Was it good for them? Reflections on the use of MENTOR and changes in course design using general performance measures

This paper considers the use of general performance measures in evaluating specific planning and design decisions in higher education and reflects on the students' learning process. Specifically, it concerns the use of the MENTOR multimedia computer aided learning package for helping students learn about OR as part of a general business degree. It includes the transfer of responsibility for a learning module to a new staff member and a change from a single tutor to a system involving multiple tutors. Student satisfaction measures, learning outcome measures and MENTOR usage patterns are examined in monitoring the effects of the changes in course delivery. The results raise some questions about the effectiveness of general performance measures in supporting specific decisions relating to course design and planning.

Adaptive agents in changing environments, the role of modularity

We explored the role of modularity as a means to improve evolvability in populations of adaptive agents. We performed two sets of artificial life experiments. In the first, the adaptive agents were neural networks controlling the behavior of simulated garbage collecting robots, where modularity referred to the networks architectural organization and evolvability to the capacity of the population to adapt to environmental changes measured by the agents performance. In the second, the agents were programs that control the changes in network's synaptic weights (learning algorithms), the modules were emerged clusters of symbols with a well defined function and evolvability was measured through the level of symbol diversity across programs. We found that the presence of modularity (either imposed by construction or as an emergent property in a favorable environment) is strongly correlated to the presence of very fit agents adapting effectively to environmental changes. In the case of learning algorithms we also observed that character diversity and modularity are also strongly correlated quantities. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Changes in heart rate variability associated with moderate alcohol consumption

Technological advances have driven some attempt of vital parameters monitoring in adverse environments; these improvements will make possible to monitor cardiac activity also in automotive environments. In this scenario, heart rate changes associated with alcohol consumption, become of great importance to assess the drivers state during time. This paper presents the results of a first set of experiments aimed to discover heart rate variability modification induced by moderate assumption of alcoholic drink (i.e. single draft beer) as that typically occurs in weekend among some people. In the study, twenty subjects were enrolled and for each of them two electrocardiographic recordings were carried out: the first before alcohol ingestion and the second after 25-30 minutes. Each participant remained fasting until the second ECG acquisition was completed. ECG signal were analyzed by typical timedomain, frequency and non linear analysis. Results showed a small increase in LF/HF ratio which reflects a dominance of the sympathetic system over the parasympathetic system, and an increase in signal complexity as proven by non linear analysis. However, the study highlighted the need to monitor HRV starting from alcohol ingestion until its complete metabolization to allow a more precise description of its variation. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.