Gamification in Hybrid Teacher Professional Development

The paper investigates the concept of hybrid teacher professional development for in-service teachers in the light of the emerging concept of gamification. This study makes a case for future researchers to explore the effect of gamification on teacher engagement in teacher professional development programs. The existing literature indicates that gamification leads to better employee engagement. Therefore, the paper argues that it will also lead to better teacher engagement in training programs. A gamified hybrid training program for in-service teachers has been developed. Various game elements like points, badges, and profile customization have been proposed to induce game dynamics in gamification implementations. The paper analyses how gamification leads to better engagement by exploring the linkages with various psychological theories

Gamification at Workplace: Theories, constructs and conceptual frameworks

Gamification has been an active area of interest for both academicians and practitioners for the last decade. Gamification has extended its application to many areas, including the workplace. This study aims to shed light on the theoretical scenario of the gamification literature at the workplace. The article reviews the recent literature on gamification in this context and analyses the theories, constructs, and frameworks used to study the phenomenon. There is a lack of focus on the theoretical framework in the existing reviews. We create a broad taxonomy of theories used in the literature of gamification of the workplace. Further, we also propose a causal-chain framework to explain how gamification influences employees in the workplace. The results indicate that gamification at the workplace is still in its nascent stage and requires more rigorous and in-depth research. We believe that the insights generated provide research avenues for future research studies

Optimizing Electric Vehicle Efficiency with Real-Time Telemetry using Machine Learning

In the contemporary world with degrading natural resources, the urgency of energy efficiency has become imperative due to the conservation and environmental safeguarding. Therefore, it's crucial to look for advanced technology to minimize energy consumption. This research focuses on the optimization of battery-electric city style vehicles through the use of a real-time in-car telemetry system that communicates between components through the robust Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol. By harnessing real-time data from various sensors embedded within vehicles, our driving assistance system provides the driver with visual and haptic actionable feedback that guides the driver on using the optimum driving style to minimize power consumed by the vehicle. To develop the pace feedback mechanism for the driver, real-time data is collected through a Shell Eco Marathon Urban Concept vehicle platform and after pre-processing, it is analyzed using the novel machine learning algorithm TEMSL, that outperforms the existing baseline approaches across various performance metrics. This innovative method after numerous experimentation has proven effective in enhancing energy efficiency, guiding the driver along the track, and reducing human errors. The driving-assistance system offers a range of utilities, from cost savings and extended vehicle lifespan to significant contributions to environmental conservation and sustainable driving practices

Reciprocal Relationship Between HDAC2 and P-Glycoprotein/MRP-1 and Their Role in Steroid Resistance in Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome

Background: Reduced HDACs levels have been reported in steroid resistant chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma patients. P-glycoprotein (P-gp) over expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) has been reported in patients with steroid resistant nephrotic syndrome (NS). Whether and how HDACs and P-gp are linked with each other is not clear, especially in NS patients.Aim: To evaluate mRNA expression of P-gp/MRP-1 and HDAC2 in PBMCs of steroid sensitive (SSNS) and steroid resistant nephrotic syndrome (SRNS) patients, and determine the relationship between expression of HDAC2 and P-gp/ MRP-1in NS patients.Methods: Twenty subjects (10 in each group), SSNS (mean age 7.54 ± 3.5 years), and SRNS (mean age 8.43 ± 3.8 years) were recruited. mRNA expression of HDAC2 and P-gp/MRP-1 was studied by quantitative real time PCR. PBMCs were treated with Theophylline, 1 μM, and Trichostatin A, 0.8 μM, for 48 h for induction and suppression of HDAC2, respectively.Results: At baseline, expression of P-gp (4.79 ± 0.10 vs. 2.13 ± 0.12, p < 0.0001) and MRP-1 (3.99 ± 0.08 vs. 1.99 ±0.11, p < 0.0001) on PBMCs were increased whereas, HDAC2 mRNA levels (2.97 ± 0.15 vs. 6.02 ± 0.13, p < 0.0001) were significantly decreased in SRNS as compared to that of SSNS patients. Compared to baseline, theophylline reduced mRNA expression of P-gp and MRP-1 (fold change 2.65 and 2.21, *p < 0.0001 in SRNS) (fold change 1.25, 1.24, *p < 0.0001 in SSNS), respectively. However, it increased the expression of HDAC2 (fold change 5.67, *p < 0.0001 in SRNS) (fold change 6.93, *p < 0.0001 in SSNS). Compared to baseline, TSA treatment increased mRNA levels of P-gp and MRP-1 (fold change 7.51, 7.31, *p < 0.0001 in SRNS) and (fold change 3.49, 3.35, *p < 0.0001 in SSNS), respectively. It significantly decreased the level of HDAC2 (fold change 1.50, *p < 0.0001 in SRNS) (fold change 2.53, *p < 0.0001 in SSNS) patients.Conclusion: Reduced HDAC2 and increased P-gp/MRP-1 activity may play a role in response to steroids in childhood NS. HDAC2 and P-gp/MRP-1 are in reciprocal relationship with each other

BLOOM: A 176B-Parameter Open-Access Multilingual Language Model

Large language models (LLMs) have been shown to be able to perform new tasks based on a few demonstrations or natural language instructions. While these capabilities have led to widespread adoption, most LLMs are developed by resource-rich organizations and are frequently kept from the public. As a step towards democratizing this powerful technology, we present BLOOM, a 176B-parameter open-access language model designed and built thanks to a collaboration of hundreds of researchers. BLOOM is a decoder-only Transformer language model that was trained on the ROOTS corpus, a dataset comprising hundreds of sources in 46 natural and 13 programming languages (59 in total). We find that BLOOM achieves competitive performance on a wide variety of benchmarks, with stronger results after undergoing multitask prompted finetuning. To facilitate future research and applications using LLMs, we publicly release our models and code under the Responsible AI License

Adaptive Control Technique for Portable Solar Powered EV Charging Adapter to Operate in Remote Location

Every EV (Electric Vehicle) comes with limited energy storing capability. After travelling a certain distance, a charging facility is required to recharge the EV batteries, which is easy to be made available in cities. But, in remote locations, charging service is challenging. Therefore, big countries like USA, Canada, China, Russia, India, Australia, and few Arabian countries are planning to provide pillar top solar panels on remote locations for EV charging in emergency situations. To operate in this situation, a special charging adapter is required to extract maximum power from the panel using the MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) technique, monitor the charging current, and safely complete the charging process. In this paper, a single sensor-based economical charging adapter is presented for EVs to fulfil this objective. Moreover, the Single Input Fuzzy Logic tuned Deterministic Optimization (SIFL-DO) algorithm is proposed to accomplish MPPT operation and battery charging management. Because of its low cost and fast response, the single current sensor-based charging adapter is highly economical. Additionally, the SIFL-DO algorithm has very good condition estimation and decision-making capability, which accurately performs MPPT and charging management. In this work, the capability of the developed adapter with the SIFL-DO algorithm is evaluated on Hardware prototype. Also, comparative studies are performed w.r.t. state-of-the-art techniques. Further to determine the industry’s suitability, the developed technique is tested on European Standard EN50530

Thick Coal Seam Mining Methods : Challenges and Opportunities

The geo-technical problems faced in thick seam mining in India are multi-fold, notables are conventional supports having serious limitations, inadequate rib design resulting into ineffectiveness and many time unpredictability at the goaf edges and risky caving in- bye. Most of the mining endeavors in thick seams are confined to semi-mechanized propositions. Mining with stowing becomes techno-economically non-viable due to fast pace of retreat now being planned and the rate of stowing not matching with it. In this paper, a review of different mining methods in bord and pillar (B&P) pattern with caving as goaf treatment have been presented. Longwalling and its variants like LTCC (Longwall top coal caving), multi-level and multi-section caving, etc. are yet to be established in an R&D demonstrative trial panel and hence not included in this paper. The case-study observations in B&P pattern have been analyzed so as to provide the mine operators to take cognizance of challenges and opportunities in this regard. The latest updates about various research inputs by CSIR-CIMFR have also been provided within the realms of thick seam mining methods

A More Discerning and Adaptable Multilingual Transliteration Mechanism for Indian Languages

Transliteration is the process of transcribing words from a source script to a target script. These words can be content words or proper nouns. They may be of local or foreign origin. In this paper we present a more discerning method which applies different techniques based on the word origin. The techniques used also take into account the properties of the scripts. Our approach does not require training data on the target side, while it uses more sophisticated techniques on the source side. Fuzzy string matching is used to compensate for lack of training on the target side. We have evaluated on two Indian languages and have achieved substantially better results (increase of up to 0.44 in MRR) than the baseline and comparable to the state of the art. Our experiments clearly show that word origin is an important factor in achieving higher accuracy in transliteration.

Closing of a running mine and suggesting a new approach of winning of otherwise-left unextracted coal reserves

In the workable Rayatwari seam of CRC Colliery, WCL, having thickness of about 17m, 2nd lift depillaring was reportedly completed in the year 2001. Till 2009, no activity was undertaken as the areas were known cases of poor stowing and in some areas ‘no stowing’ was done due to many technical and some non-technical reasons. At some worst places, the roof collapses exposed even the sandstone roof. The study, with an aim to find a solution and as described briefly in this paper, has assessed the associated risks, overlying roof strata and the general regional stability of the mine and also reasons for those. The low block safety factor contours in simulated models of the mine suggested the expected high rock load to be supported that was found unpractical to execute. Moreover, the re-supporting exercises would call for additional risk to men and machine and might not be feasible technically as well as economically. To provide an alternative to the mine life and also to provide ingress and egress to the dip-side coal reserves, it was recommended to drive at least two sets of galleries in coal, suitably located keeping the sandstone or the competent coal (if weak shale/weathered sandstone is encountered in roof of these galleries. Subsequently depillaring of the developed coal reserves, but hitherto located inaccessibly at dip-side of main dip at the moment, may then be taken up. The Indian inspectorate supported the recommendations by CSIR-CIMFR and the mine has recently started implementing the same