bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Introducing Educational Technology into the Higher Education Environment
Authors: Van Ryneveld Linda
Published: October 2016

Over the past decade or two advancements in educational technology have taken place so swiftly that it threatens to revolutionize the education system. This phenomena seem to drive higher education institutions to respond with costly roll out plans that bring state of the art computing hard- and software, together with other highly specialized educational technologies, to their campuses. The dilemma is that these investments in educational technology are often made in isolation, without consideration for imperative aspects such as professional development. To progress, educators need to acquire the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary to make optimal use of the technology. This can be achieved, among other, by means of well-structured professional development programmes. In this chapter the author explores the role of educational technology in higher education and establishes the need for capacity building by means of carefully designed professional development programmes. It furthermore suggests an alternative professional development framework.
Curriculum Development and Scientific Research
Authors: Makewa Lazarus Ndiku
Published: October 2016

As a science, knowledge created during curriculum development should be both generated and placed within a scientific research corpus, peer reviewed, and published. In the context of science, the knowledge generated during the process of developing curriculum should be generated and placed within the public domain in a scientific manner. This chapter will describe a framework for curriculum development, study and evaluation of research based curricula. It will also provide a description of the framework, which will include three categories of activities and 10 phases that are embedded within those categories. It will propose that curriculum research should provide an ideal context for building a scientific knowledge base for education curriculum development.
Technology-Enabled Learning Opportunities
Authors: Manzoor Amir
Published: October 2016

No generation is more at ease with technology than today's young people. This generation of students has grown up in an immersive computing environment and come to the school equipped with latest electronic gadgets such as smart phones, laptops and iPods. Educational technology supports meaningful learning and facilitates group interaction. The technology-based learning is especially useful in helping students conceptualize phenomena and processes. This chapter examines the role of technology in shaping the future of higher education by providing unique opportunities of learning. The chapter also discusses challenges of technology-enabled learning and offer specific recommendations to overcome these challenges.
An Online Course Design for Inservice Teacher Professional Development in a Digital Age
Authors: Lee Kyungmee , Brett Clare
Published: October 2016

This chapter introduces a practical model for teacher educators concerned with designing online courses for inservice teachers' technological knowledge learning and its implementation in their teaching. A double-layered CoP model has been developed and repeatedly applied in the teacher professional development (TPD) context using a design-based research (DBR) approach. DBR provides an iterative cycle of design, implementation, evaluation and improvement of the design. This chapter includes a detailed description of the design context of the model including design considerations and theoretical frameworks upon which the model is based. The chapter also demonstrates how the model works in practice referencing important issues in current teacher education practices and offering suggestions for how DBR can guide teacher educators' teaching and research practices. Four course participants' learning experiences are presented as case studies to illustrate more clearly the way the model seems to be facilitating teachers' learning processes.
Introducing iPads into Primary Mathematics Classrooms
Authors: Attard Catherine
Published: October 2016

The fast pace of technology has meant that new technologies are often being introduced into classrooms without knowledge of how they can be used to enhance teaching and learning in mathematics. This chapter explores how a small group of teachers used a new technology, the iPad, to teach mathematics within the first six months of their implementation and without the support of professional development. Findings from two separate studies are presented to support the argument that care should be taken when introducing any new technology to teach mathematics in primary classrooms and appropriate professional development that addresses the combination of mathematical content, pedagogy and technology is critical for all teachers, regardless of teaching experience.
STEM Learning in Middle Grades by Technology-Mediated Integration of Science and Mathematics
Authors: Dass Pradeep Maxwell , Spagnolo John T.
Published: October 2016

In an attempt to foster inquiry-oriented learning in middle grades (grades 6 – 8), a technology mediated pedagogy integrating science and mathematics was promoted through Project SMILE (Science and Mathematics Integration for Literacy Enhancement). It involved in-service teachers in professional learning and classroom implementation over a period of two academic years, with the explicit goal of enhancing teachers' ability to foster more authentic inquiry in their classes. This chapter describes the design of Project SMILE in the context of recent reform efforts in science and mathematics education, along with the theoretical underpinnings for the design. Project activities, followed by the research methodology employed to investigate the impact on both teachers and students are described next. Finally, research results and their implications are discussed with an eye toward the usefulness of integrating science and mathematics and involving specific technological tools to foster greater inquiry-oriented learning in school science and mathematics.
Distributed Cognition
Authors: Carr Sherah Betts , Johnson Nneka , Bush Lucy
Published: October 2016

This work uses the framework of distributed cognition for understanding the way that educators perceive cognition in classroom application. The focus is on the elements of technological tools and peers as extensions of students' cognitive capacity. A qualitative study was conducted with teachers at a combined middle and secondary school in an urban area. Data from interviews in this exploratory case study revealed that teachers had minimal awareness of distributed cognition especially in terms of developing and assessing student learning outcomes. Teachers particularly struggled with ways to label, quantify and apply this construct. One unexpected finding was the concern about a lack of student expertise in utilizing tools. Suggestions call for systemic changes in curriculum, instruction and assessment. A focus on instructional technology as a mediator for critical thinking and problem solving is advocated. Additional reform measures include a renewed look at educators' epistemology through transformative professional learning.
Using Reason Racer to Support Argumentation in Middle School Science Instruction
Authors: Ault Marilyn , Craig-Hare Jana , Ellis James D. , Bulgren Janis , Kretschmer Isa , Frey Bruce B.
Published: October 2016

With secondary students reporting that they are not attracted to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) disciplines, educators are turning to games as one strategy to engage students. The goal of integrating games into science learning is to create an excitement difficult to achieve with typical instruction. This chapter reviews games in education, particularly in STEM. Recognizing that teachers often lack the time to integrate role-playing games, the use of casual games is suggested. Casual games are easy to learn and simple to play, and incorporate game features designed to compel students to repeated play. The Reason Racer game addresses the difficult skill of scientific argumentation in a casual, competitive game. Evaluated with more than 700 students, those who played the game at least 10 times during science instruction over 6-weeks improved in every aspect of argumentation, and reported an increase in confidence and motivation to engage in science, compared to those who did not play the game. Readers are walked through the game and the resources in the Teacher Portal.
Teacher Insight on RTI Implementation at the Middle and High School Levels
Authors: Epler Pam L.
Published: October 2016

The Response to Intervention (RTI) service delivery model has been incorporated at the elementary school level with success but is still lagging behind within the secondary school environment. This chapter demonstrates how two secondary schools, one a middle school and the other a high school, implemented the RTI model efficiently and effectively. The chapter shows that the RTI model can be successfully executed in different ways depending on a school's needs, funding, and personnel. The chapter provides details on the diagnostic practices, data collection methods, intervention strategies, administrative support, and professional development of each implemented model and includes insight from actual teachers and school counselors who participated in the implementations. A reflection on lessons learned from each school site is included.
Enacting a Cycle of Inquiry Capstone Research Project in Doctoral-Level Leadership Preparation
Authors: Cosner Shelby , Tozer Steve , Zavitkovsky Paul
Published: October 2016

Over the last decade, the doctorate in Urban Education Leadership at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) has been redesigned to respond to two distinct but important challenges: (a) the challenge of creating greater distinction between the academic and professional doctorates, and (b) the challenge of improving the nature and quality of its principal preparation program. Within the context of a broader multi-year program improvement and redesign effort, program faculty designed and enacted an alternate Culminating Research Experience (CRE) for their doctoral students. This CRE emphasizes the leadership of cycles of inquiry for school-wide improvement over a two-year period of time and the subsequent analysis of this work using empirical and scholarly literature. The accounting provided in this article advances existing literature by making visible many of the important granular details associated with this CRE as well as considerations associated with its design and implementation within a doctoral-level leadership preparation program.
School Principals' Communication and Co-Operation Assessment
Authors: Ercegovac Ina Reić , Alfirević Nikša , Koludrović Morana
Published: October 2016

This chapter is conceptualized in terms of managerial behaviour in non-profit/public environments, which is often characterized by the socially constructed notion of organizational efficiency. This entails that the favourable external stakeholders' interpretations of the principals' activities should be ensured and associated with the usage of practices, perceived as ‘contemporary' and ‘efficient'. There is no clear answer to the research question, if principals in EU, as managers of public/non-profit schools, adapt their behaviour in a similar manner. The empirical research is based on a survey of school principals, conducted in Croatian primary schools, as a first step toward developing a measure of school principals' communication and co-operation practices, demonstrating their orientation toward both internal and external stakeholders in the school environment.
Aligning Strategy and Information Technology
Authors: Caffrey Eamonn , McDonagh Joe
Published: October 2016

The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with high-level insights into the complexities of aligning strategy and Information Technology (IT) by reviewing core areas of the extant strategic alignment literature. Strategic alignment has proven to be a perennial issue for organizations and management teams alike for more than three decades now. In some quarters, the actual meaning of the concept is ambiguous, and the chapter aims to provide a clear understanding of what strategic alignment fully means and involves. The chapter addresses the origins of the construct and elicits many of the known reasons that describe the inherent challenges from a practical management point-of-view. Insights into various perspectives are shared based on past empirical studies. Given that strategic alignment is embedded with the very essence of strategy, insights into context, content, and process as they relate to this important IT management domain are presented.
Becoming Teacher Researchers
Authors: Razfar Aria , Troiano Beverly , Nasir Ambareen , Yang Eunah , Rumenapp Joseph C. , Torres Zayoni
Published: October 2016

Drawing on three years of data, we show how an embedded university research team and eleven K-8 educators reorganized learning and negotiated innovative curricular activities for English learners (ELs) in spite of restrictive curricular mandates in an urban Midwestern district. We analyze how participating teachers appropriated theoretical constructs such as cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), third space, funds of knowledge, as well as using discourse analysis to design curriculum aimed at improving language learning through mathematics, science, and community-based problem solving. The learning of teachers was purposefully designed to develop new professional identities. The learning was also designed to move teachers from deficit views of multilingualism to dynamic stances grounded in polyglot language ideologies. We examine the challenges and opportunities of participants' movement from resistant, procedural, and ethnographic identities towards teacher researcher identities.
Mining Learning Behavioral Patterns of Students by Sequence Analysis in Cloud Classroom
Authors: Liu Sanya , Hu Zhenfan , Peng Xian , Liu Zhi , Cheng H. N. H. , Sun Jianwen
Published: October 2016

In a MOOC environment, each student's interaction with the course content is a crucial clue for learning analytics, which offers an opportunity to record learner activity of unprecedented scale. In online learning, the educators and the administrators need to get informed with students' learning states since the performance of unsupervised learning style is difficult to control. Learning analytics considered as a key process is to provide students and educators with evidence-based, analytical and contextual outcomes in a way of making sense of their learning engagements. In this conceptual framework, this manuscript per the authors intends to adopt sequential analysis method to exploit students' learning behavior patterns in Cloud classroom (an online course platform based on MOOC). Moreover, this research also compares the behavioral patterns of four grade levels in a university, with the purpose of finding the most key behavioral patterns of each grade group.
Recognition of Learner's Personality Traits through Digital Annotations in Distance Learning
Authors: Omheni Nizar , Kalboussi Anis , Mazhoud Omar , Kacem Ahmed Hadj
Published: October 2016

Researchers in distance education are interested in observing and modelling of learner's personality profile, and adapting their learning experiences accordingly. When learners read and interact with their reading materials, they do unselfconscious activities like annotation which may be key feature of their personalities. Annotation activity requires the reader to be active, to think critically and to analyse what has been written, and to make specific annotations in the margins of the text. These traces are reflected through underlining, highlighting, scribbling comments, summarizing, asking questions, expressing confusion or ambiguity, and evaluating the content of reading. In this paper, the authors present a semi-automatic approach to build learners' personality profiles based on their annotation traces yielded during active reading sessions. The experimental results show the system's efficiency to measure, with reasonable accuracy, the scores of learner's personality traits.
Automated Scoring of Chinese Engineering Students' English Essays
Authors: Liu Ming , Wang Yuqi , Xu Weiwei , Liu Li
Published: October 2016

The number of Chinese engineering students has increased greatly since 1999. Rating the quality of these students' English essays has thus become time-consuming and challenging. This paper presents a novel automatic essay scoring algorithm called PSO-SVR, based on a machine learning algorithm, Support Vector Machine for Regression (SVR), and a computational intelligence algorithm, Particle Swarm Optimization, which optimizes the parameters of SVR kernel functions. Three groups of essays, written by chemical, electrical and computer science engineering majors respectively, were used for evaluation. The study result shows that this PSO-SVR outperforms traditional essay scoring algorithms, such as multiple linear regression, support vector machine for regression and K Nearest Neighbor algorithm. It indicates that PSO-SVR is more robust in predicting irregular datasets, because the repeated use of simple content words may result in the low score of an essay, even though the system detects higher cohesion but no spelling error.
A Comparative Study on Various Vocabulary Knowledge Scales for Predicting Vocabulary Pre-Knowledge
Authors: Zou Di , Xie Haoran , Rao Yanghui , Wong Tak-Lam , Wang Fu Lee , Wu Qingyuan
Published: October 2016

The world has encountered and witnessed the great popularity of various emerging e-learning resources such as massive open online courses (MOOCs), textbooks and videos with the development of the big data era. It is critical to understand the characteristics of users to assist them to find desired and relevant learning resources in such a large volume of resources. For example, understanding the pre-knowledge on vocabulary of learners is very prominent and useful for language learning systems. The language learning effectiveness can be significantly improved if the pre-knowledge levels of learners on vocabulary can be accurately predicted. In this research, the authors model the vocabulary of learners by extracting their history of learning documents and identify the suitable vocabulary knowledge scales (VKS) for pre-knowledge prediction. The experimental results on real participants verify that the optimal VKS and the proposed predicting model are powerful and effective.
Role of Enhancing Visual Effects Education Delivery to Encounter Career Challenges in Malaysia
Authors: Ng Lynn-Sze
Published: October 2016

Problem-based Learning (PBL) is one of the most effective methods of instruction that helps Visual Effects (VFX) students to be more adaptable at encountering career challenges in Malaysia. These challenges are; lack of several important requirements such as, the basic and fundamental knowledge of VFX concepts, the ability to understand real-world problems and to convert ideas into VFX solutions, the ability to attain and retain up-to-date knowledge of VFX concepts, and perhaps most importantly, the ability to come up with solutions to real-world problems. Its role in helping students; thus, encompasses improving the level of meaningfulness of their learning experience, and their skills in terms of comprehension, knowledge retention, problem-solving, self-directed learning, as well as interpersonal skills. The use of PBL helps VFX students to cope with the encounters of the career challenges in Malaysia that may be enhanced by focusing on a faculty-wide approach as compared to applying it on a course at a time. Moreover, such methods of enhancing VFX education delivery in Malaysia are to encourage reflective practices and PBL based dialogues on VFX, and to increase the level of VFX competence of instructors through improved training methods.
Students' Learning in Asynchronous Discussion Forums
Authors: Martono Fkipuntan , Salam Urai
Published: October 2016

Asynchronous discussion forums are among the most preferred tools chosen to foster learning opportunities and knowledge construction. To reveal the cognitive engagement evidenced in the transcripts of the discussion forums, this study presents 51 papers. 17 papers reported research on students' attitude toward the use of ICT for learning, 16 papers revealed methodologies used in the field and 18 papers presented knowledge construction collaboration processes in online discussion forums. The primary sources for searching the papers were journals, proceedings and book chapters on educational technology. The starting point was the journals and proceedings that directly address ICT in education. The analysis shows that the majority of studies reported the level of students' knowledge construction remained in low level of cognitive engagement. The significance of the communication taking place through the mediation of computers seemed to depend greatly on the design of the classroom processes and explicit and tacit roles of teachers in providing straightforward guidance about students' participation in asynchronous discussions.
Exploring the Design Space of Bezel-Initiated Gestures for Mobile Interaction
Authors: Li Wing Ho Andy , Zhu Kening , Fu Hongbo
Published: October 2016

Bezel enables useful gestures supplementary to primary surface gestures for mobile interaction. However, the existing works mainly focus on researcher-designed gestures, which utilized only a subset of the design space. In order to explore the design space, the authors present a modified elicitation study, during which the participants designed bezel-initiated gestures for four sets of tasks. Different from traditional elicitation studies, theirs encourages participants to design new gestures. The authors do not focus on individual tasks or gestures, but perform a detailed analysis of the collected gestures as a whole, and provide findings which could benefit designers of bezel-initiated gestures.
A Predictive Linear Regression Model for Affective State Detection of Mobile Touch Screen Users
Authors: Bhattacharya Samit
Published: October 2016

Emotion, being important human factor, should be considered to improve user experience of interactive systems. For that, we first need to recognize user's emotional state. In this work, the author proposes a model to predict the affective state of a touch screen user. The prediction is done based on the user's finger strokes. The author defined seven features on the basis of the strokes. The proposed predictor is a linear combination of these features, which the author obtained using a linear regression approach. The predictor assumes three affective states in which a user can be: positive, negative and neutral. The existing works on affective touch interaction are few and rely on many features. Some of the feature values require special sensors, which may not be present in many devices. The seven features we propose do not require any special sensor for computation. Hence, the predictor can be implemented on any device. The model is developed and validated with empirical data involving 57 participants performing 7 touch input tasks. The validation study demonstrates a high prediction accuracy of 90.47%.
Experimental Investigation On Cylinder Vibration Analysis, Combustion, Emission and Performance Of An IDI Engine
Authors: Kancherla Prasada Rao , Basava Venkata Appa Rao
Published: October 2016

An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the performance, emissions, combustion and heat release rate of an Indirect Diesel Injection (IDI) engine fuelled with Mahua methyl ester (MME) along with Methanol (M) additive blends. Smoke, NOx, CO, HC and CO2 emissions were recorded and various engine performance parameters were measured. A comparative study was conducted using diesel, MME and Methanol additive blends on an IDI engine. There is substantial improvement can be observed from the net heat and cumulative heat release rate plots in which the 3% additive blend reached the performance of diesel fuel and the corresponding cylinder vibration plots indicated smoother combustion. Five additive blends were tested, the blending ratios of 1/99, 2/98, 3/97, 4/96 and 5/95 (by vol.) and five discrete part load conditions viz. No Load, 0.77 kW, 1.54 kW, 2.31 kW, and 2.70 kW loads without gear box and clutch assembly ensuring stable engine operation. 57% HC, 20% CO, 14% NOx, 27% smoke reductions were observed at 3% additive at maximum opted load (2.70 kW and 1500 rpm) of the engine.
Classification of Sentiment of Reviews using Supervised Machine Learning Techniques
Authors: Tripathy Abinash , Rath Santanu Kumar
Published: October 2016

Sentiment analysis helps to determine hidden intention of the concerned author of any topic and provides an evaluation report on the polarity of any document. The polarity may be positive, negative or neutral. It is observed that very often the data associated with the sentiment analysis consist of the feedback given by various specialists on any topic or product. Thus, the review may be categorized properly into any sort of class based on the polarity, in order to have a good knowledge about the product. This article proposes an approach to classify the review dataset made on basis of sentiment analysis into different polarity groups. Four machine learning algorithms viz., Naive Bayes (NB), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest, and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) have been considered in this paper for classification process. The obtained result on values of accuracy of the algorithms are critically examined by using different performance parameters, applied on two different datasets.
QASI: A collaboration for implementation of an independent quality assessment programme in India
Authors: Meyers Adrienne F.A. , Bergeron Michèle , Thakar Madhuri , Ding Tao , Martel Alexandre , Sandstorm Paul , Mahajan Bharati , Abraham Philip , Kabra Sandhya , Singh Namita , Peter Trevor , Ball Terry B.
Published: October 2016

Objective: The HIV pandemic remains a significant global health concern. Accurate determination of CD4+ T-cells in patient samples relies on reliable CD4 enumeration. The Quality Assessment and Standardization programme for Immunological measures relevant to HIV/AIDS (QASI) programme of the Public Health Agency of Canada provides clinical laboratories from resource-limited countries with a mechanism to evaluate the quality of CD4 testing and develop the implementation of an independent national External Quality Assessment (EQA) programme. This study describes how QASI helped develop the capacity for managing a sustainable national CD4 EQA programme in India.Design: Supported by the Public Health Agency of Canada and Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, QASI engaged with the National AIDS Control Organization and the Indian National AIDS Research Institute to assist in technology transfer in preparation for the implementation/ management of an independent CD4 EQA programme. Technology transfer training was provided to support corrective actions and to improve the quality of CD4 testing. Inter- laboratory variation of EQA surveys between pre- and post-skill development was compared.Results: Prior to training, coefficient of variation values were 14.7% (mid-level CD4 count controls) and 39.0% (low-level). Following training, variation was reduced to 10.3% for mid- level controls and 20.0% for low-level controls.Conclusion: This training assisted the National AIDS Control Organization and the Indian National AIDS Research Institute in identifying the information necessary for management of an EQA programme, and developed the foundation for India to provide corrective actions for sites with challenges in achieving reliable results for CD4 enumeration. This led to a demonstrable improvement in CD4 testing quality and illustrates how country-specific training significantly improved CD4 enumeration performance for better clinical management of HIV care in India.
Albuterol Improves Alveolar-Capillary Membrane Conductance in Healthy Humans
Authors: Taylor Natalie E. , Baker Sarah E. , Olson Thomas P. , Lalande Sophie , Johnson Bruce D. , Snyder Eric M.
Published: October 2016

Background

Beta-2 adrenergic receptors (β2ARs) are located throughout the body including airway and alveolar cells. The β2ARs regulate lung fluid clearance through a variety of mechanisms including ion transport on alveolar cells and relaxation of the pulmonary lymphatics. We examined the effect of an inhaled β2-agonist (albuterol) on alveolar-capillary membrane conductance (DM) and pulmonary capillary blood volume ( VC) in healthy humans.

Methods

We assessed the diffusing capacity of the lungs for carbon monoxide (DLCO) and nitric oxide (DLNO) at baseline, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes following nebulized albuterol (2.5 mg, diluted in 3 mL normal saline) in 45 healthy subjects. Seventeen subjects repeated these measures following nebulized normal saline (age = 27 ± 9 years, height = 165 ± 21 cm, weight = 68 ± 12 kg, BMI = 26 ± 9 kg/m2). Cardiac output (Q), heart rate, systemic vascular resistance (SVR), blood pressure, oxygen saturation, forced expiratory volume at one-second (FEV1), and forced expiratory flow at 50% of forced vital capacity (FEF50) were assessed at baseline, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes following the administration of albuterol or saline.

Results

Albuterol resulted in a decrease in SVR, and an increase in Q, FEV1, and FEF50compared to saline controls. Albuterol also resulted in a decrease in VCat 60 minutes post albuterol. Both albuterol and normal saline resulted in no change in DLCO or DM when assessed alone, but a significant increase was observed in DM when accounting for changes in VC.

Conclusion

These data suggest that nebulized albuterol improves pulmonary function in healthy humans, while nebulization of both albuterol and saline results in an increase in DM/ VC.
Multiple Effects of Growth Hormone in the Body: Is it Really the Hormone for Growth?
Authors: Devesa Jesús , Almengló Cristina , Devesa Pablo
Published: October 2016

In this review, we analyze the effects of growth hormone on a number of tissues and organs and its putative role in the longitudinal growth of an organism. We conclude that the hormone plays a very important role in maintaining the homogeneity of tissues and organs during the normal development of the human body or after an injury. Its effects on growth do not seem to take place during the fetal period or during the early infancy and are mediated by insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) during childhood and puberty. In turn, IGF-I transcription is dependent on an adequate GH secretion, and in many tissues, it occurs independent of GH. We propose that GH may be a prohormone, rather than a hormone, since in many tissues and organs, it is proteolytically cleaved in a tissue-specific manner giving origin to shorter GH forms whose activity is still unknown.
Noncritical holomorphic functions on Stein spaces
Authors: Forstnerič Franc
Published: October 2016

In this paper we prove that every reduced Stein space admits a holomorphic function without critical points. Furthermore, every closed discrete subset of a reduced Stein space

X

is the critical locus of a holomorphic function on

X

. We also show that for every complex analytic stratification with nonsingular strata on a reduced Stein space there exists a holomorphic function whose restriction to every stratum is noncritical. These result provide some information on critical loci of holomorphic functions on desingularizations of Stein spaces. In particular, every 1-convex manifold admits a holomorphic function that is noncritical outside the exceptional variety.
Legendrian knots and exact Lagrangian cobordisms
Authors: Ekholm Tobias , Honda Ko , Kálmán Tamás
Published: October 2016

We introduce constructions of exact Lagrangian cobordisms with cylindrical Legendrian ends and study their invariants which arise from Symplectic Field Theory. A pair

(X,L)

consisting of an exact symplectic manifold

X

and an exact Lagrangian cobordism

L\subset X

which agrees with cylinders over Legendrian links

\Lambda_+

and

\Lambda_-

at the positive and negative ends induces a differential graded algebra (DGA) map from the Legendrian contact homology DGA of

\Lambda_+

to that of

\Lambda_-

. We give a gradient flow tree description of the DGA maps for certain pairs

(X,L)

, which in turn yields a purely combinatorial description of the cobordism map for elementary cobordisms, i.e., cobordisms that correspond to certain local modifications of Legendrian knots. As an application, we find exact Lagrangian surfaces that fill a fixed Legendrian link and are not isotopic through exact Lagrangian surfaces.
A Quadratic Triangular Finite Volume Element Method for a Semilinear Elliptic Equation
Authors: Xiong Zhiguang , Deng Kang
Published: October 2016

In this paper we extend the idea of interpolated coefficients for a semilinear problem to the quadratic triangular finite volume element method. At first we introduce quadratic triangular finite volume element method with interpolated coefficients for a boundary value problem of semilinear elliptic equation. Next we derive convergence estimate inH1-norm,L2-norm andL∞-norm, respectively. Finally an example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Nonconforming Finite Element Method for the Transmission Eigenvalue Problem
Authors: Ji Xia , Xi Yingxia , Xie Hehu
Published: October 2016

In this paper, we analyze a nonconforming finite element method for the computation of transmission eigenvalues and the corresponding eigenfunctions. The error estimates of the eigenvalue and eigenfunction approximation are given, respectively. Finally, some numerical examples are provided to validate the theoretical results.
Patient Perceptions of Wearable Face-Mounted Computing Technology and the Effect on the DoctorPatient Relationship
Authors: Press Valerie , Meltzer David , Arora Vineet , Prochaska Micah
Published: October 2016

Background Wearable face-mounted computers such as Google Glass™, Microsoft HoloLens™, and Oculus’ Rift®, are increasingly being tested in hospital care. These devices challenge social etiquette, raise privacy issues, and may disrupt the intimacy of the doctor patient relationship. We aimed to determine patients’ perception of and their privacy concerns with an archetype of wearable face-mounted computer devices, Google Glass.

Methods Hospitalized inpatients were asked about their familiarity with Glass, how comfortable they would be and if they would be concerned about privacy if their physician wore Glass, if the use of Glass would affect their trust in their physician, and if they would want their physician to wear Glass if it improved their care.

Results Most (73%) respondents were unfamiliar with Glass, though 64% would be comfortable if their doctor wore Glass. Under half (46%) of respondents were concerned about privacy with the use of Glass. Seventy-six percent (76%) of respondents stated their doctor wearing Glass would not affect their trust in their doctor. Patients concerned about their privacy were less likely to trust their doctor if their doctor wore Glass (17% vs. 0%, p<0.01). Sixty-five percent (65%) of respondents would want their doctor to wear Glass if it improved their care.

Conclusion Most patients appear open to and would want their doctor to use face-mounted wearable computers such as Glass, even when unfamiliar with this technology. While some patients expressed concerns about privacy, patients were much less concerned about wearable technologies affecting the trust they have in their physician.

Citation: Prochaska MT, Press VG, Meltzer DO, Arora VM. Patient perceptions of wearable face-mounted computing technology and the effect on the doctor-patient relationship.
Description of and Preliminary Findings for Occupational Connections, an Intervention for Inpatient Psychiatry Settings
Authors: Lipskaya-Velikovsky Lena , Kotler Moshe , Krupa Terry
Published: October 2016

People with mental health conditions (MHCs) frequently experience participation and functional restrictions. Today, hospitals still serve a significant number of people with MHCs. However, there is little evidence for occupation-oriented interventions to support participation, health, and well-being in these hospital settings. This article describes a newly developed, short-term, structured intervention for the inpatient setting, Occupational Connections (OC), that focuses on promoting everyday functions and participation in daily life and presents preliminary findings for its effectiveness. Ten people with schizophrenia participated in the program during their stay in acute open inpatient units and completed evaluations both pre- and postintervention. Statistics for a small-sample study design were applied to investigate OC’s impact. The results showed OC’s contribution to participation dimensions, functional capacity, cognitive functioning, and reduction in schizophrenia symptoms. On the basis of this pilot study’s results, extended research is now being conducted to strengthen the evidence for OC’s effectiveness.
Predicting Handwriting Legibility in Taiwanese Elementary School Children
Authors: Lee Tzu-I , Howe Tsu-Hsin , Chen Hao-Ling , Wang Tien-Ni
Published: October 2016

This study investigates handwriting characteristics and potential predictors of handwriting legibility among typically developing elementary school children in Taiwan. Predictors of handwriting legibility included visual–motor integration (VMI), visual perception (VP), eye–hand coordination (EHC), and biomechanical characteristics of handwriting. A total of 118 children were recruited from an elementary school in Taipei, Taiwan. A computerized program then assessed their handwriting legibility. The biomechanics of handwriting were assessed using a digitizing writing tablet. The children’s VMI, VP, and EHC were assessed using the Beery–Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual–Motor Integration. Results indicated that predictive factors of handwriting legibility varied in different age groups. VMI predicted handwriting legibility for first-grade students, and EHC and stroke force predicted handwriting legibility for second-grade students. Kinematic factors such as stroke velocity were the only predictor for children in fifth and sixth grades.
Scoping Review of Self-Regulation: What Are Occupational Therapists Talking About?
Authors: Martini Rose , Cramm Heidi , Egan Mary , Sikora Lindsey
Published: October 2016

Although the term self-regulation is appearing more frequently in the occupational therapy literature, the extent to which it is consistently conceptualized is not clear. The aim of this scoping review was to examine how the term self-regulation is used by occupational therapists in research and practice literature. A total of 58 publications that included occupational therapy and self-regulation in the title, key words, or abstract were identified. Self-regulation was not explicitly defined by more than half of the authors. Four theoretical orientations seem to guide conceptualization: synactive development, sensory integration, cognitive–behavioral theory, and self-regulation theory. Conceptualization differed according to the population, levels of strategy use, source of strategy implementation, and desired outcomes. A lack of definitional clarity and conceptual consistency of the term self-regulation was noted. Use of an explicit definition in relation to an identified theoretical framework is recommended to promote intra- and interprofessional communication, education, and research.
Systematic Review of Educational Interventions for Rheumatoid Arthritis
Authors: Carandang Kristine , Pyatak Elizabeth A. , Vigen Cheryl L. P.
Published: October 2016

OBJECTIVE. In this study, we systematically reviewed the effectiveness of educational interventions falling within the scope of occupational therapy practice for people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). These interventions included disease education, joint protection and energy conservation, psychosocial techniques, pain management, and a combination category.

METHOD. Two databases, MEDLINE and CINAHL, and select journals were searched for randomized controlled trials published between January 2002 and June 2015. Qualitative synthesis was used for between-study comparisons.

RESULTS. Twenty-two studies, with approximately 2,600 participants, were included. The interventions were found to have strong evidence for constructs that dealt with increasing coping with pain and fatigue as well as maintaining positive affect. There was limited or no evidence supporting the effectiveness of these interventions on most other measured constructs.

CONCLUSION. Interventions in which a combination of educational techniques is used may complement pharmacological therapies in the care of people with RA. Future research is needed to identify specific mechanisms of change.
Photolysis of frozen iodate salts as a source of active iodine in the polar
environment
Authors: Gálvez Óscar , Baeza-Romero M. Teresa , Sanz Mikel , Saiz-Lopez Alfonso
Published: October 2016

Abstract. Reactive halogens play a key role in the oxidation capacity of the polar troposphere. However, sources and mechanisms, particularly those involving active iodine, are still poorly understood. In this paper, the photolysis of an atmospherically relevant frozen iodate salt has been experimentally studied using infrared (IR) spectroscopy. The samples were generated at low temperatures in the presence of different amounts of water. The IR spectra have confirmed that, under near-ultraviolet–visible (UV–Vis) radiation, iodate is efficiently photolysed. The integrated IR absorption coefficient of the iodate anion on the band at 750 cm−1 has been measured to be A  =  9.8 ± 0.5  ×  10−17 cm molecule−1. The photolysis rate of the ammonium iodate salt was measured by monitoring the decay of ammonium or iodate IR bands (1430 and 750 cm−1 respectively) in the presence of a solar simulator. The absorption cross section of the liquid solutions of ammonium iodate at wavelengths relevant for the troposphere (250 to 400 nm) has been obtained and used to estimate the photolytic quantum yield for the frozen salt. Finally, using an atmospheric model, constrained with the experimental data, we suggest that the photolysis of iodate in frozen salt can potentially provide a pathway for the release of active iodine to the polar atmosphere.
Swiss-AlpArray temporary broadband seismic stations deployment and noise
characterization
Authors: Molinari Irene , Clinton John , Kissling Edi , Hetényi György , Giardini Domenico , Stipčević Josip , Dasović Iva , Herak Marijan , Šipka Vesna , Wéber Zoltán , Gráczer Zoltán , Solarino Stefano ,   the Swiss-AlpArray Field Team,   the AlpArray Working Group
Published: October 2016

Abstract. AlpArray is a large collaborative seismological project in Europe that includes more than 50 research institutes and seismological observatories. At the heart of the project is the collection of top-quality seismological data from a dense network of broadband temporary seismic stations, in compliment to the existing permanent networks, that ensures a homogeneous station coverage of the greater Alpine region. This Alp Array Seismic Network (AASN) began operation in January 2016 and will have a duration of at least 2 years. In this work we report the Swiss contribution to the AASN, we concentrate on the site selection process, our methods for stations installation, data quality and data management. We deployed 27 temporary broadband stations equipped with STS-2 and Trillium Compact 120 s sensors. The deployment and maintenance of the temporary stations across 5 countries is managed by ETH Zurich and it is the result of a fruitful collaboration between five institutes in Europe.
Intercomparability of XCO2 and XCH4 from the United States TCCON sites
Authors: Hedelius Jacob K. , Parker Harrison , Wunch Debra , Roehl Coleen M. , Viatte Camille , Newman Sally , Toon Geoffrey C. , Podolske James R. , Hillyard Patrick W. , Iraci Laura T. , Dubey Manvendra K. , Wennberg Paul O.
Published: October 2016

Abstract. The Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) has become the standard for long-term column-averaged measurements of CO2 and CH4. Here, we use a pair of portable spectrometers to test for intra-network bias among the four currently operating TCCON sites in the United States (U.S.). A previous analytical error analysis has suggested that the maximum 2σ site-to-site relative (absolute) bias of TCCON should be less than 0.2 % (0.8 ppm) in XCO2 and 0.4 % (7 ppb) in XCH4. We find here experimentally that the 95 % confidence intervals for maximum pairwise site-to-site bias among the four U.S. TCCON sites are 0.05–0.14 % for XCO2 and 0.08–0.24 % for XCH4. This is close to the limit of the bias we can detect using this methodology.
Soil properties impacting denitrifier community size, structure, and activity in New Zealand dairy-grazed pasture
Authors: Jha Neha , Saggar Surinder , Giltrap Donna , Tillman Russ , Deslippe Julie
Published: October 2016

Abstract. Denitrification is an anaerobic respiration process that is the primary contributor of the nitrous oxide (N2O) production from grassland soils. Our objective was to gain insight to the relationships between denitrifier community size, structure, and activity for a range of pasture soils. We collected 10 dairy pasture soils with contrasting soil textures, drainage classes, management strategies (effluent irrigated or non-irrigated), and geographic locations in New Zealand, and measured their physicochemical characteristics. We measured denitrifier abundance by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and assessed community structure by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) of the nitrite reductase (nirS, nirK) and N2O reductase (nosZ) genes. We quantified denitrifier enzyme activity (DEA) using acetylene inhibition technique. Differences in the physicochemical characteristics of the soils were driven mainly by soil mineralogy and the management practices of the farms. We found that nirS and nirK communities strongly structured along the gradients of soil water and phosphorus (P) contents. By contrast, the size and structure of the nosZ community was unrelated to any of the measured soil characteristics. In soils with high soil water content the richness and abundances of nirS, nirK and nosZ genes were significantly positively correlated with DEA. Our data suggest that soil moisture, microbial biomass, and fertility were the primary drivers of the structure and abundance of denitrifier communities across a wide range of geologic and geographical soil origins.