Exploring novel auditory displays for supporting accelerated skills acquisition and enhanced performance in motorsport

This paper explores the design, development and evaluation of a novel real-time auditory display system for accelerated racing driver skills acquisition. The auditory feedback provides concurrent sensory augmentation and performance feedback using a novel target matching design. Real-time, dynamic, tonal audio feedback representing lateral G-force (a proxy for tire slip) is delivered to one ear whilst a target lateral G-force value representing the ‘limit’ of the car, to which the driver aims to drive, is panned to the driver’s other ear; tonal match across both ears signifies that the ‘limit’ has been reached. An evaluation approach was established to measure the efficacy of the audio feedback in terms of performance, workload and drivers’ assessment of self-efficacy. A preliminary human subject study was conducted in a driving simulator environment. Initial results are encouraging, indicating that there is potential for performance gain and driver confidence enhancement based on the audio feedback.

Supply chain learning needs:towards a port community perspective

The traditional role of ports in the wider supply chain context is currently being subject to a process of radical review. In broad terms, the traditional model is being replaced by a model which focuses on higher value and more knowledge intensive activities. This trend requires a change in the way in which new knowledge and skills are developed by staff in companies of all kinds within port communities. Traditional models need to be re-evaluated to reflect the increasing importance of knowledge and skills acquisition, particularly in relation to the supply chain management (SCM) concept and the evolving role of information and communications technology (ICT) in improving supply chain capability. This paper describes the case of NITL’s Foundation Certificate Programme (FCP) learning programme with specific reference to its use in addressing some of current shortcomings related to supply chain knowledge and skills in port communities. The FCP rationale is based on the need to move from traditional approaches of supply chain organisation where the various links in the chain were measured and managed in isolation from each other and thus tended to operate at cross purposes, towards more cooperative and integrated approaches.

Reading skills are related to global, but not local, acoustic pattern perception

Although reading ability has been related to the processing of simple pitch features such as isolated transitions or continuous modulation spoken language also contains complex patterns of pitch changes that are important for establishing stress location and for segmenting the speech stream. These aspects of spoken language processing depend critically on pitch pattern (global structure) rather than on absolute pitch values (local structure). Here we show that the detection of global structure, and not local structure, is predictive of performance on measures of phonological skill and reading ability, which supports a critical importance of pitch contour processing in the acquisition of literacy.

Utilising fiction to promote english language acquisition

Towards the end of the university stage, students residing in the United Arab Emirates and specialising in subjects other than English are expected- amongst other university requirements- to have acquired adequate communicative competence as well as a repertoire of critical thinking skills. Despite the efforts made within the field of teaching English to EFL university students in the country, the output gained in terms of acquired skills and competencies is still below expectations. The main concerns of the current thesis are, therefore, a) to investigate the factors which inhibit EFL university students’ progress in the areas of acquiring adequate communicative competence as well as critical thinking skills, and b) to propose a course book and pedagogic methods to improve students’ progress in the areas of acquiring adequate communicative competence as well as critical thinking skills. Believing in the essential role literature plays in enhancing critical thinking and promoting communicative competence on the part of EFL learners, the current study introduces a course, designed and implemented by the researcher: LEARN AND GAIN. The proposed course is fiction-based language teaching, adopting the view that literature is a resource rather than an object, thus advocating the use of literature as one of the main resources in foreign/second language acquisition. Investigating whether or not the proposed course was effective in promoting EFL university students’ communicative competence as well as enhancing their critical thinking skills, a study sample taken from the study population was selected. Adopting an experimental design, the research project involved two groups: experimental and control. The experimental group students were exposed to the proposed course whilst the control group students were exposed to a general English language course. To examine treatment effectiveness, the researcher set and administered a pre-post test. Divided into two main parts, communicative critical reading competence and communicative critical writing competence, the pre-post test measured subjects’ communicative critical reading competence and subjects’ communicative critical writing competence. In addition, a pre-post questionnaire was administered and a semi-structured interview was conducted involving the experimental group students, to gain an awareness of students’ attitudes towards learning literary texts in general, and the proposed course in particular. To examine issues of interest and relevance, gender differences: male vs. female, and university major: science vs. non-science, were also examined for enrichment purposes. For the purpose of gathering sufficient data about subjects’ achievements on the pre-post, the following statistical tests were conducted: Mann-Whitney test, and paired data t-test. Based on the statistical findings, the experimental group students’ performance on the communicative critical reading competence pre-post test and the communicative critical writing competence pre-post test was significantly better than their counterparts of the control group students. Speaking of gender differences in relation to language performance on the communicative critical reading competence pre-post test and the communicative critical writing competence pre-post test, no significant differences were cited. Neither did the researcher cite any significant performance differences between science/non-science students on the communicative critical reading competence pre-post test and the communicative critical writing competence pre-post test. As far as the questionnaire’s findings are concerned, the experimental group students’ responses to the post-questionnaire’s items were more positive than those of their responses to the pre-questionnaire’s, thus indicating some positive attitudes towards literature, which students possibly gained throughout the course of implementation. Relating the discussion to the interview’s results, students conveyed their satisfaction with the proposed course, emphasising that promoting English language skills through the use of literary texts was rewarding. In the light of findings and conclusions, a number of recommendations as well as implications have been proposed. The current study aimed to arrive at some appropriate suggestions to a number of enquiries, yet concluding with some areas of enquiry to be explored for further research.

From transferred technology to technological capability:a framework for examining the acquisition of technological capability by Chinese enterprises

This paper conceptualises the enhancement of technological capability by firms, following international technology transfer, as an evolutionary process. During this process, the existing technological, managerial and other complementary resources may require restructuring. Since China is in transition from central planning to market orientation, the organisational and managerial practices of Chinese firms are different from those of international technology suppliers. Resourcebased and evolutionary theories of the firm, which provide insights into the evolution of structures, mechanisms, skills, experiences and technical know-how, have been applied to outline the processes of acquiring technological capability. Selected case studies have been used to illustrate the issues and the framework provides guide for further empirical work.