positive relationship between psychological empowerment and decision-making styles. There is a negative correlation between the dimensions of psychological empowerment and decision-making styles. The results indicated a statistically significant difference in psychological empowerment due to gender in favor of males. Lastly, there is no statistically significant difference due to gender in the (intuitive) style. Implication: Psychological empowerment should be utilized to raise the decision-making styles of university students. Novelty: This is a first attempt to explore the psychological empowerment of the decision-making styles of university students in Egypt which may be further explored to enrich the students’ understanding

Automatic Recall of Lessons Learned for Software Project Managers

Lessons learned (LL) records constitute a software organization’s memory of successes and failures. LL are recorded within the organization repository for future reference to optimize planning, gain experience, and elevate market competitiveness. However, manually searching this repository is a daunting task, so it is often overlooked. This can lead to the repetition of previous mistakes and missing potential opportunities, which, in turn, can negatively affect the organization’s profitability and competitiveness. In this thesis, we present a novel solution that provides an automatic process to recall relevant LL and to push them to project managers. This substantially reduces the amount of time and effort required to manually search the unstructured LL repositories, and therefore, it encourages the utilization of LL. In this study, we exploit existing project artifacts to build the LL search queries on-the-fly, in order to bypass the tedious manual search process. While most of the current LL recall studies rely on case-based reasoning, they have some limitations including the need to reformat the LL repository, which is impractical, and the need for tight user involvement. This makes us the first to employ information retrieval (IR) to address the LL recall. An empirical study has been conducted to build the automatic LL recall solution and evaluate its effectiveness. In our study, we employ three of the most popular IR models to construct a solution that considers multiple classifier configurations. In addition, we have extended this study by examining the impact of the hybridization of LL classifiers on the classifiers’ performance. Furthermore, a real-world dataset of 212 LL records from 30 different software projects has been used for validation. Top-k and MAP, well-known accuracy metrics, have been used as well. The study results confirm the effectiveness of the automatic LL recall solution by a discerning accuracy of about 70%, which was increased to 74% in the case of hybridization. This eliminates the effort needed to manually search the LL repository, which positively encourages project managers to reuse the available LL knowledge – which in turn avoids old pitfalls and unleash hidden business opportunities

Training Program with Positive Psychology Techniques for Underachieving University Students’ Learned Helplessness and Psychological Flow

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a positive thinking training program in reducing learned helplessness and improving the psychological flow of academically underachieving university students. The experimental research involved an 11-member training group, with learned helplessness and psychological flow scales used to assess the participants. Wilcoxon tests were used for data analysis. The results showed that the training program had a significant positive effect on both learned helplessness and psychological flow immediately after the training. Additionally, the positive effects were sustained a month later during the follow-up period. The study provides valuable insights for stakeholders and researchers

The Mediating Role of Passion in the Relationships Between Academic Identity and Psychological Flourishing of University Students

This research aims at identifying the relationships between academic identity and both academic passion and psychological flourishing and exploring the mediating role of academic passion between academic identity and psychological flourishing. Four hundred and twelve female university students at the Faculty of Islamic Girls, Assuit Al-Azhar University, Egypt. participated in the research (age mean= 20.24, SD= 1.13). The academic identity scale (by the researcher), the academic passion scale (by Vallerand et al.,2003) and the psychological flourishing scale (by Dieber et al.,2010) were applied to the participants. Data were analyzed by Pearsons correlation coefficients and path analysis. Results revealed a statistically significant positive correlation between academic identity and both academic passion and psychological flourishing. Besides, results demonstrated the mediating role of academic passion between academic identity and psychological flourishing. These results can be utilized in developing psychological flourishing among university students and providing those in charge of educational planning and policies with some practical results that are useful in developing academic identity and passion through training and educational programs and strategies

Non-Formal Adult Education for Sustainability: A Preliminary Survey of the Research Literature

Non-formal education for promoting sustainability has become popular over the last decade. In 2017, the International Review of Education journal dedicated a special issue to non-formal and community learning for sustainable development. This study makes a case for“ non-formal adult education” (NFAE) to also be included in the discussion. It aims to reveal current themes of the research literature related to education for sustainable development (ESD) in the context of NFAE, by analyzing research articles published in 15 peer-reviewed journals during the years 2015-2020. Two main questions structured this study: How is research on sustainability approached by researchers in NFAE? What are the current research themes of NFAE for sustainability? The analysis identified three different approaches of conducting research on promoting sustainability in the field of adult education: place and community-based learning approach, transformative learning approach, and ecological and environmental literacy approach. The study also revealed two research themes of NFAE for promoting sustainability and further identified the research gaps. Accordingly, eco-justice, barriers to sustainability, and social inequalities might be prominent areas of research