The effects of integrating mobile devices with teaching and learning on students' learning performance: A meta-analysis and research synthesis

AbstractMobile devices such as laptops, personal digital assistants, and mobile phones have become a learning tool with great potential in both classrooms and outdoor learning. Although there have been qualitative analyses of the use of mobile devices in education, systematic quantitative analyses of the effects of mobile-integrated education are lacking. This study performed a meta-analysis and research synthesis of the effects of integrated mobile devices in teaching and learning, in which 110 experimental and quasiexperimental journal articles published during the period 1993–2013 were coded and analyzed. Overall, there was a moderate mean effect size of 0.523 for the application of mobile devices to education. The effect sizes of moderator variables were analyzed and the advantages and disadvantages of mobile learning in different levels of moderator variables were synthesized based on content analyses of individual studies. The results of this study and their implications for both research and practice are discussed

COMPARISON OF EMG ACTIVITY WITH DYNAMIC MOVEMENT AND STATIC POSTURE ON VIBRATION PLATFORM

The aim of this study is to investigate the difference among dynamic movement and static posture on vibration platform as well as no vibration. For this purpose, six healthy male subjects were recruited in this study. Each subject was instructed to maintain four situations: dynamic movement with vibration (frequency: 40 Hz, amplitude: 1 mm), and no-vibration; static posture with vibration (frequency: 40 Hz, amplitude: 1 mm), and novibration. Result showed statistically significant increase at EMG rms of whole body vibration treatment and EMG rms value of dynamic movement was significantly larger than that of static posture (

A mobile-device-supported peer-assisted learning system for collaborative early EFL reading

Collaborative learning methods which emphasize peer interaction have been widely applied to increase the intensity and effectiveness of EFL reading programs. However, simply grouping students heterogeneously and assigning them group goals does not guarantee that effective collaborative learning will ensue. The present research includes two studies. In Study One, the weaknesses of collaborative learning in a traditional EFL setting were observed. Then, in Study Two, a mobile-device-supported peer-assisted learning (MPAL) system was developed for the purpose of addressing the identified weaknesses. Two classes of twenty-six third grade students participated in the present research to examine the unique contribution of MPAL to collaborative EFL reading activities. The collaborative behavior of elementary EFL learners was videotaped and analyzed. Detailed analysis of the videotaped behavior indicated that MPAL helped improve collaboration in elementary school level EFL learners and promotes their reading motivation

Laparoscopic management of a giant adrenal cyst

AbstractAdrenal cysts, a rare entity, are usually nonfunctional and asymptomatic. Here, we report a 32-year-old woman who presented with mild breathlessness and vague abdominal fullness and discomfort that had lasted 6 months. Chest radiography showed elevation of the left side of the diaphragm. Abdominal sonography showed an anechoic lesion of >15cm, without a septum, that was situated over the left abdominal area. Abdominal computed tomography (CT) showed a 20cm suprarenal cyst located between the pancreas, spleen, and left kidney, causing anterior displacement of the pancreas and inferior displacement of the left kidney. Magnetic resonance imaging confirmed the CT and sonographic findings, and revealed that the cystic mass was originating from the left adrenal gland. Fluid analysis of the cystic lesion showed no evidence of infection or malignancy. A laparoscopic adrenalectomy was performed. Histopathologically, the adrenal tissue showed no evidence of adenoma or malignancy, and the cystic component showed a flattened endothelial lining with fibrotic tissue, consistent with an endothelial cyst. The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient had no evidence of recurrence during a 6-year follow-up. We discuss the diagnosis and management of adrenal cysts

Examining the online reading behavior and performance of fifth-graders: evidence from eye-movement data

Online reading is developing at an increasingly rapid rate, but the debate concerning whether learning is more effective when using hypertexts than when using traditional linear texts is still persistent. In addition, several researchers stated that online reading comprehension always starts with a question, but little empirical evidence has been gathered to investigate this claim. This study used eye-tracking technology and retrospective think aloud technique to examine online reading behaviors of fifth-graders (N = 50). The participants were asked to read four texts on the website. The present study employed a three-way mixed design: 2 (reading ability: high vs. low) 2 (reading goals: with vs. without) 2 (text types: hypertext vs. linear text). The dependent variables were eye-movement indices and the frequencies of using online reading strategy. The results show that fifth-graders, irrespective of their reading ability, found it difficult to navigate the nonlinear structure of hypertexts when searching for and integrating information. When they read with goals, they adjusted their reading speed and the focus of their attention. Their offline reading ability also influenced their online reading performance. These results suggest that online reading skills and strategies have to be taught in order to enhance the online reading abilities of elementary-school students

Diagnostic Value of I-131 NP-59 SPECT/CT Scintigraphy in Patients with Subclinical or Atypical Features of Primary Aldosteronism

Accumulating evidence has shown the adverse effect of long-term hyperaldosteronism on cardiovascular morbidity that is independent of blood pressure. However, the diagnosis of primary aldosteronism (PA) remains a challenge for patients who present with subtle or atypical features or have chronic kidney disease (CKD). SPECT/CT has proven valuable in the diagnosis of a number of conditions. The aim of this study was to determine the usefulness of I-131 NP-59 SPECT/CT in patients with atypical presentations of PA and in those with CKD. The records of 15 patients with PA were retrospectively analyzed. NP-59 SPECT/CT was able to identify adrenal lesion(s) in CKD patients with suspected PA. Patients using NP-59 SPECT/CT imaging, compared with those not performing this procedure, significantly featured nearly normal serum potassium levels, normal aldosterone-renin ratio, and smaller adrenal size on CT and pathological examination and tended to feature stage 1 hypertension and non-suppressed plasma renin activity. These findings show that noninvasive NP-59 SPECT/CT is a useful tool for diagnosis in patients with subclinical or atypical features of PA and those with CKD

RVSL: Robust Vehicle Similarity Learning in Real Hazy Scenes Based on Semi-supervised Learning

Recently, vehicle similarity learning, also called re-identification (ReID), has attracted significant attention in computer vision. Several algorithms have been developed and obtained considerable success. However, most existing methods have unpleasant performance in the hazy scenario due to poor visibility. Though some strategies are possible to resolve this problem, they still have room to be improved due to the limited performance in real-world scenarios and the lack of real-world clear ground truth. Thus, to resolve this problem, inspired by CycleGAN, we construct a training paradigm called \textbf{RVSL} which integrates ReID and domain transformation techniques. The network is trained on semi-supervised fashion and does not require to employ the ID labels and the corresponding clear ground truths to learn hazy vehicle ReID mission in the real-world haze scenes. To further constrain the unsupervised learning process effectively, several losses are developed. Experimental results on synthetic and real-world datasets indicate that the proposed method can achieve state-of-the-art performance on hazy vehicle ReID problems. It is worth mentioning that although the proposed method is trained without real-world label information, it can achieve competitive performance compared to existing supervised methods trained on complete label information.Comment: Accepted by ECCV 202