Constructing and reconstructing teaching roles: A focus on generative metaphors and dichotomies

Over the last several decades, a shift in thinking has brought to the fore the power of language as more than simply a method of expression. Indeed, language is a constituent part of social practices and social identity. For teachers, both pre-service and in-service, teaching roles are often represented through surface and generative metaphors, the latter of which are tacit. In order to study the way in which language, and in particular metaphor, influences thinking about teaching roles, the authors of this article combined their data to examine the metaphoric discourse of both pre-service and in-service teachers. Contextualizing two separate studies in their respective teacher education programs, this article highlights the obstacle of unexposed generative metaphors and the value of ongoing professional development. In addition, it emphasizes the importance of deconstructing traditional dichotomies as central to teacher education reform.

Contribution towards a reflection about methodological strategies in design education and the function of drawing in design

This work presents a reflection on Design education and specifically on the role of Drawing in this area. As a subject, Design has expanded its field of action expanding into new areas such as Experience Design or Service Design. It became necessary for the designer to have more than an education based on technological knowledge or know-how. Many authors like Meredith Davis, Don Norman or Jamie Hobson point out the urgency to review the curricula of Design courses because nowadays “… design is more than appearance, design is about interaction, about strategy and about services. Designers change social behavior” (Norman 2011). When shifting from a product-centered design to a person-centered design (in a structure, a service or in a relationship) what should the function of drawing in a design course be? What should its curriculum be? Our work methodology will be to confront today’s perspectives on design theory and practice in an attempt to add to the discussion on the methodological strategies in design teaching in the contemporary context.

Contribution towards a reflection about methodological strategies in Design Education and the function of Drawing in Design

This work presents a reflection on Design education and specifically on the role of Drawing in this area. As a subject, Design has expanded its field of action expanding into new areas such as Experience Design or Service Design. It became necessary for the designer to have more than an education based on technological knowledge or know-how. Many authors like Meredith Davis, Don Norman or Jamie Hobson point out the urgency to review the curricula of Design courses because nowadays “ … design is more than appearance, design is about interaction, about strategy and about services. Designers change social behavior” (Norman, 2011) When shifting from a product-centered design to a person-centered design (in a structure, a service or in a relationship) what should the function of drawing in a design course be? What should its curriculum be? Our work methodology will be to confront today’s perspectives on design theory and practice in an attempt to add to the discussion on the methodological strategies in design teaching in the contemporary context.

Hand-held robotic device for laparoscopic surgery and training

Laparoscopic surgery (LS) has revolutionized traditional surgical techniques introducing minimally invasive procedures for diagnosis and local therapies. LSs have undeniable advantages, such as small patient incisions, reduced postoperative pain and faster recovery. On the other hand, restricted vision of the anatomical target, difficult handling of the surgical instruments, restricted mobility inside the human body, need of dexterity to hand-eye coordination and inadequate and non-ergonomic surgical instruments may restrict LS only to more specialized surgeons. To overcome the referred limitations, this work presents a new robotic surgical handheld system – the EndoRobot. The EndoRobot was designed to be used in clinical practice or even as a surgical simulator. It integrates an electromechanical system with 3 degrees of freedom. Each degree can be manipulated independently and combined with different levels of sensitivity allowing fast and slow movements. As other features, the EndoRobot has battery power or external power supply, enables the use of bipolar radiofrequency to prevent bleeding while cutting and allows plug-and-play of the laparoscopic forceps for rapid exchange. As a surgical simulator, the system was also instrumented to measure and transmit, in real time, its position and orientation for a training software able to monitor and assist the trainee’s surgical movements.

Adult learners in higher education

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Mathematical education and interdisciplinarity : promoting public awareness of mathematics in the Azores

Mathematical literacy in Portugal is very unsatisfactory in what concerns international standards. Even more disturbingly, the Azores archipelago ranks as one of the worst regions of Portugal in this respect. We reason that the popularisation of Mathematics through interactive exhibitions and activities can contribute actively to disseminate mathematical knowledge, increase awareness of the importance of Mathematics in today’s world and change its negative perception by the majority of the citizens. Although a significant investment has been undertaken by the local regional government in creating several science centres for the popularisation of Science, there is no centre for the popularisation of Mathematics. We present our first steps towards bringing Mathematics to unconventional settings by means of hands-on activities. We describe in some detail three activities. One activity has to do with applying trigonometry to measure distances in Astronomy, which can also be applied to Earth objects. Another activity concerns the presence of numerical patterns in the Azorean flora. The third activity explores geometrical patterns in the Azorean cultural heritage. It is our understanding that the implementation of these and other easy-to-follow and challenging activities will contribute to the awareness of the importance and beauty of Mathematics.

Effect of technical parameters on dose and image quality in a computed radiography system

The discovery of X-rays was undoubtedly one of the greatest stimulus for improving the efficiency in the provision of healthcare services. The ability to view, non-invasively, inside the human body has greatly facilitated the work of professionals in diagnosis of diseases. The exclusive focus on image quality (IQ), without understanding how they are obtained, affect negatively the efficiency in diagnostic radiology. The equilibrium between the benefits and the risks are often forgotten. It is necessary to adopt optimization strategies to maximize the benefits (image quality) and minimize risk (dose to the patient) in radiological facilities. In radiology, the implementation of optimization strategies involves an understanding of images acquisition process. When a radiographer adopts a certain value of a parameter (tube potential [kVp], tube current-exposure time product [mAs] or additional filtration), it is essential to know its meaning and impact of their variation in dose and image quality. Without this, any optimization strategy will be a failure. Worldwide, data show that use of x-rays has been increasingly frequent. In Cabo Verde, we note an effort by healthcare institutions (e.g. Ministry of Health) in equipping radiological facilities and the recent installation of a telemedicine system requires purchase of new radiological equipment. In addition, the transition from screen-films to digital systems is characterized by a raise in patient exposure. Given that this transition is slower in less developed countries, as is the case of Cabo Verde, the need to adopt optimization strategies becomes increasingly necessary. This study was conducted as an attempt to answer that need. Although this work is about objective evaluation of image quality, and in medical practice the evaluation is usually subjective (visual evaluation of images by radiographer / radiologist), studies reported a correlation between these two types of evaluation (objective and subjective) [5-7] which accredits for conducting such studies. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of exposure parameters (kVp and mAs) when using additional Cooper (Cu) filtration in dose and image quality in a Computed Radiography system.

Hand gesture recognition system based in computer vision and machine learning : applications on human-machine interaction

Sendo uma forma natural de interação homem-máquina, o reconhecimento de gestos implica uma forte componente de investigação em áreas como a visão por computador e a aprendizagem computacional. O reconhecimento gestual é uma área com aplicações muito diversas, fornecendo aos utilizadores uma forma mais natural e mais simples de comunicar com sistemas baseados em computador, sem a necessidade de utilização de dispositivos extras. Assim, o objectivo principal da investigação na área de reconhecimento de gestos aplicada à interacção homemmáquina é o da criação de sistemas, que possam identificar gestos específicos e usálos para transmitir informações ou para controlar dispositivos. Para isso as interfaces baseados em visão para o reconhecimento de gestos, necessitam de detectar a mão de forma rápida e robusta e de serem capazes de efetuar o reconhecimento de gestos em tempo real. Hoje em dia, os sistemas de reconhecimento de gestos baseados em visão são capazes de trabalhar com soluções específicas, construídos para resolver um determinado problema e configurados para trabalhar de uma forma particular. Este projeto de investigação estudou e implementou soluções, suficientemente genéricas, com o recurso a algoritmos de aprendizagem computacional, permitindo a sua aplicação num conjunto alargado de sistemas de interface homem-máquina, para reconhecimento de gestos em tempo real. A solução proposta, Gesture Learning Module Architecture (GeLMA), permite de forma simples definir um conjunto de comandos que pode ser baseado em gestos estáticos e dinâmicos e que pode ser facilmente integrado e configurado para ser utilizado numa série de aplicações. É um sistema de baixo custo e fácil de treinar e usar, e uma vez que é construído unicamente com bibliotecas de código. As experiências realizadas permitiram mostrar que o sistema atingiu uma precisão de 99,2% em termos de reconhecimento de gestos estáticos e uma precisão média de 93,7% em termos de reconhecimento de gestos dinâmicos. Para validar a solução proposta, foram implementados dois sistemas completos. O primeiro é um sistema em tempo real capaz de ajudar um árbitro a arbitrar um jogo de futebol robótico. A solução proposta combina um sistema de reconhecimento de gestos baseada em visão com a definição de uma linguagem formal, o CommLang Referee, à qual demos a designação de Referee Command Language Interface System (ReCLIS). O sistema identifica os comandos baseados num conjunto de gestos estáticos e dinâmicos executados pelo árbitro, sendo este posteriormente enviado para um interface de computador que transmite a respectiva informação para os robôs. O segundo é um sistema em tempo real capaz de interpretar um subconjunto da Linguagem Gestual Portuguesa. As experiências demonstraram que o sistema foi capaz de reconhecer as vogais em tempo real de forma fiável. Embora a solução implementada apenas tenha sido treinada para reconhecer as cinco vogais, o sistema é facilmente extensível para reconhecer o resto do alfabeto. As experiências também permitiram mostrar que a base dos sistemas de interação baseados em visão pode ser a mesma para todas as aplicações e, deste modo facilitar a sua implementação. A solução proposta tem ainda a vantagem de ser suficientemente genérica e uma base sólida para o desenvolvimento de sistemas baseados em reconhecimento gestual que podem ser facilmente integrados com qualquer aplicação de interface homem-máquina. A linguagem formal de definição da interface pode ser redefinida e o sistema pode ser facilmente configurado e treinado com um conjunto de gestos diferentes de forma a serem integrados na solução final.

Hand gesture recognition system based in computer vision and machine learning: Applications on human-machine interaction

Tese de Doutoramento em Engenharia de Eletrónica e de Computadores

VET: a strategic approach for economic, organisational and personal development in EU countries

Vocational Education and Training (VET) is a continuous long-term process of economic, organisational and personal development. It envisions the construction of dynamic skills to improve performance, productivity and organisational, personal and social development. This article focuses on generating skills. It frames training as a process of work-linked training and as a primary source for generating skills whilst seeking to boost creativity. It sheds light upon the discussion pertaining to learning transfer as a necessary condition to structure performance and competitiveness. It highlights the Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI), because it allows to measure the effectiveness of training and it identifies the organisations' weaknesses. The data used were collected from the Eurostat Database.

Development of a subject-specific musculoskeletal shoulder model : inverse and forward dynamics applications

A prevalência de pessoas que referem dor no complexo articular do ombro, com concomitante limitação na capacidade para realizar atividades da vida diária, é elevada. Estes níveis de prevalência sobrecarregam quer os utentes, como a própria sociedade. A evidência científica atual indicia a existência de uma relação entre as alterações da articulação escápulo-torácica e as patologias associadas à articulação gleno-umeral. A capacidade de quantificar, cinemática e cineticamente, as disfunções ao nível das articulações escápulo-torácica e gleno-umeral, é algo de enorme importância, quer para a comunidade biomecânica, como para a clínica. No decorrer dos trabalhos desta tese foi desenvolvido, através do software OpenSim, um modelo tridimensional músculo-esquelético do complexo articular do ombro que inclui a representação do tórax/coluna, clavícula, omoplata, úmero, rádio, cúbito e articulações que permitem os movimentos relativos desses segmentos, assim como, 16 músculos e 4 ligamentos. Com um total de 11 graus de liberdade, incluindo um novo modelo articular escápulo-torácico, os resultados demonstram que este é capaz de reconstruir de forma precisa e rápida os movimentos escápulo-torácicos e glenoumerais, recorrendo para tal, à cinemática inversa, e à dinâmica inversa e direta. Conta ainda com um método de transformação inovador para determinar, com base nas especificidades dos sujeitos, os locais de inserção muscular. As principais motivações subjacentes ao desenvolvimento desta tese foram contribuir para o aprofundar do atual conhecimento sobre as disfunções do complexo articular do ombro e, simultaneamente, proporcionar à comunidade clínica uma ferramenta biomecânica de livre acesso com o intuito de melhor suportar as decisões clínicas e dessa forma concorrer para uma prática mais efetiva.

Training and development in Irish technology companies

The sustained economic growth that has been experienced in the Irish economy in recent years has relied, to a large extent, on the contribution and performance of those industry sectors that possess the ability to provide high-value-added products and services to domestic and international markets. One such contributor has been the Technology sector. However, the performance of this sector relies upon the availability of the necessary capabilities and competencies for Technology companies to remain competitive. The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs have forecasted future skills shortages in this sector. The purpose of this research has been to examine the extent to which Irish Technology companies are taking measures to meet changing skills requirements, through training and development interventions. Survey research methods (in the form of a mail questionnaire, supported by a Web-based questionnaire) have been used to collect information on the expenditure on, and approach to, training and development in these companies, in addition to the methods, techniques and tools/aids that are used to support the delivery of these activities. The contribution of Government intervention has also been examined. The conclusions have been varied. When the activities of the responding companies are considered in isolation, the picture to emerge is primarily positive. Although the expenditure on training and development is slightly lower than that indicated in previous studies, the results vary by company size. Technical employees are clearly the key focus of training provision, while Senior Managers and Directors, Clerical and Administrative staff and Manual workers are a great deal more neglected in training provision. Expenditure on, and use of, computer-based training methods is high, as is the use of most of the specified techniques for facilitating learning. However, when one considers the extent to which external support (in the form of Government interventions and cooperation with other companies and with education and training providers) is integrated into the overall training practices of these companies, significant gaps in practice are identified. The thesis concludes by providing a framework to guide future training and development practices in the Technology sector.

Education and Economic Development in India

This brief survey examines the returns to education in India , and then examines the role of education on both economic growth and economic development with particular reference to India. Throughout, the objective is to draw out the implications of the empirical results for education policy. The results suggest that female education is of particular importance in India. They also suggest that perhaps because of the externalities it generates, primary education is more important than might be deduced from its relatively low private rate of return.