Permeable pavement systems with low carbon and recycled materials for Caribbean Small Island Developing States

This PhD research project targets the utilisation of permeable pavement systems (PPS) as a long-term, sustainable urban drainage option for flood risk mitigation and improvement in stormwater runoff quality in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) across the Caribbean. Additionally, the research assesses the performance of PPS comprising of recycled and/or waste materials in the sub-base layer. These innovative pavements are being considered to reduce the overall carbon footprint on the construction phase of pavements and to reduce the volume of natural material used in the construction industry. The recycled materials considered are Crushed Concrete Aggregates (CCA), Carbon-Negative Aggregates (CNA) and expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads. The research methods explored combine experimental and modelling through a quantitative research design approach

Novel permeable pavement systems utilising carbon-negative aggregate

The use of commercially produced Carbon-Negative aggregates from Carbon8 (a British company which applies patented Accelerated Carbonation Technology (ACT) to solidify waste residues producing useful eco-friendly aggregates) is being investigated in the Caribbean islands of Trinidad, Tobago and St. Lucia. Typical construction of the subbase layer of pavements in the Caribbean include layers of virgin aggregate material (gravel, pea gravel) on which the base course layer is located. These materials are usually unbound granular (crushed stone, crushed slag, crushed concrete, slate) or cement-bound. Permeable Pavement Systems (PPS) have emerged over the years using various quality of subbase materials including large pieces of rocks and concrete. For the first time in the Caribbean, the design, construction and implementation of such pavement systems is being carried out. The novel pavement systems consist of permeable or pervious concrete paving blocks and the Carbon-Negative aggregates in the sub-base as an innovative and effective method of providing structural pavements, whilst allowing urban stormwater runoff to infiltrate naturally into the pavements (mimicking the hydrologic cycle) into the base/sub-base reservoir for urban runoff attenuation and an overall reduction in stormwater discharge. These pavement systems are being considered to reduce the overall carbon footprint on the construction and implementation phase of pavements, in addition to reducing surface water flooding in several towns and cities across these Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The project includes ongoing experimental assessment of the Permeable Pavement Systems (PPS) using Carbon-Negative aggregates versus conventional pervious pavements from a water quality, structural integrity and hydraulic perspective. Stormwater is being collected from various towns and cities across the islands and applied uniformly over the pilot scaled permeable pavements using a rainfall simulator. The permeable pavements stormwater treatment efficacies are being evaluated for the removal and retention of nutrients (total nitrogen and total phosphorus), heavy metals (zinc, lead, copper, cadmium), suspended solids and turbidity. The hydraulic performance, flow through and clogging patterns of these pavements are also being measured over a simulated 10-year period of sediment loading. Load bearing and deflection test are being carried out on the various pavement designs to assess its structural integrity and load bearing capacity. Static and dynamic loads applied representing the maximum contact pressure varying from 0.03 to 1.7 MPa over the cross-sectional area of 0.2 m2 (permeable pavement surface area). These contract pressures represent various loads from heavy vehicles, cars, pallets and handling equipment of industrial areas (ports)

Cancer screening information at community health fairs: What the participants do with information they receive

Background. To assess participants’ reasons for seeking cancer screening information at community health fairs and what they do with the information they receive. Design and methods. Mixed quantitative and qualitative approach was used. Community health fairs are organized in underserved New York City neighbourhoods. From June 14, 2016 to August 26, 2016, cancer prevention tables providing information about various cancer screenings were established at 12 local community health fairs in New York City. In-person and follow up telephone surveys assessing interest in the cancer prevention table, personal cancer screening adherence rates, information-sharing behaviours and demographic variables have been taken into account. Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS 22.0: frequencies, descriptive, cross tabulations. All qualitative data was coded by theme so that it could be analysed through SPSS. For example, Were you interested in a specific cancer? may be coded as 2 for yes, breast cancer. Results. One hundred and sixteen patrons participated in the initial survey. Of those, 88 (78%) agreed to give their contact information for the follow-up survey and 60 follow-up surveys were completed (68%). Of those who reported reading the material, 45% shared the information; 15% subsequently spoke to a provider about cancer screenings and 40% intended to speak to a provider. Conclusions. Participants disseminated information without prompting; suggesting the reach of these fairs extends beyond the people who visit our table. Future studies should look at whether patrons would share information at higher rates when they are explicitly encouraged to share the information

Effects of Early Childhood Education on Kindergarten Readiness Scores

The purpose of this correlational study, which took place in a Central Florida school district, was to investigate the relationship between the quality of the early childhood education (ECE) programs and students\u27 kindergarten readiness scores. Vygotsky\u27s sociocultural theory, which states that a child\u27s environment, culture, and language are related to academic and social development, was the theoretical framework for this study. Many ECE centers have been rated using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS). Additionally, some children in those centers have been rated for kindergarten readiness using the Florida Kindergarten Readiness Screener (FLKRS) developed by the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE). The sample included 55 ECE centers that had an ECERS rating with students who had FLKRS scores. This study addressed whether FLKRS scores were positively correlated with ECERS ratings. Data were analyzed using the Pearson product moment correlation. Results indicated a positive and significant correlation between ECERS ratings and FLKRS scores. A white paper was prepared to raise awareness regarding the availability of quality ECE centers to young learners. Implications for social change include an increased number of quality ECE programs in local neighborhoods as well as increased awareness of the importance of an environmental rating scale to monitor program quality

Human-computer interaction in intelligent tutoring systems

Due to the rapid evolution of society, citizens are constantly being pressured to obtain new skills through training. The need for qualified people has grown exponentially, which means that the resources for education/training are significantly more limited, so it's necessary to create systems that can solved this problem. The implementation of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) can be one solution. Besides, ITS aims to enable users to acquire knowledge and develop skills in a specific field. To achieve this goal, the ITS should learn how to react to the actions and needs of the users, and this should be achieved in a non-intrusive and transparent way. In order to provide personalized and adapted system, it is necessary to know the preferences and habits of users. Thus, the ability to learn patterns of behaviour becomes an essential aspect for the successful implementation of an ITS. In this article, we present the student model of an ITS, in order to monitor the user's biometric behaviour and their learning style during e-learning activities. In addition, a machine learning categorization model is presented that oversees student activity during the session. Additionally, this article highlights the main biometric behavioural variations for each activity, making these attributes enable the development of machine learning classifiers to predict users' learning preferences. These results can be instrumental in improving ITS systems in e-learning environments and predict user behaviour based on their interaction with computers or other devices.This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2019

Emergent faithfulness to morphological and semantic heads in lexical blends

In many languages, sounds in certain "privileged" positions preserve marked structure which is eliminated elsewhere (Positional Faithfulness, Beckman 1998).  This paper presents new corpus and experimental evidence that faithfulness to main-stress location and segmental content of morpho-semantic heads emerges in English blends. The study compared right-headed (subordinating) blends, like motor + hotel -> motel (a kind of hotel) with coordinating blends like spoon + fork -> spork (equally spoon and fork).Stress: Analysis of 1095 blends from Thurner (1993) found that right-headed blends were more faithful to stress location of the second source word than were coordinating blends.  Given source words with conflicting stress (e.g., FLOUNder + sarDINE), participants preferentially matched the blend that preserved second-word stress (flounDINE) to a right-headed definition.Segmental content: When source-word length was controlled, segments from right-headed blends were more likely to survive than those from coordinating blends.  Given source words that could be spliced at two points (e.g., flaMiNGo + MoNGoose), participants preferentially matched the one that preserved more of the second word (flamongoose) to a right-headed definition.These results support the hypotheses that Positional Faithfulness constraints are universally available, that heads are a privileged position, and that blend phonology is sensitive to headedness