Experiences in Mining Educational Data to Analyze Teacher's Performance: A Case Study with High Educational Teachers

Educational Data Mining (EDM) is a new paradigm aiming to mine and extract knowledge necessary to optimize the effectiveness of teaching process. With normal educational system work it’s often unlikely to accomplish fine system optimizing due to large amount of data being collected and tangled throughout the system. EDM resolves this problem by its capability to mine and explore these raw data and as a consequence of extracting knowledge. This paper describes several experiments on real educational data wherein the effectiveness of Data Mining is explained in migration the educational data into knowledge. The experiments goal at first to identify important factors of teacher behaviors influencing student satisfaction. In addition to presenting experiences gained through the experiments, the paper aims to provide practical guidance of Data Mining solutions in a real application

Serious Games: Quality Characteristics Evaluation Framework and Case Study

The use of serious games in teaching and training is increasing; however, there is a lack of suitable evaluation frameworks to evaluate the different quality characteristics in the serious games. This study highlights previous evaluation frameworks and then emphasizes different quality characteristics that have been used in evaluating serious games. The study divided the discussed quality characteristics into primary and secondary characteristics based on their use in the literature. The study proposes a framework to evaluate several dimensions of serious games by choosing and combining appropriate quality characteristics. Robocode a programming serious game was used as a case study in which the framework has been applied to it where fifteen students in Queen’s University Belfast played the game and evaluated different quality characteristics based on the proposed framework. The results showed that Robocode overall evaluation is good; however, the framework recommends changes to be applied to the game to increase the game understandability to be played by the users without the need for supervision or tutors

Phage-mediated biological control of Erwinia amylovora: The role of CRISPRs and exopolysaccharide

Fire blight, caused by bacterium Erwinia amylovora, is a very serious disease affecting apple, pear and other fruit plants. The development of phage-based biopesticides is currently in progress in our lab. Emergence of phage-resistant bacteria is a valid concern. Two attributes of the bacterial host that may contribute to the development of resistance were studied, the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/ CRISPR-associated (CRISPR/Cas) system and exopolysaccharide (EPS) interaction with phages. The structure of E. amylovora CRISPR/Cas system was determined in 8 E. amylovora isolates from different geographical regions. Three CRISPR-array sets named CR1, CR2 and CR3 were detected in 4 isolates, and only 2 arrays were determined in the rest of the isolates. No significant similarity was found between spacers in any of these systems to phage DNA sequenced in this study or from GenBank. Also the Cas level of expression was not stimulated during phage infection. Introduction of extra copies of Cas genes to enhance expression did not result in phage resistance. Nevertheless, E. amylovora CRISPR/Cas system was found to be efficient in blocking the transformation of plasmids carrying protospacers matched spacers in CRR1 and CRR2. Among phages that have been sequenced in this study are ΦEa9-2 and ΦEa35-70. ΦEa9-2 (Podoviridae) genome is 75,568 bp, and found to be related to coliphage N4. ΦEa35-70 (Myoviridae) genome is 271,084 bp, and found to carry a potential EPS depolymerase gene. Activity of ΦEa35-70 EPS depolymerase was only detected when cloned and expressed in E. coli, but His-tagged purified protein did not exhibit any EPS-depolymerase activities. This study offers critical information for the design of novel and effective phage-based biopesticides for the control of E. amylovora. It provides a new knowledge on the molecular structure and function of CRISPR/Cas system and EPS-phage interaction

Finite Mixture of Regression Models for Complex Survey Data

Over time, survey data has become an essential source of information for modern society. However, to be effective, the structures of survey data require sampling designs that are more complex than simple random sampling. The complex sampling data collected from enormous national surveys via these complex designs ideally include sample weights that allow analysis to take account of complicated population structures. When the target of inference is the parameters of a regression model, it is crucial to know whether these weights should be incorporated into the sampling weight when fitting the model to the survey data. The finite mixture models are one tool for modeling heterogeneity and finding the subgroups in the data. Limited literature is available on modeling survey data via the finite mixture of regression models using a complex survey design. The principal aim of this dissertation is to develop and evaluate strategies for survey data modeling using a new design-based inference, where sampling weights are integrated into the complete-data log-likelihood function. More specifically, the pseudo maximum likelihood estimator (PML) has been considered, so the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm was developed accordingly. In order to evaluate this strategy in realistic circumstances, we simulated the performance of the proposed model under numerous scenarios. Comparisons were made using bias-variance components of the mean squared error. Additionally, the Bayesian information criterion was utilized and assessed as a selection tool under the proposed modeling approach. Finally, we applied the proposed approach to original survey datasets to assess its practical usefulnes

Experiences In Migrating An Industrial Application To Aspects

Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD) is a paradigm aiming to solve problems of object-oriented programming (OOP). With normal OOP it’s often unlikely to accomplish fine system modularity due to crosscutting concerns being scattered and tangled throughout the system. AOSD resolves this problem by its capability to crosscut the regular code and as a consequence transfer the crosscutting concerns to a single model called aspect. This thesis describes an experiment on industrial application wherein the effectiveness of aspect-oriented techniques is explained in migration the OOP application into aspects. The experiment goals at first to identify the crosscutting concerns in source code of the industrial application and transform these concerns to a functionally equivalent aspect-oriented version. In addition to presenting experiences gained through the experiment, the thesis aims to provide practical guidance of aspect solutions in a real application

Optical Wireless Data Center Networks

Bandwidth and computation-intensive Big Data applications in disciplines like social media, bio- and nano-informatics, Internet-of-Things (IoT), and real-time analytics, are pushing existing access and core (backbone) networks as well as Data Center Networks (DCNs) to their limits. Next generation DCNs must support continuously increasing network traffic while satisfying minimum performance requirements of latency, reliability, flexibility and scalability. Therefore, a larger number of cables (i.e., copper-cables and fiber optics) may be required in conventional wired DCNs. In addition to limiting the possible topologies, large number of cables may result into design and development problems related to wire ducting and maintenance, heat dissipation, and power consumption. To address the cabling complexity in wired DCNs, we propose OWCells, a class of optical wireless cellular data center network architectures in which fixed line of sight (LOS) optical wireless communication (OWC) links are used to connect the racks arranged in regular polygonal topologies. We present the OWCell DCN architecture, develop its theoretical underpinnings, and investigate routing protocols and OWC transceiver design. To realize a fully wireless DCN, servers in racks must also be connected using OWC links. There is, however, a difficulty of connecting multiple adjacent network components, such as servers in a rack, using point-to-point LOS links. To overcome this problem, we propose and validate the feasibility of an FSO-Bus to connect multiple adjacent network components using NLOS point-to-point OWC links. Finally, to complete the design of the OWC transceiver, we develop a new class of strictly and rearrangeably non-blocking multicast optical switches in which multicast is performed efficiently at the physical optical (lower) layer rather than upper layers (e.g., application layer). Advisors: Jitender S. Deogun and Dennis R. Alexande

DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK FOR DIGITAL TWIN DATA QUALITY AND SECURITY CONTROLS

This thesis is concerned with the data quality and security of the digital twin and how it is going to impact its adoption, trustworthiness, and potential for real-world applications. By addressing the potential vulnerabilities and ensuring the integrity of data, this research aims to contribute to the development of robust and trustworthy digital twin standards and policies that is going to complement the existing international standards across different domains. Moreover, it underscores the important need to establish robust standards to ensure the successful and secure deployment of digital twins across industries. Previous research, while valuable, may not have fully addressed the critical interplay between data quality and security within the digital twin environment. To address this gap, a survey was distributed to digital twin users and experts. To thoroughly analyze the survey results and assess the true effectiveness of digital twin technology, we will employ some analytical procedures, utilizing robust tools such as ATLAS.ti and qualitative matrices such as the Probability-Impact (P-I) matrix and Risk Priority Number (RPN). The result of this paper is addressing valuable data quality and security standards for the digital twin, which is going to address the risks analyzed from the case studies to mitigate identified vulnerabilities, enhance data integrity, and ensure that the digital twin system is resilient against potential threats. The survey and case study analysis yield a comprehensive understanding of these critical risks to address the importance of these aspects of the digital twin

Instantaneous Frequency Estimation and Signal Separation Using Fractional Continuous Wavelet Transform

In the signal processing field, time-frequency representations (TFR\u27s) have intensively been improved to provide effective and powerful tools for reliable signal analysis. One of the most valuable and frequently used tools is Fourier transform (FT) which has been used to study the frequency content of stationary signals in the Fourier domain (FD). However, FT is not sufficient to study the frequency of non-stationary signals. For this particular type of signals to be best analyzed, some transforms such as the short time Fourier transform (STFT) and the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) have been introduced to provide us with a signal representation in the time-frequency plane. Another transform based on STFT and CWT; namely, the synchrosqueezing transform (SST), was introduced to improve the sharpness of the TFR\u27s by assigning the coefficient value to a different point in the TF plane. Also, TFR\u27s with satisfactory energy concentration and the corresponding SST’s involving both time and frequency variables were introduced; namely, the instantaneous frequency-embedded STFT (CWT) (IFE-STFT/IFE-CWT), where a rough estimation of the IF of a targeted component was used to achieve an accurate IF estimation. Recently, the STFT, the CWT and the corresponding SST’s with a time-varying window width are proposed and studied. These transforms have shown the confidence in the accuracy of both sharpening the TFR and separating the components of a multicomponent non-stationary signal, which then led to obtain a more accurate component retrieval formula at any local time. In order to improve the time-frequency resolutions, the concept of fractional Fourier transform (FrFT) was introduced as a potent tool to analyze time-varying signals; however, it fails in locating the frequency content in the fractional Fourier domain (FrFD). To this regard, the short time fractional FT (STFrFT) and the fractional CWT (FrCWT) were proposed to solve this issue by displaying the time and FrFD-frequency contents jointly in the time-FrFD-frequency plane. In this dissertation, we provide a component retrieval formula for a multicomponent signal from its FrCWT with integral involving only the scale variable and then introducing the corresponding SST (FrWSST). We also introduce the first and second order SST based on the IFE-CWT (IFE-WSST) and then propose time-FrFD-frequency representations with satisfactory energy concentration; namely, IFE-FrCWT and the corresponding SST (IFE-FrWSST). Lastly, we consider the FrCWT with a time-varying window width; namely, the adaptive FrCWT (AFrCWT) and the corresponding SST (AFrWSST). We propose these TFR\u27s in the FrFD for the purpose of not only improving the accuracy of the IF estimation and the energy concentration of these transforms, but also enhancing the separation conditions for the components of a multicomponent signal to be retrieved more accurately

Effect of four irrigation solutions on the intraocular pressure and total bacterial count of the normal eye in dogs

There are numerous agents that have been used for irrigation of the ocular tissue from attached foreign bodies, inflammatory exudate and microorganisms. For evaluation of four agents of these irrigation solutions, sixteen clinically healthy dogs of both sexes were used in this study. The dogs were allocated into four equal groups. The right eye of dogs for each group was irrigated 3 times daily for three successive days. The groups were irrigated as following: The first group: ringer’s lactate, the second group: normal saline 0.9%, the third group: boric acid 2% and sodium bicarbonate 1% was used for the fourth group. The left eye was considered control one. The results revealed that the four solutions did not cause any obvious alteration of the eyes and change the intraocular pressure (IOP). According to their effects on the total bacterial count, the four irrigation solutions had not any significant effect. It could be concluded that all of these agents may be used for irrigation of the intact eye and removal of the attached exudate and foreign bodies