Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What is motivating engineering students to use 1:1 mobile devices for learning?

Context: Engineering education is embarking on a new journey, where curriculum designers are needing evidence based research to understand how the use of 1:1 mobile devices can influence student perceptions of self-directed learning, to improve curriculum engagement and to measurable assessment outcomes. Using student perceptions of learning motivation and learning intervention theory, higher order thinking skills can be encouraged in problem-based learning. Understanding what is motivating students to learn when and using 1:1 mobile devices will help curriculum designers and facilitators to engage students. Purpose: This paper will explore survey results of a recent study, revealing how students are responding to a self-directed curriculum design where engineering students are accessing learning interventions to enhance their learning experience when using 1:1 mobile device technology. Approach: This study approach is focusing on answering the following questions: How do engineering students use their 1:1 mobile devices for self-directed learning? What learning motivation perceptions do engineering students have when they are making choices about using a 1:1 mobile device for their learning? How does using a 1:1 mobile device translate into improved learning outcomes? How does the improved learning outcomes foster a culture of innovation? Finding answers to these questions is important for this study to provide academic rigour identify learning motivations that may prove useful for curriculum designers who are interested in developing self-directed learning pathways. It is accepted, technology is a student directed and socially accepted variable that is proving to be an important 'value-add' to the learning spaces of higher education students. Results: An analysis has shown that student motivation is influenced by motivation variables when curriculum interventions are used in engineering courses. The data suggests that student perceptions of learning motivations can be an important factor to influence the level of engagement when using 1:1 devices for learning. Curriculum designers and course facilitators may benefit from implementing selective interventions with the aim to encourage higher order thinking when problem solving. Conclusions: Engineering curriculum designers will benefit from this research when considering how best to implement 1:1 mobile devices as a motivating factor for learning. Learning interventions are an important factor in influencing student perceptions of motivation to learn when using 1:1 mobile devices.
Permutation forests for modeling word order in machine translation

In natural language, there is only a limited space for variation in the word order of linguistic productions. From a linguistic perspective, word order is the result of multiple application of syntactic recursive functions. These syntactic operations produce hierarchical syntactic structures, as well as a string of words that appear in a certain order. However, different languages are governed by different syntactic rules. Thus, one of the main problems in machine translation is to find the mapping between word order in the source language and word order in the target language. This is often done by a method of syntactic transfer, in which the syntactic tree is recovered from the source sentence, and then transduced so that its form is consistent with the syntactic rules of the target language. In this dissertation, I propose an alternative to syntactic transfer that maintains its good properties – namely the compositional and hierarchical structure – but, unlike syntactic transfer, it is directly derived from data without requiring any linguistic annotation. This approach brings two main advantages. First, it allows for applying hierarchical reordering even on languages for which there are no syntactic parsers available. Second, unlike the trees used in syntactic transfer which in some cases cannot cover the reordering patterns present in the data, the trees used in this work are built directly over the reordering patterns, so they can cover them by definition.
Triple Oxygen and Clumped Isotope Compositions of CO2 in the Middle Troposphere

We report the oxygen isotopic anomaly (Δ17O) and clumped isotopic composition (Δ47) of CO2 sampled from the middle troposphere (~10 km above ground) during two CARIBIC (Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container) flights in summer and winter seasons: one from Düsseldorf to Isla Margarita on 11 August 2001 and the other from Puerto Plata to Munich on 21 February 2002. The mid‐tropospheric Δ17O values were higher than the near‐surface values by 0.051 ± 0.010 ‰, indicating enhanced stratospheric influence. The Δ47 values were also higher by 0.160 ± 0.015 ‰ compared to that from the lower troposphere. Stratospheric influence is supported by the observed correlations of the Δ17O values with the mixing ratios of N2O, O3, and 14CO, which carry stratospheric signatures. The increase in the anomaly in the free troposphere represents a balance between the stratosphere‐troposphere exchange fluxes and biogeochemical/hydrospheric isotopic resetting rates at the Earth surface. Using a simple two box model with the free tropospheric Δ17O values, an average surface exchange rate of CO2 between 327 and 772 PgC/year is inferred, giving a CO2 turnover time of 1.4 to 2.8 years in the atmosphere. The present estimates are based on a rather small set of free tropospheric data and have relatively large uncertainties, but they agree with the existing model and proxy‐based estimates.
Exploring differential attainment by assessment type in mathematics, chemistry and life sciences

A BME attainment gap persists across the HE sector: the proportion of students who attain a 1st or 2:1 honours degree is lower for students from a BME background than for non-BME students, even when controlled for prior attainment or entry profile. The reasons for the gap are unclear (Richardson, 2015) and many theories have adopted a student-deficit model. However, Broeke and Nicholls (2007) found that even when controlling for other factors (including prior attainment, subject of study, age, gender, disability, a proxy of socio-economic background, type of HE institution attended, type of level 3 qualifications, mode of study and term-time accommodation) being from a minority ethnic community remained a statistically significant variable in explaining final attainment. More recent research directed at understanding the gap has focused on institutional practice; including assessment practices. This research also identifies the importance of positive relationships with staff, which provide students with support and encouragement (HEFCE, 2015). Assessment practices must consider a significantly more diverse student body nowadays and measures taken to improve assessment should promote inclusivity. Poor legitimacy in assessment harms student confidence when assessments are not inclusive, authentic or linked to developing employability. Modes or types of assessment have received relatively limited literature scrutiny with respect to the BME attainment gap debate, although there is well-established evidence of differences related to student gender and contradictory evidence around assessment type, possibly confounded by subject. For example, Leathwood et al. (2011) analysed records of students graduating from Kingston in 2009 and found that examination (as opposed to coursework) disadvantaged BME students. However, when looking at assessment in Mathematics modules, Fairclough (2015) offers examples where time-constrained assessments reduces attainment disparity with respect to ethnicity compared to less traditional portfolio assessment. This project aims to contribute to discussion by expanding the evidence base. It focuses on the outcomes of a broad range of assessments with a sample from 25 undergraduate maths, life science and chemistry modules combined with demographic information from nearly 1000 students to examine student performance on different forms of assessment (encompassing formal exams, coursework, “in-class tests” and oral presentations). The sample data show 14 statistically-significant differences in the attainment of certain groups of students in some assessment modalities, but not all. This talk will present some of the results of this analysis and their possible interpretation that is relevant to strategies for addressing the BME attainment gap. The talk also aims to give attendees an appreciation of the fact that students perform differently on different types of assessment across different subjects, irrespective of the relative perceived “difficulty” of the subject.
Microbial quality and antioxidant activity of an improved bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) drink

The bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) (MC) is being consumed in various countries due to its nutritional value and is high in antioxidants. In this study, the (MC) is used in the preparation of a ready-to-serve (RTS) drink with antioxidant properties. The objectives of this research are to determine the physicochemical and antioxidant properties of a RTS MC drink with different concentrations of the MC, to conduct a sensory evaluation on the MC drink for acceptability and finally to determine the effect of water quality of the MC drink stored at different temperatures. The MC drink was prepared by water extraction of its juice, added with dissolved brown sugar, artificial honey, low fat yogurt, lime juice and mint extract. A proximate analysis was carried out followed by DPPH radical scavenging assay. A sensory evaluation was then carried out among 40 untrained panelists on a Hedonic scale of 1 to 7. The microbial quality was determined using the aerobic plate count, enumeration of moulds and yeasts, presumptive test for coliforms and detection of Escherichia coli. Five concentrations (0.58, 0.70, 0.80, 0.90 and 1.00 g/mL) of the MC drink was developed. The proximate analyses carried out showed that the RTS drink consist of high moisture content from 92.94 – 94.65%. The pH and ˚Brix of the MC drink increased as the concentration increased, whereby the pH was 4.30 – 4.54, and the ˚Brix was 5.0 – 5.6. The increase in concentration of MC has led to an increase in the radical scavenging activity. At the original concentration of 0.58 g/mL, the inhibition was at 71.51% which increased to 87.22% at the final concentration of 1.00 g/mL. The most accepted concentration of the MC drink according to the sensory evaluation was 0.80 g/mL with a mean score of 4.09 (like slightly), while the least accepted concentration was 1.00 g/mL and obtained the lowest mean score of 3.80 (dislike slightly). At the selected concentration (0.80 g/mL), the amount of bacterial growth exceeded 6 log CFU/mL after 24 hours for the MC drink stored at room temperature (28±2˚C). When stored at refrigerated temperature (4±2˚C) it took 72 hours to reach 6 log CFU/mL. The total coliform count for all juice samples were between 93-210 MPN/g. E. coli was detected in the MC drink but not in the water used for its preparation. This study demonstrated MC has the potential to be used as an ingredient in preparing RTS drinks containing antioxidant properties.
Manufacture of Quantum Dot LED using Hybrid sol

Abstract While the development of a portable plate panel display, thinning, high color reproduction, high brightness studies have been actively performed. LED, OLED is used as a light source. The research on quantum dot is much accomplished by the material of light source. Such quantum dot is the next generation semiconductor nano fluorescent substance because quantum dot has the high color reproduction and flexible display characteristic. In this study, we made the multifunctional LED light source as research on the lighting equipment that using the Quantum Dot. We synthesized quantum dot that mixed the resin and was spread on the blue LED having the wavelength of 455nm. Finally we presented the possibility for application of the quantum dot with the multifunction LED light source.
GABA Receptor mutant gbb-1 accelerates morphological aging of GABA neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans

Description: The aging of an organism is heterogeneous, that is to say, tissues and organs may age at unique rates compared to overall organism longevity. Inhibition of the insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling (IIS), such as the daf-2 IIS receptor increases Caenorhabditis elegans longevity. The daf-2 pathway plays a key role in the regulation of metabolism and stress responses and as such, impacts the longevity of the organism (Uno and Nishida 2016). Evidence suggests that an increase in insulin signaling results in a reduction in overall lifespan and a decrease in neuronal longevity (Kenyon 2010). Recently, the gbb-1 GABA signaling pathway has also been implicated in the regulation of adult longevity (Chun et al. 2015). The GABAergic motor neurons innervate the dorsal and ventral body muscles controlling locomotion, foraging and defecation of the animal. GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, has been found to decrease the lifespan of the nematodes (Chun et al. 2015), however, its role in neuronal aging has yet to be determined. The formation of ectopic neurite branches and production of axonal beads are two known phenotypes of neuronal aging in C. elegans. In this study, we examined the aging of the GABAergic motor neuron nerve cords and dorsal commissures.
Catalysis inside Supramolecular Capsules: Recent Developments

In the last decades, supramolecular chemists have developed new molecular receptors able to include a wide range of guests. In addition, they have designed synthetic hosts able to form capsules having an internal volume of thousands of Å3. This inner space shows different features from the bulk solution. In particular, this environment has recently been employed to perform chemical reactions, obtaining reaction products different from the “normal” conditions. These supramolecular capsules act as nanoreactors, catalyzing many chemical transformations. This review collects the recent developments (since 2015) in this field, focusing on supramolecular capsules based on resorcinarene hexameric capsules and metal-cage capsules.
Wireless Integrated Gait Analysis System for Heel-Strike and Toe-Off Measurement

This paper presents the development of a wireless system for gait analysis. Nowadays, gait analysis becoming an important tool to diagnosis or evaluate certain diseases. It has a lot of improvements since the introduction of biomechanics and gait analysis has to be more precise. A lot of studies had been made to determine the measuring of the gait parameters. However, only a few of them specify the measurement of “heelstrike” and “toe-off” timing parameters. Even though there is a research center providing the stated quantitative information, it has been done in a highly accurate computer laboratory. This super computer method is very expensive and not affordable. While in the medical world, the gait parameters analyzed without any guarantee of the results obtained. Therefore, there is a need of the system that is not only low cost but also can produce a real-time feedback. The main objective of this new insole system is to design and implemented a low cost and wearable solution for “heel-strike” and “toe-off” timing parameters using the Force Sensing Resistor (FSR) sensor. The design of this new insole system consisting of six FSR sensors that will deliver a convenient result in the stated gait parameters and offer an additional function which is the gait symmetry observation. The advantage of this project is that it would be a great achievement in the new gait analysis system by introducing the concept of portable wireless and real time feedback device (self–monitor). In conclusion, the design of this new insole system is predicted to help clinician and researchers to develop a new model of gait analysis system.
Heavy metal removal from aqueous systems using hydroxyapatite nanocrystals derived from clam shells

Hydroxyapatite (HA) was synthesized by wet chemical precipitation, using clam shell (CS) waste as feedstock. SEM and TEM observation of the produced hydroxyapatite revealed the presence of rod-shaped nanocrystals, while XRD and EDS analyses confirmed the characteristic patterns of hydroxyapatite molecules. This material was subsequently employed as a sorbent for heavy metal removal from aqueous solutions, both in batch and column equilibrium procedures. In batch studies, higher sorption efficiencies were obtained at pH 5, with the highest adsorption capacities of 265, 64, and 55 mg g−1 for Pb(ii), Cd(ii), and Cu(ii), respectively. In addition, an adsorption capacity of 42.5 mg g−1 was determined using a CS-HA packed bed column fed with a solution of Pb(ii). Finally, the breakthrough curve was fitted with Thomas model in order to predict column behavior and scaling up.
View synthesis from sparse camera array for pop-out rendering on hologram displays

A hologram of a scene can be digitally created by using a large set of images of that scene. Since capturing such a large amount is infeasible to accomplish, one may use view synthesis approaches to reduce the number of cameras and generate the missing views. We propose a view interpolation algorithm that creates views inside the scene, based on a sparse set of camera images. This allows the objects to pop out of the holographic display. We show that our approach outperforms existing view synthesis approaches and show the applicability on holographic stereograms.
CFD-simulation-based optimization of superheater for steam production from waste heat of SRF combustor

ABSTRACT A superheater uses waste heat from a combustor or an incinerator to produce superheated steam through heat exchange between saturated steam and exhaust (flue) gas. Superheaters predominantly use thin tube-type pipes, which makes it difficult to experimentally determine internal phenomena such as the flow, pressure distribution, and temperature distribution. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has recently been used to successfully analyze superheaters. In this study, steam at 180°C and 3.4 bars was converted via a cylindrical superheater into superheated steam above 700°C and 3bars using exhaust gas at 900°C from a solid refuse fuel combustor. The superheated steam was then supplied to a high-temperature solid oxide electrolyte cell to increase the hydrogen production efficiency of water electrolysis. CFD analyses were also conducted using a commercial Fluent simulator to study the effects of the furnace size, superheater size, inlet and outlet diameters, and steam generation amount on the exit temperature. The CFD simulation results were determined to be valid by a pilot experimental apparatus, which showed that the error rate between the experimental measurements and the simulation results was less than 2%. For the same volume, the superheater with the largest surface area (0.4-m diameter and 1-m length) produced the highest exit temperature. For steam inlet and outlet diameters of 8 mm, the highest exit temperature was 652°C. By reducing the flow rate to 70 kg/h, steam at over 700°C and 3 bars could be obtained under these optimal conditions.
Investigation on applicability of time-averaged X-ray CT images in two-phase flow measurement

ABSTRACT Measuring the void fraction between fuel rods contributes to optimizing the geometrical design of fuel bundles for boiling water reactors (BWR). In this article, a method for reconstructing a three-dimensional void fraction distribution of two-phase flow by using an X-ray CT system is proposed. The performance was evaluated by both simulation and experiment. The simulation results suggested that the accuracy of the proposed method was within ±0.02, and from the experimental results, the void fraction in gas-liquid two-phase flows was successfully obtained with sufficient accuracy.
A Nonencapsulative Pendulum‐Like Paper–Based Hybrid Nanogenerator for Energy Harvesting

The newly invented triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is deemed to be a more efficient strategy than an electromagnetic generator (EMG) in harvesting low‐frequency (<2 Hz) water wave energy. Various TENGs with different structures and functions for blue energy have been developed, which can be roughly divided into two types: liquid–solid contact electrification TENGs and fully enclosed solid–solid contact electrification TENGs. Robustness and packaging are critical factors in the development of TENGs toward practical applications. Furthermore, for fully enclosed TENGs, the requirements and costs of packaging are very high, and they can difficult to disassemble after enclosed, if there is something wrong with the devices. Herein, a nonencapsulative pendulum‐like paper based hybrid nanogenerator for energy harvesting is designed, which mainly consists of three parts, one solar panel, two paper based zigzag multilayered TENGs, and three EMG units. This unique structure reveals the superior robustness and a maximum peak power of zigzag multilayered TENGs up to 22.5 mW is realized. Moreover, the device can be used to collect the mechanical energy of human motion in hand shaking. This work presents a new platform of hybrid generators toward energy harvesting as a portable practical power source, which has potential applications in navigation and lighting.
The Electrical Activity of the Cortex

CHANGES of electric potential are often the most valuable sign of cell activity. They can be followed however rapidly they occur, they can be detected by electrodes at a distance from the active region and they are often the only direct source of information available. This, at least, is true of the nervous system. Impulses in nerve-fibres can be detected by their effects on the muscles or on consciousness, but the detailed analysis of a nervous discharge can only be made from records of the action potentials in the nerve. In the cerebral cortex we are badly in need of such detailed information: there are special difficulties to be overcome, but the recording of potential changes has already brought to light some unexpected facts about the activity of the cortex in animals and in man. The main problem which arises in utilizing the action potentials in the brain is that there is far too much to record. The electrocardiogram is easy to interpret because the heart muscle behaves as a single unit. The wave of activity passes over it according to a regular time table, almost as though the heart were a single large muscle or nerve-fibre, and now that its normal route is known it is an easy matter to check the progress of the wave by recording the shifting potentials on the body. But if each of us had several hearts beating independently the analysis would become impossible unless we could devise some means of recording separately from each in turn. In skeletal muscle and in nerve, where there are a number of units acting independently, there are several methods by which it is possible to record separately from the individual motor units or nerve-fibres. The result is a great simplification of the picture; in the whole nerve the potential changes appear as a confused irregular oscillation, but in a single nerve-fibre the impulses form a regular series rising and falling in frequency but identical in size. In the grey matter of the central nervous system these methods cannot be used and we have no way of recording the activity of single units. Fortunately, however, the cortex need not be regarded as a system of several million independent units. The cells act in groups, small or large, and sometimes there is a fairly simple co-ordinated wave spreading over a wide area. Activity of this kind occurs only in special conditions, but it gives rise to relatively simple potential changes, and if very many units are involved the potentials are large--large enough to record in man through the unopened skull.