XII Sc. 26-Aug

Buildings, 2022

Digitalization of the AEC-FM industry has resulted in the reassessment of knowledge, knowledge management, teaching and learning, workflows and networks, roles, and relevance. Consequently, new approaches to teaching and learning to meet the demands of new jobs and abilities, new channels of communication, and a new awareness are required. Building Information Modelling (BIM) offers opportunities to address some of the current challenges through BIM-enabled education and training. This research defines the requisite characteristics of a BIM-enabled Learning Environment (BLE)—a web-based platform that facilitates BIM-enabled education and training—in order to develop a prototype version of the BLE. Using a mixed-methods research design and an Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST) perspective for interpreting the findings, 33 features and 5 distinct intentions behind those features were identified. These findings are valuable in taking forward the development of the BLE as they suggest ...

We present a stochastic optimization model for planning capacity expansion under capacity deterioration and demand uncertainty. The paper focuses on the electric sector, although the methodology can be used in other applications. The goals of the model are deciding which energy types must be installed, and when. Another goal is providing an initial generation plan for short periods of the planning horizon that might be adequately modified in real time assuming penalties in the operation cost. Uncertainty is modeled under the assumption that the demand is a random vector. The cost of the risk associated with decisions that may need some tuning in the future is included in the objective function. The proposed scheme to solve the nonlinear stochastic optimization model is Generalized Benders' decomposition. We also exploit the Benders' sub-problem structure to solve it efficiently. Computational results for moderate-size problems are presented along with comparison to a general-purpose nonlinear optimization package.

The Journal of STEM Outreach, 2021

Language diversity is increasing in the United States. This growth has implications for language preference, cost, quality, and client outcomes in health services settings. However, language diversity among medical and allied health professionals is lacking. Education pipeline programs are a mechanism to prepare bi-and multilingual diverse students to enter health careers. The Community of Bilingual English-Spanish Speakers Exploring Issues in Science and Health (CBESS) is one such program. Through peer mentorship from Leadership Trainees (LT), and a multicomponent 17-month education curriculum, CBESS was designed to increase interest in STEM careers among English-Spanish bilingual high school youth. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted high school students' education and forced programs to innovate. CBESS was no exception. The most significant modifications were to a) expectations of SRs for a successful Summer Virtual Research Program (SVRP), b) LT roles, and c) scope and delivery of summer science content. A preliminary evaluation was conducted from data collected through pre-post surveys, process data, and focus groups. Among the outcomes were a significant increase in science knowledge among SVRP youth participants as well as no significant differences between cohort 1 and 2 suggesting that changes did not impede program goals. LTs highlighted skills needed and role of mentors. Adaptations were successful and will continue with the 2021 cohort.

Journal of Teacher Education and Research, 2022

This study aims to find out the factors that hinder the students in learning Integrated Art Education. A descriptive research design was utilized in the conduct of the study. The researcher prepared a questionnaire with 15 closed-ended-questions that could be answered objectively. The study discovered that the students would learn more when they feel that they belong to a certain group. Interests in a subject also matter, that the more you are interested in a particular subject, the more you will learn the material. Parent support marks an impact on the student's interest in learning Arts. Therefore, personal interest in a subject must be given attention and managed properly. Parent's support also plays a vital role in reinforcing the students on what to pursue in order to maintain their motivation.

Proceedings of 2013 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment and Learning for Engineering (TALE), 2013

In this paper, we present an automatic marking system for marking interactive exercises related to heuristic search algorithms. It aims to assist tutors in assessing the performance of students and reduce the workload associated with their marking task. Also, it provides individualized and immediate feedback to the students. Automatic marking is achieved in two stages. First, the system compares a student's answer with the correct one, using the 'edit distance' metric, and identifies the type of the answer, based on its completeness and accuracy as well as taking into account carelessness or inattention of the student. Second, it automatically marks the answer based on the answer's type and the edit distance value. The system has been evaluated on a number of interactive exercises and its performance has been compared against that of an expert tutor. The experimental results are quite promising.

Information and Software Technology, 2011

The globalisation of activities associated with software development and use has introduced many challenges in practice, and also (therefore) many for research. While the predominant approach to research in software engineering has followed a positivist science model, this approach may be sub-optimal when addressing problems with a dominant social or cultural dimension, such as those frequently encountered when studying work practices in a globally distributed team setting. The investigation of such a team reported in this paper provides one example of an alternative approach to research in a global context, through a longitudinal interpretive field study seeking to understand how global virtual teams mediated the use of technology. The study involved a large collective of faculty and support staff plus student members based in the geographically and temporally distant locations of New Zealand, the United States of America and Sweden. Objective: Our focus in this paper is on the conduct of research in the context of global software activities, and in particular, as applied to the actions and interactions of global virtual teams. We consider the appropriateness of various methodologies and methods in enabling such issues to be addressed. Method: We describe how we undertook a substantial field study of global virtual teams, and highlight how the adopted structuration theory, action research and grounded theory methodologies applied to the analysis of email data, enabled us to deliver effectively against our goals. Results: We believe that the approach taken suited a research context in which situated practices were occurring over time in a highly complex domain, ensuring that our results were both strongly grounded and relevant to practice. It has resulted in the generation of substantive theory and techniques that have been adapted and applied on a pilot basis in further field settings. Conclusion: We conclude that globally distributed teamwork presents a complex context which demands new research approaches, beyond the limited set customarily applied by software engineering researchers. We advocate experimenting with different research methodologies and methods so that we have a more rounded repertoire to address the most important and relevant issues in global software development research, with the forms of rigour that suit the chosen approach.

The effects of climate and landscape change on biodiversity are relatively well described. However, there is limited understanding of the interactions between these processes, which generally operate at differing spatial scales. My objective was to evaluate the synergistic effects of climate and landscape changes on persistence and range shift dynamics. The model species was the Cabrera vole, Microtus cabrerae, a habitat specialist with limited dispersal ability. The present study demonstrated that, as a result of the combined effects of climate and landscape change, this species’ future potential distribution will be considerably reduced. The combined effect of climate change and landscape connectivity was assessed using the software MetaLandSim, a newly developed package, with a good balance between data requirements and output quality, allowing researchers to account for connectivity and dispersal in range forecasting. With this R package, the species’ metapopulational dynamics could be simulated at the landscape scale, and range expansion for different connectivity scenarios could be computed.

Proceedings of the 4th Asia Pacific Education Conference (AECON 2017), 2017

The educational systems, commissioned by the Constitution, shall reach out to nearby communities by participating in local and national societies' civic programs. The Angeles University Foundation-College of Education (AUF-CED), a Center of Excellence (COE)-recognized institution, realizes that literacy education should be delivered and integrated through community extension to enhance personnel's capacity building by extending expertise to the partner community. In effect, using Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI-5) by Leslie and Caldwell (2011), this study described the best practices of AUF-CED's remedial reading program implementing procedure and evaluated its impact among267 pupil-respondents' reading performance categorized under frustration level as indicated by difficulty in decoding, word recognition, miscues, slow reading speed, and poor comprehension. Findings revealed the program's favorable impact on participants' reading performance as evidenced by the significant differences in the pretest and posttest results. Lack of significant difference in the miscues committed and the reading speed could be attributed to program's short span and tutees' absenteeism. Recommendations include project's sustainability and improvement and provision of well-planned and implemented trainings to have greater impact on the clienteles and the community.

Journal of Research in Mathematics Education

Our aim is to contribute to the body of research on learning trajectories (LTs) in mathematics by making visible a process for articulating a hypothetical learning trajectory implicit in a widely adopted, reform-based, middle-grades mathematics curriculum. In doing so, we highlight considerations, decisions, and challenges we faced as part of this work. By describing our LT articulation process, our aim is to highlight ways in which curriculum-specific LTs can be articulated to serve as a more proximal and instrumental tool for teachers’ instructional practice. Furthermore, to illustrate we describe how the products of the work were used in practice-based professional learning experiences with middle-grades mathematics teachers.

Cell Cycle, 2006

We would like to thank Nevan Krogan, Alain Verreault and Jonathan Weissman for supplying strains for these studies. We also thank Blerta Xhemalce for critical reading of the manuscript. We also recognize members of the Toczyski lab for scientific suggestions pertaining to the unpublished data presented here. Funding for this work was generously provided by the NIH.