Two-Path All-pass Based Half-Band Infinite Impulse Response Decimation Filters and the Effects of Their Non-Linear Phase Response on ECG Signal Acquisition

This paper is based on the novel use of a very high fidelity decimation filter chain for Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal acquisition and data conversion. The multiplier-free and multi-stage structure of the proposed filters lower the power dissipation while minimizing the circuit area which are crucial design constraints to the wireless noninvasive wearable health monitoring products due to the scarce operational resources in their electronic implementation. The decimation ratio of the presented filter is 128, working in tandem with a 1-bit 3rd order Sigma Delta (ΣΔ) modulator which achieves 0.04 dB passband ripples and -74 dB stopband attenuation. The work reported here investigates the non-linear phase effects of the proposed decimation filters on the ECG signal by carrying out a comparative study after phase correction. It concludes that the enhanced phase linearity is not crucial for ECG acquisition and data conversion applications since the signal distortion of the acquired signal, due to phase non-linearity, is insignificant for both original and phase compensated filters. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, being free of signal distortion is essential as this might lead to misdiagnosis as stated in the state of the art. This article demonstrates that with their minimal power consumption and minimal signal distortion features, the proposed decimation filters can effectively be employed in biosignal data processing units.

Is Experts' Knowledge Modular?

This paper explores, both with empirical data and with computer simulations, the extent to which modularity characterises experts' knowledge. We discuss a replication of Chase and Simon's (1973) classic method of identifying 'chunks', i.e., perceptual patterns stored in memory and used as units. This method uses data about the placement of pairs of items in a memory task and consists of comparing latencies between these items and the number and type of relations they share. We then compare the human data with simulations carried out with CHREST, a computer model of perception and memory. We show that the model, based upon the acquisition of a large number of chunks, accounts for the human data well. This is taken as evidence that human knowledge is organised in a modular fashion.

THE RELATIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF SYNTACTIC KNOWLEDGE AND VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE IN SECOND LANGUAGE LISTENING COMPREHENSION

The main purpose of the current study was to examine the role of vocabulary knowledge (VK) and syntactic knowledge (SK) in L2 listening comprehension, as well as their relative significance. Unlike previous studies, the current project employed assessment tasks to measure aural and proceduralized VK and SK. In terms of VK, to avoid under-representing the construct, measures of both breadth (VB) and depth (VD) were included. Additionally, the current study examined the role of VK and SK by accounting for individual differences in two important cognitive factors in L2 listening: metacognitive knowledge (MK) and working memory (WM). Also, to explore the role of VK and SK more fully, the current study accounted for the negative impact of anxiety on WM and L2 listening. The study was carried out in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, and participants were 263 Iranian learners at a wide range of English proficiency from lower-intermediate to advanced. Participants took a battery of ten linguistic, cognitive and affective measures. Then, the collected data were subjected to several preliminary analyses, but structural equation modeling (SEM) was then used as the primary analysis method to answer the study research questions. Results of the preliminary analyses revealed that MK and WM were significant predictors of L2 listening ability; thus, they were kept in the main SEM analyses. The significant role of WM was only observed when the negative effect of anxiety on WM was accounted for. Preliminary analyses also showed that VB and VD were not distinct measures of VK. However, the results also showed that if VB and VD were considered separate, VD was a better predictor of L2 listening success. The main analyses of the current study revealed a significant role for both VK and SK in explaining success in L2 listening comprehension, which differs from findings from previous empirical studies. However, SEM analysis did not reveal a statistically significant difference in terms of the predictive power of the two linguistic factors. Descriptive results of the SEM analysis, along with results from regression analysis, indicated to a more significant role for VK.

Knowledge management capabilities and organizational performance: an investigation into the effects of knowledge infrastructure and processes on organizational performance

Knowledge is one of the most important assets for surviving in the modern business environment. The effective management of that asset mandates continuous adaptation by organizations, and requires employees to strive to improve the company's work processes. Organizations attempt to coordinate their unique knowledge with traditional means as well as in new and distinct ways, and to transform them into innovative resources better than those of their competitors. As a result, how to manage the knowledge asset has become a critical issue for modern organizations, and knowledge management is considered the most feasible solution. Knowledge management is a multidimensional process that identifies, acquires, develops, distributes, utilizes, and stores knowledge. However, many related studies focus only on fragmented or limited knowledge-management perspectives. In order to make knowledge management more effective, it is important to identify the qualitative and quantitative issues that are the foundation of the challenge of effective knowledge management in organizations. The main purpose of this study was to integrate the fragmented knowledge management perspectives into the holistic framework, which includes knowledge infrastructure capability (technology, structure, and culture) and knowledge process capability (acquisition, conversion, application, and protection), based on Gold's (2001) study. Additionally, because the effect of incentives ̶̶ which is widely acknowledged as a prime motivator in facilitating the knowledge management process ̶̶ was missing in the original framework, this study included the importance of incentives in the knowledge management framework. This study also identified the relationship of organizational performance from the standpoint of the Balanced Scorecard, which includes the customer-related, internal business process, learning & growth, and perceptual financial aspects of organizational performance in the Korean business context. Moreover, this study identified the relationship with the objective financial performance by calculating the Tobin's q ratio. Lastly, this study compared the group differences between larger and smaller organizations, and manufacturing and nonmanufacturing firms in the study of knowledge management. Since this study was conducted in Korea, the original instrument was translated into Korean through the back translation technique. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to examine the validity and reliability of the instrument. To identify the relationship between knowledge management capabilities and organizational performance, structural equation modeling (SEM) and multiple regression analysis were conducted. A Student's t test was conducted to examine the mean differences. The results of this study indicated that there is a positive relationship between effective knowledge management and organizational performance. However, no empirical evidence was found to suggest that knowledge management capabilities are linked to the objective financial performance, which remains a topic for future review. Additionally, findings showed that knowledge management is affected by organization's size, but not by type of organization. The results of this study are valuable in establishing a valid and reliable survey instrument, as well as in providing strong evidence that knowledge management capabilities are essential to improving organizational performance currently and making important recommendations for future research.

Reasoning over knowledge-based generation of situations in context spaces to reduce food waste

With the ever-growing amount of connected sensors (IoT), making sense of sensed data becomes even more important. Pervasive computing is a key enabler for sustainable solutions, prominent examples are smart energy systems and decision support systems. A key feature of pervasive systems is situation awareness which allows a system to thoroughly understand its environment. It is based on external interpretation of data and thus relies on expert knowledge. Due to the distinct nature of situations in different domains and applications, the development of situation aware applications remains a complex process. This thesis is concerned with a general framework for situation awareness which simplifies the development of applications. It is based on the Situation Theory Ontology to provide a foundation for situation modelling which allows knowledge reuse. Concepts of the Situation Theory are mapped to the Context Space Theory which is used for situation reasoning. Situation Spaces in the Context Space are automatically generated with the defined knowledge. For the acquisition of sensor data, the IoT standards O-MI/O-DF are integrated into the framework. These allow a peer-to-peer data exchange between data publisher and the proposed framework and thus a platform independent subscription to sensed data. The framework is then applied for a use case to reduce food waste. The use case validates the applicability of the framework and furthermore serves as a showcase for a pervasive system contributing to the sustainability goals. Leading institutions, e.g. the United Nations, stress the need for a more resource efficient society and acknowledge the capability of ICT systems. The use case scenario is based on a smart neighbourhood in which the system recommends the most efficient use of food items through situation awareness to reduce food waste at consumption stage.

Effects of two teaching interventions on nursing students’ acquisition of competence in ECG interpretation

Purpose: Nurse ability to recognise patient arrhythmias could contribute to preventing in-hospital cardiac arrest. Research suggests that nurses and nursing students lack competence in electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of two training strategies on nursing students’ acquisition of competence in ECG interpretation. Materials and methods: A controlled randomised trial with 98 nursing students. Divided in groups of 12–16, participants were randomly allocated to one of the following 3-h teaching intervention groups: 1) traditional instructor-led (TILG), and 2) flipped classroom (FCG). Participants’ competence in ECG interpretation was measured in terms of knowledge (%), skills (%) and self-efficacy (%) using a specifically designed and previously validated toolkit at pre-test and post-test. Two-way MANOVA explored the interaction effect between ‘teaching group’ and ‘time of assessment’ and its impact on participants’ competence. Within-group differences at pre-test and post-test were explored by carrying out paired t-tests. Between-group differences at pre- and post-test were examined by performing independent t-test analysis. Results: There was a statistically significant interaction effect between ‘teaching group’ and ‘time of assessment’ on participants’ competence in ECG interpretation (F(3,190) = 86.541, p = 0.001; Wilks’ Λ = 0.423). At pre-test, differences in knowledge (TILG = 35.12 ± 12.07; FCG = 35.66 ± 10.66), skills (TILG = 14.05 ± 10.37; FCG = 14.82 ± 14.14), self-efficacy (TILG = 46.22 ± 23.78; FCG = 40.01 ± 21.77) and all other variables were non-significant (p > 0.05). At post-test, knowledge (TILG = 55.12 ± 14.16; FCG = 94.2 ± 7.31), skills (TILG = 36.90 ± 16.45; FCG = 86.43 ± 14.32) and self-efficacy (TILG = 70.78 ± 14.55; FCG = 79.98 ± 10.35) had significantly improved, regardless of the training received (p < 0.05). Nonetheless, participants in the FCG scored significantly higher than participants in the TILG in knowledge, skills and self-efficacy (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Flipping the classroom for teaching ECG interpretation to nursing students may be more effective than using a traditional instructor-led approach in terms of immediate acquisition of competence in terms of knowledge, skills and self-efficacy. Further research on the effects of both teaching strategies on the retention of the competence will be undertaken.

Beyond human and intellectual capital: Profiling the value of knowledge, skills and experience

The concept of human capital is associated mainly with the Nobel Laureate Gary Becker and, in his usage, has a clear conceptual basis as investment in the costs of formal education. By contrast, this paper suggests that ‘intellectual capital’ is a re-branding of knowledge, skills and experience rather than re-conceptualisation of resource based learning. Becker also chose not to include informal knowledge, skills or experience within his concept of human capital, which remains limited by its constrained premises. This paper submits that both human capital and intellectual capital advocates fail to identify or measure the tacit knowledge and implicit learning which increasingly is recognised as a key to the competitive advantage of organisations. It first focuses on the conceptual basis of claims made for human capital and intellectual capital, outlines limits in their methodology, and contrasts these with insights from theories of tacit knowledge and implicit learning and the central role within them of informal or non-formal skill acquisition. It develops and illustrates instances of interfacing tacit and explicit knowledge before introducing a methodology for profiling the acquisition of knowledge, ability and skills. It does so by introducing the concepts of non-formal learningfrom- work (LfW) and informal learning-from-life (LfL), with evidence from a four country EU case study commissioned within the lifelong learning remit of the Lisbon Agenda.

Ferramenta de gestão de conhecimento colectivo : KNOEY - Knowledge Embraces You

Mestrado em Ciências Empresariais

A PHENOMENOLOGY OF MIMETIC LEARNING AND MULTIMODAL COGNITION: INTEGRATING EXPERIENTIAL KNOWLEDGE INTO PROGRAMS IN RHETORIC, COMPOSITION, AND TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION

My dissertation emphasizes a cognitive account of multimodality that explicitly integrates experiential knowledge work into the rhetorical pedagogy that informs so many composition and technical communication programs. In these disciplines, multimodality is widely conceived in terms of what Gunther Kress calls “socialsemiotic” modes of communication shaped primarily by culture. In the cognitive and neurolinguistic theories of Vittorio Gallese and George Lakoff, however, multimodality is described as a key characteristic of our bodies’ sensory-motor systems which link perception to action and action to meaning, grounding all communicative acts in knowledge shaped through body-engaged experience. I argue that this “situated” account of cognition – which closely approximates Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, a major framework for my study – has pedagogical precedence in the mimetic pedagogy that informed ancient Sophistic rhetorical training, and I reveal that training’s multimodal dimensions through a phenomenological exegesis of the concept mimesis. Plato’s denigration of the mimetic tradition and his elevation of conceptual contemplation through reason, out of which developed the classic Cartesian separation of mind from body, resulted in a general degradation of experiential knowledge in Western education. But with the recent introduction into college classrooms of digital technologies and multimedia communication tools, renewed emphasis is being placed on the “hands-on” nature of inventive and productive praxis, necessitating a revision of methods of instruction and assessment that have traditionally privileged the acquisition of conceptual over experiential knowledge. The model of multimodality I construct from Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, ancient Sophistic rhetorical pedagogy, and current neuroscientific accounts of situated cognition insists on recognizing the significant role knowledges we acquire experientially play in our reading and writing, speaking and listening, discerning and designing practices.

The effect of mobile technology as an active student response system on the acquisition of U.S. history content of secondary students with specific learning disabilities

Students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) typically learn less history content than their peers without disabilities and show fewer learning gains. Even when they are provided with the same instructional strategies, many students with SLD struggle to grasp complex historical concepts and content area vocabulary. Many strategies involving technology have been used in the past to enhance learning for students with SLD in history classrooms. However, very few studies have explored the effectiveness of emerging mobile technology in K-12 history classrooms. ^ This study investigated the effects of mobile devices (iPads) as an active student response (ASR) system on the acquisition of U.S. history content of middle school students with SLD. An alternating treatments single subject design was used to compare the effects of two interventions. There were two conditions and a series of pretest probesin this study. The conditions were: (a) direct instruction and studying from handwritten notes using the interactive notebook strategy and (b) direct instruction and studying using the Quizlet App on the iPad. There were three dependent variables in this study: (a) percent correct on tests, (b) rate of correct responses per minute, and (c) rate of errors per minute. ^ A comparative analysis suggested that both interventions (studying from interactive notes and studying using Quizlet on the iPad) had varying degrees of effectiveness in increasing the learning gains of students with SLD. In most cases, both interventions were equally effective. During both interventions, all of the participants increased their percentage correct and increased their rate of correct responses. Most of the participants decreased their rate of errors. ^ The results of this study suggest that teachers of students with SLD should consider a post lesson review in the form of mobile devices as an ASR system or studying from handwritten notes paired with existing evidence-based practices to facilitate students’ knowledge in U.S. history. Future research should focus on the use of other interactive applications on various mobile operating platforms, on other social studies subjects, and should explore various testing formats such as oral question-answer and multiple choice. ^

Into the looking glass: Literacy acquisition and mirror invariance in preschool and first-grade children

At what point in reading development does literacy impact object recognition and orientation processing? Is it specific to mirror images? To answer these questions, forty-six 5- to 7-year-old preschoolers and first graders performed two same–different tasks differing in the matching criterion-orientation-based versus shape-based (orientation independent)-on geometric shapes and letters. On orientation-based judgments, first graders out- performed preschoolers who had the strongest difficulty with mirrored pairs. On shape-based judgments, first graders were slower for mirrored than identical pairs, and even slower than preschoolers. This mirror cost emerged with letter knowledge. Only first graders presented worse shape-based judgments for mirrored and rotated pairs of reversible (e.g., b-d; b-q) than nonreversible (e.g., e-ә) letters, indicating readers’ difficulty in ignoring orientation contrasts relevant to letters.

On the role of Computational Logic in Data Science: representing, learning, reasoning, and explaining knowledge

In this thesis we discuss in what ways computational logic (CL) and data science (DS) can jointly contribute to the management of knowledge within the scope of modern and future artificial intelligence (AI), and how technically-sound software technologies can be realised along the path. An agent-oriented mindset permeates the whole discussion, by stressing pivotal role of autonomous agents in exploiting both means to reach higher degrees of intelligence. Accordingly, the goals of this thesis are manifold. First, we elicit the analogies and differences among CL and DS, hence looking for possible synergies and complementarities along 4 major knowledge-related dimensions, namely representation, acquisition (a.k.a. learning), inference (a.k.a. reasoning), and explanation. In this regard, we propose a conceptual framework through which bridges these disciplines can be described and designed. We then survey the current state of the art of AI technologies, w.r.t. their capability to support bridging CL and DS in practice. After detecting lacks and opportunities, we propose the notion of logic ecosystem as the new conceptual, architectural, and technological solution supporting the incremental integration of symbolic and sub-symbolic AI. Finally, we discuss how our notion of logic ecosys- tem can be reified into actual software technology and extended towards many DS-related directions.

Convergence Of A Specialized Root Trait In Plants From Nutrient-impoverished Soils: Phosphorus-acquisition Strategy In A Nonmycorrhizal Cactus.

In old, phosphorus (P)-impoverished habitats, root specializations such as cluster roots efficiently mobilize and acquire P by releasing large amounts of carboxylates in the rhizosphere. These specialized roots are rarely mycorrhizal. We investigated whether Discocactus placentiformis (Cactaceae), a common species in nutrient-poor campos rupestres over white sands, operates in the same way as other root specializations. Discocactus placentiformis showed no mycorrhizal colonization, but exhibited a sand-binding root specialization with rhizosheath formation. We first provide circumstantial evidence for carboxylate exudation in field material, based on its very high shoot manganese (Mn) concentrations, and then firm evidence, based on exudate analysis. We identified predominantly oxalic acid, but also malic, citric, lactic, succinic, fumaric, and malonic acids. When grown in nutrient solution with P concentrations ranging from 0 to 100 μM, we observed an increase in total carboxylate exudation with decreasing P supply, showing that P deficiency stimulated carboxylate release. Additionally, we tested P solubilization by citric, malic and oxalic acids, and found that they solubilized P from the strongly P-sorbing soil in its native habitat, when the acids were added in combination and in relatively low concentrations. We conclude that the sand-binding root specialization in this nonmycorrhizal cactus functions similar to that of cluster roots, which efficiently enhance P acquisition in other habitats with very low P availability.

A Brazilian Original Pedagogical Approach To The Teaching Of Neurology.

The two-arm Clinical Decisions/Diagnostic Workshop (CD/DW) approach to undergraduate medical education has been successfully used in Brazil. Present the CD/DW approach to the teaching of stroke, with the results of its pre-experimental application and of a comparative study with the traditional lecture-case discussion approach. Application of two questionnaires (opinion and Knowledge-Attitudes-Perceptions-KAP) to investigate the non-inferiority of the CD/DW approach. The method was well accepted by teachers and students alike, the main drawback being the necessarily long time for its completion by the students, a feature that may better cater for different educational needs. The comparative test showed the CD/DW approach to lead to slightly higher cognitive acquisition as opposed to the traditional method, clearly showing its non-inferiority status. The CD/DW approach seems to be another option for teaching neurology in undergraduate medical education, with the bonus of respecting each learner`s time.

[between The Country And The Laboratory: The Dynamics Of The Production Of Knowledge At The Menopause Outpatients Clinic At Caism, Unicamp.]

This study investigates the practices involved in the production of knowledge about menopause at Caism, Unicamp, a reference center for public policies for women's health. Gynecological appointments and psychological support meetings were observed, and women and doctors were interviewed in order to identify what discourse circulates there and how different actors are brought in to ensure that the knowledge produced attains credibility and travels beyond the boundaries of the teaching hospital to become universal. The analysis is based on localized studies aligned with social studies of science and technology.