Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Targeted reading comprehension strategies instruction for raising reading levels in tertiary contexts

This small-scale action research within a tertiary music bridging programme with language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) embedded examined the effect of reading comprehension strategies instruction for raising adult reading levels. In particular, this study investigated the efficacy of targeted reading strategies instruction on improving the components of reading underpinning comprehension and critical reading of text. A cyclical model of action research methodology involving typical reconnaissance, implementation and evaluation phases was conducted, employing multiple mixed methods of data collection including reading testing and surveys. The results showed slight reading gains within the small student sample, and evidence of improvements across the targeted components of reading. These results suggested that targeted reading comprehension strategies instruction may be a valid approach for raising adult learner reading levels in tertiary contexts. However, further research with a larger sample size and in different disciplines is required. The action research process enabled the development and refinement of a reading pedagogical model that provides a framework for educators embedding literacies in foundation or mainstream tertiary programmes.
Provision of Records Created in Networked Environments in the Curricula of Institutions of Higher Learning in Africa

ABSTRACT The importance of curriculum development on archives and records management in the digital era, especially on the African continent, cannot be overemphasized. While many universities in the global hub have included studies on all aspects of archives and records management programs with many emphasizing records created in networked environments, the same cannot be said about universities on the African continent. In Africa, education and training of archives and records professionals can be traced back several decades. Archives and records practitioners in Africa’s different countries have, over the years, taken varying paths to attain their professional qualifications. This study outlines progress on an ongoing study by InterPARES Trust Africa Team that examines the curricula in different African educational institutions and investigates the extent to which they address the increasingly complex environment that includes the management of digital records in networked environments. It is hoped that the study will inform curriculum development and review in the area of digital records at the institutions of higher learning in Africa.
Arrayed waveguide gratings for wavelength routing

Wavelength routing can be performed in the optical domain for both long-haul and passive optical networks. Arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs) can perform wavelength routing for a large number of optical channels and provide a high level of functionality on an integrated chip. The AWG guides light on a planar lightwave circuit into an array of waveguides that provide dispersion to separate the different wavelengths of light. Routing functions can be performed on individual wavelengths. With this technology, optical cross-connects, optical add/drop multiplexers, and passive optical routers have been demonstrated. Performance issues-such as insertion loss, polarization dependence, passband shape, passband position, crosstalk, and temperature dependence-are being addressed so that AWGs will be practical for deployment into systems.
The Adoption of E-government Services in the Iraqi Higher Education Context: An application of the UTAUT Model in the University of Kufa

E-government services are in their infancy in many developing countries, particularly in Iraq. The achievement of e-government services is dependent on government support as well as the users of these services. This study adopted the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to explore factors that determine the adoption of e-government services in the Iraqi higher-education context. In the University of Kufa, 430 academic staffs’ were surveyed using a modified version of the UTAUT model. The results reveal that performance expectancy and effort expectancy determine academic staffs’ behavioural intention. Moreover, facilitating conditions and behavioural intentions determine academic staffs’ use of e-government services' implications for decision-makers and suggestions for further research are also considered throughout this study.
Techniques and Tools for Analyzing and Understanding Android Applications

With the rise of mobile technologies in recent years, smart mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablet computers, have become an integral part of people’s daily lives. Like traditional cell phones, smartphones can be used for phone calls and text messaging. Driven by recent innovations, current smartphones have also become media players, GPS systems, digital cameras, portable gaming consoles, and Web browsers. The capabilities and functionalities of smart mobile devices have been significantly expanded by the large number of third-party applications. As we witness a phenomenal growth in the number and variety of mobile applications, their usage has become increasingly prevalent, yet we lack a systematic understanding of this emerging, important software ecosystem. This dissertation presents novel, general techniques and tools for analyzing and understanding mobile applications. It focuses on analyzing applications on the Android operating system, which is currently the most popular mobile platform. This dissertation presents the first large-scale, systematic study of third-party Android applications. By investigating unique characteristics of Android applications, it uncovers and provides insights into common errors and pitfalls during application development and provides actionable recommendations where applicable. This dissertation also presents Heimdall, a static analysis framework that automatically tracks the flow of sensitive information in Android applications. Heimdall has been used to uncover potentially unsafe flows of sensitive information on a large scale, providing a comprehensive understanding of privacy-sensitive information usage in Android applications. The findings presented in this dissertation benefit the whole Android community, from platform and tool developers to application developers and end-users.
DIGITAL INFORMATION EVALUATION SKILLS AMONG STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Despite the advancement of technology in the internet age, many college students lack the information and communication technology (ICT) literacy skills like evaluating which is necessary to navigate and using information available at present. Evaluating the quality of information sources encompasses students’ ability to determine relevance, accuracy, and overall credibility of sources and information. The quality of information found online is extremely variable because anyone can post data on the internet, and not all online sources are equally reliable, valuable, or accurate. From a study conducted on diploma students’ assignments using rubric at an international university in Kuala Lumpur, a problem in digital information evaluation skills and lack of ability in using evaluation criteria, including authority, accuracy, currency, objectivity, and coverage on digital information and sources among diploma students had been discovered. The future work of this study will be the use of mobile devices in collaborative and interactive learning to improve digital information evaluation skills among diploma students. This approach does not only improve the students’ learning attitude, but also enhances the effectiveness of learning.
Do Rewards Shape Online Discussions

This research attempted to test whether the granting of points for receiving the most votes as the “best post” would affect the quality of subsequent postings to online discussions. Five online discussions were held in a small graduate-level course in leadership theory, and postings were coded into Bloom’s taxonomy. Quality was defined as the percent of postings in the upper three levels (Analyze, Evaluate, and Create), but did not change. By asking students their reasons for choosing a posting as best, content analysis resulted in five reasons: “personal,” “new,” “stimulating,” “informative,” and “like me,” which are compared to the instructor’s views. When asked if the availability of points affected their performance, nine students felt the points did not affect their postings and two students tried harder because of them. While these results do not capture a link between receiving rewards and improved quality in online discussions, this exercise may capture the process whereby compliments for good postings may set the standard for how graduate students think and contribute online.
ICARUS Training and Support System

The ICARUS unmanned tools act as gatherers, which acquire enormous amount of information. The management of all these data requires the careful consideration of an intelligent support system. This chapter discusses the High-Performance Computing (HPC) support tools, which were developed for rapid 3D data extraction, combination, fusion, segmentation, classification and rendering. These support tools were seamlessly connected to a training framework. Indeed, training is a key in the world of search and rescue. Search and rescue workers will never use tools on the field for which they have not been extensively trained beforehand. For this reason, a comprehensive serious gaming training framework was developed, supporting all ICARUS unmanned vehicles in realistic 3D-simulated (based on inputs from the support system) and real environments.
Social contact graph-based group communication schemes for delay tolerant networks

Abstract Delay-tolerant networks (DTNs) are sparse mobile ad hoc networks in which there is typically no complete path between the source and destination. Multicast and anycast are important group communication paradigms for numerous DTN applications. For example, multicast is used to disseminate real-time traffic information reporting and software patch to multiple devices, and anycast is used for resource discovery and information exchange in emergency or crisis situation. While multicast and anycast have been studied extensively in the context of the Internet and Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs), efficient multicast and anycast in DTNs are significantly different and challenging problems due to frequent partitions and intermittent connectivity among nodes. In this paper, we propose single-copy routing strategies for multicast and anycast based on the multi-hop delivery probabilities. Multicast employs a dynamic tree branching technique that allows routing paths to be efficiently shared among multicast destinations. Anycast selects relay nodes based on social distances to anycast group members. It balances the trade-off between a short path to the closest, single group member and a longer path to the area where many other group members reside. That is, it optimises both the efficiency and robustness of message delivery. Through extensive simulation studies using a real-world mobility trace, we show that our schemes achieve a high delivery ratio, low delay, and low (or comparable) transmission cost compared to other group communication strategies. Graphical Abstract Multicast routing employs a dynamic tree branching technique that allows routing paths to be efficiently shared among multicast destinations. Anycast routing balances the trade-off between a short path to the closest, single group member and a longer path over which many other group members reside.
An FPGA-based adaptive forward error correction protocol for cubeSats

CubeSats have become popular due to their simplified model that reduces development time and costs. The standard, however, suffers from limitations imposed by the small form factor. Research is undertaken at different levels to improve the performance of CubeSats, of which one is on the communication subsystem. The question is how the throughput per satellite-to-ground communication session can be improved using modified error correction methods. Previous work at the ESL proposed a hybrid protocol design of the AX.25 and the FX.25, known as the AFX.25, whose simulation results suggested improved performance over pure protocol implementations. The AX.25 protocol has an error checking functionality but without error correction, so the FX.25 was introduced as a wrapper to the AX.25 to provide for error correction. Inasmuch as the AX.25 is popular among university CubeSat designs, it was necessary that an investigation be done to evaluate if it was the best choice of implementation. The CCSDS Telecommand protocol was chosen for performance evaluation against the AFX.25 due to its functionality which is closer to the FX.25. The evaluation was based on simulation and hardware complexity analysis. SatSim was used as a satellite network simulation environment. The results showed that the AFX.25 is a better choice over the CCSDS TC. The AFX.25 hardware design and implementation was therefore considered on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The FPGAs’ parallel processing capability makes them an attractive choice of implementation for error encoding and decoding. The adaptive protocol was designed to switch between no error correction (AX.25) and error correction (FX.25) where the number of correctable errors is 8 using the Reed Solomon code (255, 239). The switching from AX.25 to FX.25 is determined by the packet loss rate while switching from FX.25 to AX.25 is influenced by the packet success rate. The system was implemented on a Fusion M1AFS1500 development board interfaced with a half duplex RF board. Tests were carried out successfully on a terrestrial testbench which modelled a typical satellite pass. ii Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za
A symmetric-structure CDMA-PON system and its implementation

A code-division multiple-access (CDMA) passive optical network is proposed as an optical access network system to satisfy the subscriber's increasing data traffic. A CDMA scheme is used not only for delivering multiple channels to as many remote units, but also for suppressing optical beat noise. In this study, a beat noise environment is analyzed and a transceiver structure to efficiently increase the reverse link rate is suggested. Fundamental experimental results are provided to show its validity.
Risk factors for mortality in Australian Vietnam-era national servicemen: a case-control study.

Risk factors for mortality from all causes in Australian former National Service conscripts of the Vietnam conflict era were determined by comparing decedents with a random sample of survivors using data available from service records. Three-quarters of the deaths were due to external causes. A log-linear regression model was used to evaluate variables in four classes: education and cognitive abilities, employment, conduct while in service, and physical and mental health. Risk of mortality was higher for men with lower scores on the army intelligence test. Age left school and highest class reached were not as important to survival as participation in post-secondary education, which was associated with a lower risk of early death. Risk of death also increased with a conduct history of being Absent Without Leave or being charged for offences involving alcohol or motor vehicles. Employment instability between school and military service also was associated weakly with a higher risk of death, as was duration of hospitalisation during service. Given survival to the end of National Service, service in Vietnam per se did not figure in the regression model as an important determinant of subsequent mortality.
YOUTUBE, POWERPOINT, AND TUTORS: THE IMPACT OF OUT-OF-CLASS LEARNING OPTIONS ON STUDENT PERFORMANCE

YouTube, Powerpoint, and Tutors: The Impact of Out-of-Class Learning Options on Student Performance. (May 2009) Sommer Bunce Hamilton, B.S., Texas A&M University Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Michael T. Stephenson This research project sought to measure how students in large-classroom environments respond to supplemental, out-of-class learning options. Is their performance positively impacted by tutoring or by online, always-accessible lessons? Above and beyond demographics and skills, what motivates students to engage in use of supplemental learning options? Responding to theories of “just-in-time” learning and the learner-centered philosophy of distributed learning, this study put three out-of-class tools in place during the course of a fall semester to allow the learner to decide what form of out-of-class aid he or she would rely upon. Those three options included tutoring services, streaming voice-over-PowerPoint lessons, and short YouTube.com-hosted videos featuring the instructor. Over the course of the fall 2008 semester, students responded to two surveys intended to (1) capture their motivational approach and preferred study strategies and learning styles; and (2) capture measures of their usage of these tools and their reported perception of the tools. In tests of data to determine what led to the most improvement in student scores and what led to students’ highest reported levels of satisfaction and perceived value with
Examination of the relationship between organisational learning and firm's product innovation

Stemming from the growing interest in the learning process in the organisational context, the present article is aimed primarily at investigating the relationship between organisational learning and innovation. A theoretical model describing the hypothetical relationships between organisational learning and innovation was developed and tested using the structural equation modelling technique. Data was collected from a sample of 420 firms listed in the national directory of ICT organisations. From these, 250 usable questionnaires were completed and returned. Results of the study indicate a positive influence of organisational learning on product innovation. From the findings, the study also discusses several practical implications for practitioners.
Cache maintenance in federated query processing based on quality of service constraints

The Linked Open Data (LOD) Cloud forms a substantial and ever increasing portion of the global knowledge on the World Wide Web by contributing many distributed data sources. Due to the diversity of the knowledge that they expose, processing queries over these distributed autonomous sources can lead to interesting interdisciplinary discoveries and thus it is an important problem to address. As the cloud computing is gaining momentum, everything is expected to be provided as a service including query processing and knowledge extraction functionalities. This means a scalable, available and efficient implementation for query processing and knowledge extraction frameworks is required. However, Linked Data sources are distributed and autonomous and thus federating queries over them results in availability and performance problems. Caching and replication are the first class solutions to address availability and performance problems but lead to some trade-offs among quality metrics of provided response (i.e., quality of service). Quality metrics of response in a query processor with cache are the response latency and response consistency. In this thesis, I use caching to mitigate the availability and performance issues of processing queries over LOD. Therefore, this thesis addresses the problem of how to efficiently maintain a cache of distributed Linked Data by considering user-defined constraints on response consistency and latency. I decompose this problem into following sub-problems and address them throughout my thesis. First, to manage consistency/latency trade-off, metrics are required to quantify response consistency and latency. I discuss and motivate relevant metrics that I used to quantify them. Second, consistency/latency trade-off with consistency constraint is analyzed in the domain of Linked Data market systems. I propose a solution to estimate the response consistency on an existing state of the local cache. Moreover, I discuss how this solution can be leveraged to keep the maintenance at the bare minimum level and trigger it only if it is required to satisfy consistency constraint. Third, consistency/latency trade-off with latency constraints is analyzed in the domain of stream processing due to the critical importance of latency in this domain. My proposed
In search of a better understanding of social presence: an investigation into how researchers define social presence

Abstract Research on social presence and online learning continues to grow. But to date, researchers continue to define and conceptualize social presence very differently. For instance, at a basic level, some conceptualize social presence as one of three presences within a Community of Inquiry, while others do not. Given this problem, we analyzed how researchers in highly cited social presence research defined social presence in an effort to better understand how they are defining social presence and how this might be changing over time. In this article, we report the results of our inquiry and conclude with implications for future research and practice.
Understanding the Influence of Perceived Usability and Technology Self-Efficacy on Teachers’ Technology Acceptance

Abstract The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) represents how users come to accept and use a given technology and can be applied to teachers’ use of educational technologies. Here the model is extended to incorporate teachers’ perceived usability and self-efficacy measures toward the technologies they are currently using. The authors administered a survey to K–12 teachers in two rural school districts in Virginia, and 99 teachers responded. We then analyzed the responses with both reliability statistics and general linear modeling techniques. The results indicated that the incorporation of perceived usability into the TAM explained more variance and was more influential to TAM elements than its absence, thereby supporting the importance, positive influence, and necessity of evaluating usability when investigating educational technology acceptance and usage behavior. Furthermore, the study found teachers’ technology self-efficacy (TSE) was more beneficial to the TAM than their computer self-efficacy (CSE); however, this impact might vary for the evaluations of different populations and technologies.
Motor imagery and direct brain-computer communication

Motor imagery can modify the neuronal activity in the primary sensorimotor areas in a very similar way as observable with a real executed movement. One part of EEG-based brain-computer interfaces (BCI) is based on the recording and classification of circumscribed and transient EEG changes during different types of motor imagery such as, e.g., imagination of left-hand, right-hand, or foot movement. Features such as, e.g., band power or adaptive autoregressive parameters are either extracted in bipolar EEG recordings overlaying sensorimotor areas or from an array of electrodes located over central and neighboring areas. For the classification of the features, linear discrimination analysis and neural networks are used. Characteristic for the Graz BCI is that a classifier is set up in a learning session and updated after one or more sessions with online feedback using the procedure of "rapid prototyping. " As a result, a discrimination of two brain states (e.g., leftversus right-hand movement imagination) can be reached within only a few days of training. At this time, a tetraplegic patient is able to operate an EEG-based control of a hand orthosis with nearly 100% classification accuracy by mental imagination of specific motor commands.