Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Instructors' Perceptions of Three-Dimensional (3D) Virtual Worlds: Instructional Use, Implementation, and Benefits for Adult Learners

STONE, SOPHIA JEFFRIES. Instructors’ Perceptions of Three-Dimensional (3D) Virtual Worlds: Instructional Use, Implementation and Benefits for Adult Learners. (Under the direction of Dr. Brad Mehlenbacher and Dr. Diane Chapman.) The purpose of this dissertation research study was to explore instructors’ perceptions of the educational application of three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds in a variety of academic discipline areas and to assess the strengths and limitations this virtual environment presents for teaching adult learners. The guiding research question for this dissertation study was: What are instructors’ perceptions of the strengths and limitations of three-dimensional virtual worlds as learning spaces for teaching adult learners? The following four questions supported this research: a) How do instructors implement educational experiences in 3D virtual worlds, for adult learners? b) How do instructors facilitate adult learning in 3D virtual worlds across disciplines? c) What insights do instructors describe about the adult learners’ needs in this virtual environment? and d) How do instructors describe a successful immersive learning experience implemented in a 3D virtual world? This dissertation research study was conducted as a heuristic case study with instructors interviewed from multiple locations that taught in private and public institutions of higher education in the southeastern United States. Instructors were asked to reflect on their experiences teaching in a virtual world, and to describe their perceptions of characteristics of a successful virtual world implementation in their teaching practice. The study found instructors perceived the benefits of learning in 3D virtual worlds for adult learners as the ability to experience content, community, collective wisdom, immersion, authentic learning, and a “sense of academic home” in an online environment. The study found assessment methods are uniquely situated to take advantage of the attributes of 3D virtual worlds, the social learning made possible, and the digital artifacts this space affords. The dissertation concludes with recommendations for faculty and higher education administrators that address the significant practice, policy, and institutional issues and concerns that arise with the application of virtual worlds as an instructional learning space. Instructors’ Perceptions of Three-Dimensional (3D) Virtual Worlds: Instructional Use, Implementation and Benefits for Adult Learners by Sophia Jeffries Stone A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education Adult and Higher Education Raleigh, North Carolina 2009
Exploring the capability approach in model-based economic evaluations

This thesis develops the implementation of the capability approach within health economic evaluations. Until now, the focus of applying the capability approach within health economics has centred on its theoretical merits, as well as the development of capability questionnaires. The aim of this research is to establish methods for applying the capability approach in an evaluation framework. Specifically, this is done by (i.) investigating how a measure of capability well-being, the ICECAP-O, can be incorporated into a health economic model and (ii.) establishing the objective of capability evaluations to aid the decision-making process in allocating scarce resources for health. The relationship between capability and condition-specific health status for osteoarthritis patients is studied through statistical mapping. Methods from the capability literature are drawn upon to construct a methodology for generating capability outcomes that can be used to aid decision-making. This methodology is then tested on an existing economic model, the Birmingham Rheumatoid Arthritis Model (BRAM). Key findings from this thesis are that (i.) it is feasible to predict capability from a condition-specific health instrument and (ii.) establishing “sufficient capability” as the objective for capability evaluations. Further research is required to see what difference a capability based evaluation would make in practice.
Leveraging Active Decremental TTL Measuring for Flexible and Efficient NAT identification

: Malicious attacks can be launched by misusing the network address translation technique as a camouflage. To mitigate such threats, network address translation identification is investigated to identify network address translation devices and detect abnormal behaviors. However, existing methods in this field are mainly developed for relatively small-scale networks and work in an offline manner, which cannot adapt to the real-time inference requirements in high-speed network scenarios. In this paper, we propose a flexible and efficient network address translation identification scheme based on actively measuring the distance of a round trip to a target with decremental time-to-live values. The basic intuition is that the incoming and outgoing traffic from a network address translation device usually experiences the different number of hops, which can be discovered by probing with dedicated time-to-live values. We explore a joint effort of parallel transmission, stateless probes, and flexible measuring reuse to accommodate the efficiency of the measuring process. We further accelerate statistical counting with a new sublinear space data structure Bi-sketch. We implement a prototype and conduct real-world deployments with 1000 volunteers in 31 Chinese provinces, which is believed to bring insight for ground truth collection in this field. Experiments on multi-sources datasets show that our proposal can achieve as high precision and recall as 95% with a traffic handling throughput of over 10 6 pps.
Visual Planning and KPIs in purchasing: Effective Activity Planning and Follow-Up

The purpose of the master thesis is to find a way to plan activities, visualize them and follow-up on these activities. The Visual Planning method is used at Scania Production, R&D and at Scania Purchasing. However, the method doesn‟t fit the purchasers‟ communication and coordination needs. Furthermore, a majority of purchasing activities is disrupted due to unexpected events or deviations, which may cause delays.Hence, the thesis will result in a proposal of an effective planning and follow-up method that fits the need of the purchasing environment in general and more specifically in the purchasing group SGC. The proposing solution should handle deviations, be easy to use and visualize activities on an individual and aggregated department level.To find the best solution, an internal benchmarking and a review of best practice literature was carried out during the thesis. Observations at Scania Production, R&D and purchasing department were also carried out along with external interviews.Key findings included that handling deviances have a higher priority than commercial activities such as cost saving activities. Additionally, there is no standardize way of activity planning at SGC, cost has higher than quality and delivery and the Visual Planning method does not fit Scania‟s purchasing organization due to different needs of communication and coordination.Hence, the proposal included recommendations to introduce two milestones to the planned activities, collect all performance measurements in a balanced scorecard and an improved way of handling deviations. Furthermore, recommendations regarding the Visual Planning method included that the method should be used daily, where an agenda should structure the communication and the method should be adapted to fit the group‟s need of communication and coordination.
Prediction and Improvement of Safety in Software Systems

Abstract : The modern military's ability to fight depends heavily on complex software systems, making the safety of such of software of paramount importance. The transformation of the military's analog combat systems to computer-based systems has been plagued by software problems ranging from benign flight simulator issues to 'smart' ships finding themselves dead in the water. The military's interest in increasing automation in order to reduce manpower requirements makes even trivial software safety issues a serious concern. The software engineering community is not well equipped to reduce the safety risks incurred through use of such systems, and stands to benefit from metrics, analysis tools, and techniques that address software system safety from a design perspective. The purpose of this research project was to propose and develop tools that software engineers can use to address the issue of software safety. The project focused on safety prediction and improvement through the use of software fault trees coupled with "key nodes," or fault tree-based safety metric, and an algorithm for estimating the improvement costs necessary to achieve a targeted level of software safety. The safety prediction metric uses the key node property of fault trees while the improvement algorithm is based on the mathematical relationship between nodes in a fault tree, and yields an estimate of the man-hours necessary to improve a system to a targeted safety value based on cost functions supplied by a component s developer. These metrics and algorithms allow designers to measure and improve the safety of software systems early in the design process, allowing for a reduction in costs and an improvement in resource allocation.
A Comparative Study of Power Supply Architectures In Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging Systems

Wireless inductive power transfer is a transformational and disruptive technology that enables the reliable and efficient transfer of electrical power over large air gaps for a host of unique applications. One such application that is now gaining much momentum worldwide is the wireless charging of electric vehicles (EVs). This thesis examines two of the primary power supply topologies being predominantly used for EV charging, namely the SLC and the LCL resonant full bridge inverter topologies. The study of both of these topologies is presented in the context of designing a 3 kW, primary side controlled, wireless EV charger with nominal operating parameters of 30 kHz centre frequency and range of coupling in the neighborhood of . 18-. 26. A comparison of both topologies is made in terms of their complexity, cost, efficiency, and power quality. The aim of the study is to determine which topology is better for wireless EV charging.
Development, Fabrication and Characterization of Lumped Element Kinetic Inductance Detectors for NIKA

Abstract  Lumped-element kinetic inductance detectors (LEKIDs) have recently shown considerable promise as direct-absorption mm-wavelength detectors for astronomical applications. One major research thrust within the Neel Iram Kids Array (NIKA) collaboration has been to investi gate the suitability of these detectors for deployment at th e 30-meter IRAM telescope located on Pico Veleta in Spain. In order to optimize the LEKIDs for this application, we have rec ently probed a wide variety of individual resonator and a rray parameters through simulation and physical testing. This included determining the optimal feed-line coupling , pixel geometry, resonator distribution within an array (i n order to minimize pixel cross-talk), and resonator frequency spacing. Based on these results, a 32-pixel Aluminum array w as fabricated and tested in a dilution fridge with opt ical access, yielding an average optical NEP of ~1 x 10-15 W/Hz^1 /2.
Design of a Force Measurement Table, providing objective force feedback during arthroscopic training on cadaver specimen

To improve arthroscopic skills, orthopaedic residents train on medical simulators and cadaveric training courses. Some medical simulators provide feedback while cadaveric specimen offer the most realistic training environments. Providing objective feedback while training on cadaveric specimen will be an major improvement to the cadaveric training courses. The goal of this project is to develop a system that allows for objective force feedback during arthroscopic skills training on cadaveric specimen. To accomplish this we follow three basic steps: an analysis of the procedure is made, a theoretical model is developed, and from multiple concepts a 6DOF force sensor method is chosen. We developed a 6DOF force platform Force Measurement Table (FMT), which measures forces and torques in the range of 0-750N, with an accuracy of ±0.32N. The FMT was calibrated, and has proven to be able to distinguish between two statically provided independent forces. A pilot study with two intermediates showed a significant difference between the average forces exerted by the arthroscope (2.4 ±1.2N) and by the instrument with arthroscope (4.5 ±2.4N). This difference in force deviations indicates that the highest loads are mostly exerted by the probing instrument. The technology of the FMT shows high potential for the use of force measurements during cadaveric training courses. For exact dynamical measurements, an accurate tracking system can be to be added to the FMT.
Advances towards behaviour-based indoor robotic exploration

The main contributions of this research work remain in object recognition by computer vision, by one side, and in robot localisation and mapping by the other. The first contribution area of the research address object recognition in mobile robots. In this area, door handle recognition is of great importance, as it help the robot to identify doors in places where the camera is not able to view the whole door. In this research, a new two step algorithm is presented based on feature extraction that aimed at improving the extracted features to reduce the superfluous keypoints to be compared at the same time that it increased its efficiency by improving accuracy and reducing the computational time. Opposite to segmentation based paradigms, the feature extraction based two-step method can easily be generalized to other types of handles or even more, to other type of objects such as road signals. Experiments have shown very good accuracy when tested in real environments with different kind of door handles. With respect to the second contribution, a new technique to construct a topological map during the exploration phase a robot would perform on an unseen office-like environment is presented. Firstly a preliminary approach proposed to merge the Markovian localisation in a distributed system, which requires low storage and computational resources and is adequate to be applied in dynamic environments. In the same area, a second contribution to terrain inspection level behaviour based navigation concerned to the development of an automatic mapping method for acquiring the procedural topological map. The new approach is based on a typicality test called INCA to perform the so called loop-closing action. The method was integrated in a behaviour-based control architecture and tested in both, simulated and real robot/environment system. The developed system proved to be useful also for localisation purpose.
Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Gamification for Information Retrieval

We are delighted to welcome you to the First International Workshop on Gamification for Information Retrieval, held on April 13, 2014 in conjunction with ECIR'14 in Amsterdam. This workshop focuses on the challenges and opportunities that gamification can present for the information retrieval (IR) community. Gamification is the application of game mechanics, such as leader boards, badges or achievement points, in non-gaming environments with the aim to increase user engagement, data quality or cost effectiveness. A core aspect of gamification solutions is to infuse intrinsic motivations to participate by leveraging people's natural desires for achievement and competition. While gamification, on the one hand, is emerging as the next big thing in industry, e.g., an effective way to generate business, on the other hand, it is also becoming a major research area. However, its adoption in Information Retrieval is still in its infancy, despite the wide ranging IR tasks that may benefit from gamification techniques. These include the manual annotation of documents for IR evaluation, the participation in user studies to study interactive IR challenges, or the shift from single-user search to social search, just to mention a few.
Development of a small scale hybrid wheel loader test platform

For construction equipment in general fuel efficiency is one of the most critical product attributes. Pure fuel economy improvements from the engines are extremely expensive to develop. This creates an incitement for development of hybrid technology. This thesis was done in corporation with CPAC Systems in Gothenburg, Sweden. With regenerative braking, the energy that is normally transferred into heat during braking can be stored in a battery or a super capacitor and the stored energy can later be used for propulsion. However the regenerative braking also affects the vehicle dynamics and the driver’s interpretation of the brake pedal which demands for a physical test platform for testing. In this thesis a test platform for testing of concepts was developed and built and a brake blending system was developed and tested on the test platform. The test platform was built in small scale compared to a full wheel loader with an articulated rideable lawn mower as base. A small scale test platform has the benefits of fast and easy testing and much lower cost compared to a full scale wheel loader. The test platform is equipped with individual wheel motors and a mechanical brake system based on brakes from a motorcycle. The first step in the development of the control system for the test platform was to make Simulink models for the components in the test platform. Models for the overall vehicle, the brakes and the electrical motors were developed. From the models a control strategy was developed to control the requested torque to the electric motors and the requested brake pressure to the brakes from the driver’s inputs. The control strategy was developed in Simulink and from Simulink C-code was automatically generated by the code generation tool TargetLink. All testing including testing of the brake blending system was performed on the test platform. The result of this thesis is a test platform that is built to emulate a small scale hybrid wheel loader. The test platform is expandable and can be used to test other concepts, for example steer-by-wire. The other result of the thesis is a brake blending system that is combining electrical and mechanical braking with good pedal feeling, no wheel lock and high energy regeneration.
A Multi-criteria Model to Support Automatic Recommendation of e-Learning Quality Approaches

This paper addresses issues related with how recommendation hints about e-learning quality approaches are provided to the users of the European Quality Observatory (EQO) web portal. It proposes the application of a multi-criteria model for representing the assessment of an quality approach, and of a multi-criteria additive value function for synthesizing assessments and calculating a prediction about the suitability of a quality approach for a given user. The proposed model is engaged to support the automatic recommendation mechanism of the quality approaches repository of the 'EQO: European Quality Observatory' project.
Identifying and Reducing Worker, Inspector, and Manager Fatigue in Rapid Renewal Environments

Worker and manager fatigue is a problem on highway construction sites, and is exacerbated by the rapid renewal or accelerated construction practices that involve longer shifts, night work and weekend closures. This problem is widely acknowledged by both management and labor. Methods for dealing with fatigue tend to be informal, and there is wide variability in beliefs and attitudes about fatigue. Relevant fatigue countermeasures have been studied extensively and are already practiced in other industries. Countermeasures include strategic management interventions (e.g., fatigue training, work scheduling aids, incident reporting) as well as individual interventions (e.g., sleep hygiene, napping, appropriate use of caffeine, self- and peer-monitoring). This report describes a 3-year project in which the authors reviewed and documented worker fatigue impacts during rapid renewal operations in the highway construction industry, and developed an integrated fatigue management toolkit, including work scheduling and work practice guidance based on models of fatigue, organizational practice guidance, fatigue management reference material, and training material for managers and workers. This suite of products can be integrated into existing safety management systems for highway construction environments, thereby reducing fatigue risk and increasing safety.
Analysis of the relationship between bile duct and duodenal microbiota reveals that dysbacteriosis is the main cause of primary common bile duct stones

Background Bacteria play an important role in the formation of primary CBD stones. While the composition and function of the microbiota of bile duct in patients with primary CBD stones could not be explained in the whole. Intestinal dysbacteriosis is related to the formation of many diseases, but there are relatively few reports on the effects of intestinal microbial community on the formation of primary CBD stones, but none of these studies have a normal population of biliary tract and gut microbiota as control.Result We use the 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing technology to analyze the microbial diversity and community composition of biliary and duodenal microbiota in 15 patients with primary CBD stones (EG) and 4 patients without biliary tract disease (CK), and we divided above samples into four subgroups: B (EG bile), D (EG duodenal juice), BCK (CK bile)and DCK (CK duodenal juice). Alpha diversity analysis showed that only the abundance and evenness in B were lower than that in DCK (P<0.05); Beta diversity analysis showed that there were some differences in the composition between biliary microbiota and the duodenal microbiota, but the abundance of the main groups showed similarities. Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were the dominant bacteria at phylum level accounted for at least 75% of the total reads in each subgroup. It is noteworthy that Clostridium sensu_stricto (VIP>1), Lachnospiraceae _UCG-008 (VIP>1), Butyrivibrio (VIP>1) and Roseburia (VIP> 1) which could produce short chain fatty acids (SCFA), were significantly decreased in B (p<0.05) than that in BCK. Conclusion According to the results, dysbacteriosis of biliary and duodenal microbiota plays an important role in the formation of primary CBD stones. The decrease in abundance of certain major acid-producing bacteria affects the health of the biliary tract and thus leads to the formation of stones.