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.

Design and implementation of a relative localization system for ground and aerial robotic teams

The main focus of this thesis is to address the relative localization problem of a heterogenous team which comprises of both ground and micro aerial vehicle robots. This team configuration allows to combine the advantages of increased accessibility and better perspective provided by aerial robots with the higher computational and sensory resources provided by the ground agents, to realize a cooperative multi robotic system suitable for hostile autonomous missions. However, in such a scenario, the strict constraints in flight time, sensor pay load, and computational capability of micro aerial vehicles limits the practical applicability of popular map-based localization schemes for GPS denied navigation. Therefore, the resource limited aerial platforms of this team demand simpler localization means for autonomous navigation. Relative localization is the process of estimating the formation of a robot team using the acquired inter-robot relative measurements. This allows the team members to know their relative formation even without a global localization reference, such as GPS or a map. Thus a typical robot team would benefit from a relative localization service since it would allow the team to implement formation control, collision avoidance, and supervisory control tasks, independent of a global localization service. More importantly, a heterogenous team such as ground robots and computationally constrained aerial vehicles would benefit from a relative localization service since it provides the crucial localization information required for autonomous operation of the weaker agents. This enables less capable robots to assume supportive roles and contribute to the more powerful robots executing the mission. Hence this study proposes a relative localization-based approach for ground and micro aerial vehicle cooperation, and develops inter-robot measurement, filtering, and distributed computing modules, necessary to realize the system. The research study results in three significant contributions. First, the work designs and validates a novel inter-robot relative measurement hardware solution which has accuracy, range, and scalability characteristics, necessary for relative localization. Second, the research work performs an analysis and design of a novel nonlinear filtering method, which allows the implementation of relative localization modules and attitude reference filters on low cost devices with optimal tuning parameters. Third, this work designs and validates a novel distributed relative localization approach, which harnesses the distributed computing capability of the team to minimize communication requirements, achieve consistent estimation, and enable efficient data correspondence within the network. The work validates the complete relative localization-based system through multiple indoor experiments and numerical simulations. The relative localization based navigation concept with its sensing, filtering, and distributed computing methods introduced in this thesis complements system limitations of a ground and micro aerial vehicle team, and also targets hostile environmental conditions. Thus the work constitutes an essential step towards realizing autonomous navigation of heterogenous teams in real world applications.

A ROS-based Workspace Control and Trajectory Planner for a seven degrees of freedom Robotic arm

In this Bachelor Thesis I want to provide readers with tools and scripts for the control of a 7DOF manipulator, backed up by some theory of Robotics and Computer Science, in order to better contextualize the work done. In practice, we will see most common software, and developing environments, used to cope with our task: these include ROS, along with visual simulation by VREP and RVIZ, and an almost "stand-alone" ROS extension called MoveIt!, a very complete programming interface for trajectory planning and obstacle avoidance. As we will better appreciate and understand in the introduction chapter, the capability of detecting collision objects through a camera sensor, and re-plan to the desired end-effector pose, are not enough. In fact, this work is implemented in a more complex system, where recognition of particular objects is needed. Through a package of ROS and customized scripts, a detailed procedure will be provided on how to distinguish a particular object, retrieve its reference frame with respect to a known one, and then allow navigation to that target. Together with technical details, the aim is also to report working scripts and a specific appendix (A) you can refer to, if desiring to put things together.

Még egyszer a "rendszerparadigmáról". Tisztázás és kiegészítések a posztszocialista régió tapasztalatainak fényében = About the system paradigm once again: Clarification and additions in the light of experiences in the post-socialist region

A paradigma kifejezést Thomas Kuhn honosította meg a tudományfilozófiában: így nevezte el azt a sajátos szemléletmódot, ahogyan egy kutatási irányzat rátekint vizsgálata tárgyára. Azonos paradigmát használó kutatók hasonló kérdésekre keresik a választ, hasonló módszereket és fogalmakat alkalmaznak. A szerző 1999-ben publikált cikkében vezette be a "rendszerparadigma" kifejezést, amely a társadalomban működő rendszereket helyezi a vizsgálat középpontjába. A tanulmány a posztszocialista átalakulás során szerzett tapasztalatok alapján fejleszti tovább a korábbi cikkben kifejtett elméleti gondolatokat. Az első rész a szocialista és a kapitalista rendszert hasonlítja össze; leírja fő jellemzőiket, majd megállapítja, hogy Észak-Korea és Kuba kivételével az egykori szocialista országokban meghonosodott a kapitalista rendszer. A második rész a politikai-kormányzati formák szerint tipologizálja a kapitalizmus változatait. Három markáns típust különböztet meg: a demokráciát, az autokráciát és a diktatúrát. Huntington a demokratizálás harmadik hullámáról írt. A tanulmány arra a következtetésre jut, hogy ez a hullám elapadt, a 47 posztszocialista ország lakosságának mindössze egytizede él demokráciában, a többiben autokrácia vagy diktatúra uralkodik. A harmadik rész Magyarországra alkalmazza a kialakított fogalmi és elemzési apparátust: itt kapitalizmus van, a politikai-kormányzati forma autokrácia - lényeges közös jellemzők mutathatók ki más kapitalista országokkal, illetve más autokráciákkal. Ez összefér azzal a felismeréssel, hogy egyes - nem alapvető jelentőségű - vonások egyediek, "hungarikumok", különböznek minden más ország tulajdonságaitól. _____ The expression paradigm, introduced into the philosophy of science by Thomas Kuhn for the way a research trend views the subject examined, denotes a case where researchers pursue similar questions by similar methods with similar concepts. The author introduced the expression system paradigm" in a 1999 article centred on the systems operating in society. This paper takes those theoretical ideas further, based on experience in the post-socialist transformation. The first part compares the socialist and capitalist systems and their main features, establishing that all former socialist countries but North Korea and Cuba have embraced the capitalist system. The second adds a typology of the varieties of capitalism by politico-governmental form, marking three types: democracy, autocracy and dictatorship. Huntington writes of a third wave of democratization, which this study concludes has ceased. Democracy reigns in only 10 per cent of the 47 post-socialist countries, autocracy or dictatorship in the others. The third part applies this conceptual and analytical framework to Hungary, where capitalism prevails, with autocracy as its politico-governmental form. It shows strongly similar features to other capitalist countries and other autocracies. This is compatible with recognizing that some features of less than fundamental importance are specific to Hungary and differ from those elsewhere.

Exploration of the relationship between tacit knowledge and software system test complexity

This research has explored the relationship between system test complexity and tacit knowledge. It is proposed as part of this thesis, that the process of system testing (comprising of test planning, test development, test execution, test fault analysis, test measurement, and case management), is directly affected by both complexity associated with the system under test, and also by other sources of complexity, independent of the system under test, but related to the wider process of system testing. While a certain amount of knowledge related to the system under test is inherent, tacit in nature, and therefore difficult to make explicit, it has been found that a significant amount of knowledge relating to these other sources of complexity, can indeed be made explicit. While the importance of explicit knowledge has been reinforced by this research, there has been a lack of evidence to suggest that the availability of tacit knowledge to a test team is of any less importance to the process of system testing, when operating in a traditional software development environment. The sentiment was commonly expressed by participants, that even though a considerable amount of explicit knowledge relating to the system is freely available, that a good deal of knowledge relating to the system under test, which is demanded for effective system testing, is actually tacit in nature (approximately 60% of participants operating in a traditional development environment, and 60% of participants operating in an agile development environment, expressed similar sentiments). To cater for the availability of tacit knowledge relating to the system under test, and indeed, both explicit and tacit knowledge required by system testing in general, an appropriate knowledge management structure needs to be in place. This would appear to be required, irrespective of the employed development methodology.

THE DESIGN OF A POWER SYSTEM FOR A WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK FOR LONG-TERM OPERATION

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have shown wide applicability to many fields including monitoring of environmental, civil, and industrial settings. WSNs however are resource constrained by many competing factors that span their hardware, software, and networking. One of the central resource constrains is the charge consumption of WSN nodes. With finite energy supplies, low charge consumption is needed to ensure long lifetimes and success of WSNs. This thesis details the design of a power system to support long-term operation of WSNs. The power system’s development occurs in parallel with a custom WSN from the Queen’s MEMS Lab (QML-WSN), with the goal of supporting a 1+ year lifetime without sacrificing functionality. The final power system design utilizes a TPS62740 DC-DC converter with AA alkaline batteries to efficiently supply the nodes while providing battery monitoring functionality and an expansion slot for future development. Testing tools for measuring current draw and charge consumption were created along with analysis and processing software. Through their use charge consumption of the power system was drastically lowered and issues in QML-WSN were identified and resolved including the proper shutdown of accelerometers, and incorrect microcontroller unit (MCU) power pin connection. Controlled current profiling revealed unexpected behaviour of nodes and detailed current-voltage relationships. These relationships were utilized with a lifetime projection model to estimate a lifetime between 521-551 days, depending on the mode of operation. The power system and QML-WSN were tested over a long term trial lasting 272+ days in an industrial testbed to monitor an air compressor pump. Environmental factors were found to influence the behaviour of nodes leading to increased charge consumption, while a node in an office setting was still operating at the conclusion of the trail. This agrees with the lifetime projection and gives a strong indication that a 1+ year lifetime is achievable. Additionally, a light-weight charge consumption model was developed which allows charge consumption information of nodes in a distributed WSN to be monitored. This model was tested in a laboratory setting demonstrating +95% accuracy for high packet reception rate WSNs across varying data rates, battery supply capacities, and runtimes up to full battery depletion.

Local Storage Meets Local Demand: A Technical Solution to Future Power Distribution System

Future power systems are expected to integrate large-scale stochastic and intermittent generation and load due to reduced use of fossil fuel resources, including renewable energy sources (RES) and electric vehicles (EV). Inclusion of such resources poses challenges for the dynamic stability of synchronous transmission and distribution networks, not least in terms of generation where system inertia may not be wholly governed by large-scale generation but displaced by small-scale and localised generation. Energy storage systems (ESS) can limit the impact of dispersed and distributed generation by offering supporting reserve while accommodating large-scale EV connection; the latter (load) also participating in storage provision. In this paper, a local energy storage system (LESS) is proposed. The structure, requirement and optimal sizing of the LESS are discussed. Three operating modes are detailed, including: 1) storage pack management; 2) normal operation; and 3) contingency operation. The proposed LESS scheme is evaluated using simulation studies based on data obtained from the Northern Ireland regional and residential network.

Review of virtual power plant applications for the power system management and V2G market development

Utilization of renewable energy sources and energy storage systems is increasing with fostering new policies on energy industries. However, the increase of distributed generation hinders the reliability of power systems. In order to stabilize them, a virtual power plant emerges as a novel power grid management system. The VPP has a role to make a participation of different distributed energy resources and energy storage systems. This paper defines core technology of the VPP which are demand response and ancillary service concerning about Korea, America and Europe cases. It also suggests application solutions of the VPP to V2G market for restructuring national power industries in Korea.

Pose estimation of a humanoid robot using images from a mobile external camera

NOGUEIRA, Marcelo B. ; MEDEIROS, Adelardo A. D. ; ALSINA, Pablo J. Pose Estimation of a Humanoid Robot Using Images from an Mobile Extern Camera. In: IFAC WORKSHOP ON MULTIVEHICLE SYSTEMS, 2006, Salvador, BA. Anais... Salvador: MVS 2006, 2006.

A C80 DSP-based active vision system for real-time tracking

[EN]Active Vision Systems can be considered as dynamical systems which close the loop around artificial visual perception, controlling camera parameters, motion and also controlling processing to simplify, accelerate and do more robust visual perception. Research and Development in Active Vision Systems [Aloi87], [Bajc88] is a main area of interest in Computer Vision, mainly by its potential application in different scenarios where real-time performance is needed such as robot navigation, surveillance, visual inspection, among many others. Several systems have been developed during last years using robotic-heads for this purpose...

Localization of a mobile robot based on odometry and natural landmarks using extended kalman filter

SANTANA, André M.; SOUZA, Anderson A. S.; BRITTO, Ricardo S.; ALSINA, Pablo J.; MEDEIROS, Adelardo A. D. Localization of a mobile robot based on odometry and natural landmarks using extended Kalman Filter. In: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INFORMATICS IN CONTROL, AUTOMATION AND ROBOTICS, 5., 2008, Funchal, Portugal. Proceedings... Funchal, Portugal: ICINCO, 2008.

Expanding a Global Company Management System to An Integrated Coverage of Several Standards

This Master’s thesis examines the implementation of management system standard requirements as integrated in the organization. The aim is to determine how requirements from management system standards ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 9001:2015 can be integrated and implemented into the existing ISO 9001:2008 compliant management system. Research was executed as action research by utilizing an operating model about the integrated use of management system standards created by the International Organization for Standardization. Phases of the operating model were applied to the target organization. The similarity and integration potential of relevant standards were assessed by using comparative matrices. Allocation of the requirements and conformity assessment of the processes was executed by gap analysis. The main results indicate that the requirements of the relevant standards are principally equivalent or have the same kind of purpose. The results also show the most important processes of the target organization in terms of requirement compliance, as well as the requirements which affect the process the most. Prioritizing the compliance achievement of the most important processes and implementation of those requirements that have the most effect create an opportunity for organizations to implement the integrated requirements effectively.

Dissecting the role of Profilin-1 in microglial cell function: the impact on ROS production

Microglial cells are the resident immune cells of central nervous system (CNS) and the major players in neuroinflammation. These cells are also responsible for surveilling the neuronal microenvironment, and upon injury to the CNS they change their morphology and molecular profile and become activated. Activated status is associated with microglia proliferation, migration to injury foci, increased phagocytic capacity, production and release of reactive oxygen species (ROS), cytokines (pro- or anti-inflammatory) and reactive nitrogen species. Microglia activation is crucial for tissue repair in the healthy brain. However, their chronic activation or deregulation might contribute for the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying microglial cell activation is important for defining targets and develop appropriate therapeutic strategies to control the chronic activation of microglia. It has been observed an increase in profilin (Pfn) mRNA in microglial cells in the rat hippocampus after unilateral ablation of its major extrinsic input, the entorhinal cortex. This observation suggested that Pfn might be involved in microglia activation. Pfn1 is an actin binding protein that controls assembly and disassembly of actin filaments and is important for several cellular processes, including, motility, cell proliferation and survival. Here, we studied the role of Pfn1 in microglial cell function. For that, we used primary cortical microglial cell cultures and microglial cell lines in which we knocked down Pfn1 expression and assessed the activation status of microglia, based on classical activation markers, such as: phagocytosis, glutamate release, reactive oxygen species (ROS), pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. We demonstrated that Pfn1 (i) is more active in hypoxia-challenged microglia, (ii) modulates microglia pro- and anti-inflammatory signatures and (iii) plays a critical role in ROS generation in microglia. Altogether, we conclude that Pfn1 is a key protein for microglia homeostasis, playing an essential role in their activation, regardless the polarization into a pro or anti-inflammatory signature.

Improving the Accuracy of 3-D Reconstruction in Robotic Vision Applications

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08