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Agent-based AmI System Case Study: The Easy Line + Project
No full textSmart environments include context-aware computing to enhance system capabilities which affect user interaction positively. A context-aware application should collect contextual information through different ways depending on technology availability and handle this information adequately to execute actions or warnings, present information or modify the environment. Ambient intelligence (AmI) habitually means system complexity and heterogeneity. This paper describes an AmI system case-study, developed for the Easy Line + project, a decentralized intelligence carefully structured in agents grouped by roles in domains to improve system package interaction and integration. The main purposes for this implementation are: avoid complexity and inconsistence between the elements of the system and increase system´s performance. The Easy Line + project is primarily oriented to monitor and control white goods and to assist in emergency situations though it is deployed all over the home environment and can be extended, more easily thanks to the multi-agent approach, to control and monitor other devices or services at home
Is overweight and obesity in 9–10-year-old children in Liverpool
Get PDFObjectives: To determine whether weight problems in children (overweight, obesity and overweight or obesity) were related to deprivation indices when attributed only according to electoral ward of the school attended. To determine whether children
with weight problems were more likely to be found in some wards rather than others, and to compare the distribution for boys and girls.
Design: Retrospective, cross-sectional, observational study.
Setting: One hundred and six primary schools from all parts of Liverpool city.
Subjects: Five cohorts of 9–10-year-old children between 1998 and 2003.
Main outcome measures: Body mass index (BMI) for each child to estimate proportions overweight, obese and overweight or obese according to international criteria.
Results: Between January 1998 and March 2003, the heights and weights of 7902 boys and 7514 girls were measured and BMI calculated. The prevalence of boys and girls categorised as overweight or obese was very high (1620, 20.6% and 1909, 25.7%,
respectively). Prevalence was not related to deprivation and varied between wards only for the girls; some wards had very different prevalence rates for boys and girls (Picton: 59 boys, 23.4%; 106 girls, 36.6%). The most deprived ward did not have a
remarkable prevalence of overweight or obesity (Speke: 32 boys, 15.3%; 40 girls, 19.8%).
Conclusions: Obesity is a major problem and requires urgent action but targeting intervention on the basis of administrative areas may be very wasteful. Different factors seem to lead to obesity in boys and girls, and attention should be paid to the
role of the physical environment
Scholarly, Scholarship, Excellence – a model for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Get PDFThe article presents some personal thoughts about Boyer’s scholarship of teaching concept. It considers how the existing literature informs the notion of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and how it intersects with ideas of teaching excellence and expertise
The psychometric properties of The Religious Status Inventory—'Being Ethical' subscale among Northern Irish adolescents
No full textThere are few self-report measures of morality. The Religious Status Inventory—'Being Ethical' subscale represents one approach. However, at present there is limited information on the psychometric properties of either the original 20-item version (RSInv-20) or the shortened embedded 10-item version (RSInv-S10). The aim of the present study was to provide psychometric data on the internal reliability of these two versions of the 'Being Ethical' subscale. As part of a larger study, 595 Northern Irish adolescents, drawn from both Grammar and Secondary schools, completed the RSInv-20. An unsatisfactory level of internal reliability was found for the RSInv-20 (Cronbach's alpha = 0.42), but a satisfactory level of internal reliability was found for the RSInv-S10 (Cronbach's alpha = 0.70). Subsequent item analysis produced an alternative 10-item version (RSInv-A10) that provided the optimum level of internal reliability for a 10-item measure in the present sample (Cronbach's alpha = 0.74). In addition, on all three versions of the measure (RSInv-20, RSInv-S10, and RSInv-A10), differences were found in levels of internal reliability among Grammar and Secondary school respondents, with the former producing higher levels of internal reliability
High resolution 3-D imaging via multi-pass SAR
Get PDFSpaceborne/airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems provide high resolution two-dimensional terrain imagery. The paper proposes a technique for combining multiple SAR images, acquired on flight paths slightly separated in the elevation direction, to generate high resolution three-dimensional imagery. The technique could be viewed as an extension to interferometric SAR (InSAR) in that it generates topographic imagery with an additional dimension of resolution. The 3-D multi-pass SAR imaging system is typically characterised by a relatively short ambiguity length in the elevation direction. To minimise the associated ambiguities we exploit the relative phase information within the set of images to track the terrain landscape. The SAR images are then coherently combined, via a nonuniform DFT, over a narrow (in elevation) volume centred on the 'dominant' terrain ground plane. The paper includes a detailed description of the technique, background theory, including achievable resolution, and the results of an experimental stud
Implicit Religion in the Psychology of Religion: What the (Psychology) Papers Say
No full textTo gauge the use of the term ‘implicit religion’ within the psychology of religion, the present study examined the prevalence of the term within published articles covered by the main bibliographic database in psychology, PsycINFO. For purposes of comparison, the prevalence of the term ‘implicit religion’ was also examined within leading social science, religion and sociology bibliographic databases. The number of citations of ‘implicit religion’ demonstrated that the term is currently almost non-existent in usage within psychology journals abstracted by PsycINFO (n=1), or among social science journals abstracted by ASSIA: Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (n=7). However, it is more widely used in religion journals abstracted by ATLAReligion (n=22), and sociology journals abstracted by Sociological Abstracts (n=59). These findings provide further empirical evidence to support the conclusion drawn by Gollnick (2002) that the term ‘implicit religion’ has not gained the widespread attention of psychologists of religion
A Study of the Personality Attributes of Applicants for Postgraduate Social Work Training to a Northern Ireland University
No full textThe study investigated the potential for the introduction of a personality measure as a method of selection for social work training. As a first step, a personality test, the NEO-PI-R, was administered to two cohorts of applicants to postgraduate social work training. The personality profile of the group who were selected by interview was compared with the group who were not selected at interview. A significant difference was reported: successful candidates were more open in terms of feelings, actions and values. This result establishes that interviewing is differentiating between candidates in terms of the personality dimension of openness. It would be assumed that openness is a necessary and appropriate quality for trainee social workers to possess. However, given that the nature of social work has now changed substantially, we are no longer certain that openness is a central requirement
A Cross Cultural Virtual Learning Environment for Students to Explore the Issue of Racism: A Case Study involving the UK, USA & SA
Get PDFThis article draws upon the experiences of three academics who collaborated online to engage students from the three respective higher education institutions (the University of Wales, United Kingdom; the University of Washington, United States of America; and the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa) to participate in a Virtual Learning Environment using Blackboard software to examine the issue of racism (past and present). This article reflects upon the nature, context and format of the online learning environment, explores the staff and student experience of participating and engaging in the conference, and considers its effectiveness for learning and teaching. The article also highlights some of the cross cultural insights that emerged concerning language, culture, and social context in respect of the issue of racism and related issues of discrimination. The creation of a virtual learning environment across three continents raised interesting challenges and exciting opportunities in respect of academic collaboration and the development of learning and teaching strategies. The article concludes by suggesting that there is pedagogical merit in using both cross cultural and virtual learning environments which may be particularly well suited to enable students to grapple with subject matters that have historically been fraught with ignorance, prejudice and pre-conceived ideas
Distance 2 Sofia Art Exhibition
Get PDFJohn McClenaghen ,one of our researchers in Fine Art who was among 40 artists chosen to represent the Visual Arts in Wales at the National Eisteddfod this year also held a joint exhibition at the Akademia Gallery, National Academy of Art, Sofia, Bulgaria, 19 September - 4 October 2011. The exhibition comprised assemblages’ prints, and installation by two UK artists John McClenaghen, Programme Leader for Fine Art at Glyndwr University and Alec Shepley, Head of School of Art and Design at the University of Lincoln. The exhibition forms a part of a much broader research project in which the two artists are investigating the presentation of the fragmented work and the ‘unfinished’ project. Aspects of dilapidation, ruin and entropy are explored and much of the work in this exhibition focuses on the notion of the ‘ruin in reverse’ - coming into being as opposed to being left to decay. The work resulting from the research project demonstrates a seemingly endless preoccupation with cutting, placing, re-cutting and re-placing, joining and un-joining, telescoping between making and un-making, and the eventual ‘dis-assembly’ or collapse of the outcome. The exhibition and the broader research project will be accompanied by a publication with foreword by artist and curator John Ploughman to be produced in collaboration with the National Academy of Art, Sofia. A joint lecture by both artists was held in the gallery to discuss the aspects of the work in more detail and provide a forum to debate the media, materials, processes and ideas involved and the contextual underpinning. As a result of this visit CIMPH at Glyndwr have been invited to take part in the DA international digital arts festival next year. We have also agreed to collaborate with the National Academy of Art, Sofia on Distance 3 which will be a research and exhibition project, pairing Bulgarian and UK based artists who share similar concerns initiating long Distance creative dialogue and resulting in an Oriel Wrecsam touring exhibition. These are some of the images from the exhibition and lecture in the Akademia Gallery on the 19th of September 2011
Internal reliability and temporal stability of the New Indices of Religious Orientation among Indian undergraduates: Test-retest data over 15 days
No full textThe present study examined the internal reliability and temporal stability of both the long and short forms of the New Indices of Religious Orientation, containing measures of Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Quest religiosity, over a 15-day period among a sample of 100 Indian university students. Internal reliabilities for the long form of the measure at times 1 and 2 were acceptable for all subscales with the exception of the intrinsic subscale at time 2. Reliability estimates for the extrinsic and intrinsic subscales of the short form of the measure at both time 1 and time 2 were also less than satisfactory, though the alpha coefficients for the quest subscale were satisfactory. Data demonstrated that stability across the two administrations for both long- and short-form versions of the three dimensions of religious orientation were moderately high to high (ranging from r = 0.63 to r = 0.76). Moreover, intra-class correlation coefficients were similar to those derived from the Pearson's correlation coefficients, thus confirming that there were no systematic errors between the time 1 and time 2 datasets. However, there were significant differences in mean scores between time 1 and time 2 for both long- and short-form versions of the intrinsic and quest religious orientation subscales