69238 research outputs found
Sort by
Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy and the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome Taxonomy for Classifying Multiple-Choice Questions: A Study Using the Bookmark Procedure
No full textTeachers’ accurate classification of cognitive demand is essential when developing assessment instruments. This study examined Malaysian science teachers’ proficiency in classifying 30 science multiple-choice questions (MCQ s) according to the revised Bloom’s taxonomy (RBT) and the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) taxonomy. Classifications were conducted over three rounds using the bookmark procedure, with revisions after discussion. Initial agreement was low, improving to
moderate in the second. During the discussions, some teachers displayed professional judgement, while others were influenced by personal interpretive tendencies. Final
classifications were compared to those of the research team, showing higher agreement for RBT than for the SOLO taxonomy. Most panelists demonstrated varied accuracy in individual item classification. A chi-square test revealed significant association (χ2(1) = 26.12, p < .001), indicating that both taxonomies measure cognitive complexity in similar ways, with lower-order thinking aligning with surface-level learning and higher-order thinking aligning with deep-level learning
Advances in HVDC Systems: Aspects, Principles, and a Comprehensive Review of Signal Processing Techniques for Fault Detection
No full textThis paper presents a comprehensive review of High-Voltage Direct-Current (HVDC) systems, focusing on their technological evolution, fault characteristics, and advanced signal processing techniques for fault detection. The paper traces the development of HVDC links globally, highlighting the transition from mercury-arc valves to Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT)-based converters and showcasing operational projects in technologically advanced countries. A detailed comparison of converter technologies including line-commutated converters (LCCs), Voltage-Source Converters (VSCs), and Modular Multilevel Converters (MMCs) and pole configurations (monopolar, bipolar, homopolar, and MMC) is provided. The paper categorizes HVDC faults into AC, converter, and DC types, focusing on their primary locations and fault characteristics. Signal processing methods, including time-domain, frequency-domain, and time–frequency-domain approaches, are systematically compared, supported by relevant case studies. The review identifies critical research gaps in enhancing the reliability of fault detection, classification, and protection under diverse fault conditions, offering insights into future advancements in HVDC system resilience
Designing a toolkit for visualising desirable sustainable futures in video games
No full textThis research aims to design a toolkit to enable game artists and art directors to visualise desirable, sustainable futures
Isogeny-Based Cryptographic Protocols with Advanced Functionalities
No full textAdvances in quantum computing have heightened concerns about information security
in the post-quantum era. While traditional cryptographic schemes rooted in number-
theoretic assumptions (e.g., integer factorization, elliptic curve discrete logarithm, and
discrete logarithm problems) remain foundational to modern security infrastructures,
their vulnerabilities in quantum computing environments have become apparent. To
address this, researchers have shifted focus toward quantum-resistant mathematical
problems. Among these, isogeny-based cryptography has emerged as a strong candi-
date within the five primary post-quantum cryptographic approaches, garnering sig-
nificant academic interest.
Recent progress in isogeny-based cryptographic schemes includes SIDH (though
recent cryptanalysis by Castryck and Decru has compromised its security), CSIDH,
and SQISign. Despite progress, the inherent structural characteristics of isogenies
impose limitations on design flexibility compared to other post-quantum alternatives.
The goal of the thesis is to develop isogeny-based cryptographic protocols with ad-
vanced functionalities. We develop isogeny-based blind signatures based on techniques
from CSIDH, CSI-FiSh, and other works. We also develop ring signature schemes us-
ing SQISign. Finally, we develop a verifiable encryption scheme (based on CSIDH)
and bit commitment scheme (based on the Charles–Goren–Lauter isogeny-based hash
function). For both schemes, we give ways to prove to a verifier that the encrypted/
committed bits satisfy a given Boolean equation
Biological invasions: a global assessment of geographic distributions, long-term trends, and data gaps
No full textBiological invasions are one of the major drivers of biodiversity decline and have been shown to have far-reaching consequences for society and the economy. Preventing the introduction and spread of alien species represents the most effective solution to reducing their impacts on nature and human well-being. However, implementing effective solutions requires a good understanding of where the species are established and how biological invasions develop over time. Knowledge of the status and trends of biological invasions is thus key for guiding research efforts, informing stakeholders and policymakers, for targeted management efforts, and preparing for the future. However, information about the status and trends of alien species is scattered, patchy, and highly incomplete, making it difficult to assess. Published reports for individual regions and taxonomic groups are available, but large-scale overviews are scarce. A global assessment therefore requires a review of available knowledge with careful consideration of sampling and reporting biases. This paper provides a comprehensive global assessment of the status and trends of alien species for major taxonomic groups [Bacteria, Protozoa, Stramenopila, Alveolata, and Rhizaria (SAR), fungi, plants, and animals] for Intergovernmental Panel of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) regions. The review provides irrefutable evidence that alien species have been introduced to all regions worldwide including Antarctica and have spread to even the most remote islands. The numbers of alien species are increasing within all taxa and across all regions, and are often even accelerating. Large knowledge gaps exist, particularly for taxonomic groups other than vascular plants and vertebrates, for regions in Africa and Central Asia, and for aquatic realms. In fact, for inconspicuous species, such as Bacteria, Protozoa, and to some degree SAR and fungi, we found records for very few species and regions. Observed status and trends are thus highly influenced by research effort. More generally, it is likely that all lists for alien species of any taxonomic group and region are incomplete. The reported species numbers therefore represent minima, and we can expect additions to all lists in the near future. We identified six key challenges which need to be addressed to reduce knowledge gaps and to improve our ability to assess trends and status of biological invasions
Better Separation of Spermatozoa from Other Cellular Material
No full textDuring sexual assault sample processing spermatozoa, if present, are separated from other cellular material prior to downstream analysis. This can be time-consuming and difficult for some sample types. The purpose of this research was to compare methods for the separation of spermatozoa from other cellular material and also to compare methods for cellular recovery from disposable sanitary items.
Three separation methods were tested, an in-house selective degradation method, the DifferexTM System and a traditional differential extraction, all utilising DNA IQTM purification. Two reducing agents, DTT and TCEP were trialled. Optimisations were tested, however only one of the optimised methods was utilised in further experiments; which was the in-house selective degradation method TCEP with pull off of excess liquid and resuspension of the spermatozoa pellet. TCEP, like DTT, was found to interfere with the passive reference dye signal in real-time PCR therefore samples required dilution prior to quantitation to ensure DNA concentrations were not overestimated. The sensitivity of the traditional differential extraction and optimised selective degradation method, both with TCEP, were compared on vaginal swabs spiked with varying dilutions of semen. When different substrates were tested, minitape samples tested resulted in poor epithelial fraction recovery for both DifferexTM and selective degradation. The cause of the poor recoveries may be due to higher incubation temperatures and adhesive from the tape impacting DNA recovery. Selective degradation produced complete male STR profiles at a 1/100 dilution of semen, with a major male contributor detected. The traditional differential extraction recovered complete male profiles down to a 1/10 dilution, with a major female contributor determined.
Recovery of cellular material from sanitary and nappy items resulted in varying results across the different methods tested. Minitape lifts, coupled with DifferexTM, saw the highest level of DNA recovery for the epithelial fractions across all samples. The TNE centrifugal filtration method resulted in the best spermatozoa fraction recovery for the super and regular pad samples. Minitape lifts saw the best spermatozoa fraction recovery from nappy samples. The use of blood containing EDTA may have affected the DNA recovery and inhibited PCR.
Overall, the optimised selective degradation method resulted in better separation of spermatozoa from other cellular material, addressing some of the challenges faced in sexual assault sample processing
Non-melanoma skin cancer management in the elderly – life expectancy and comorbidities matter
No full textBackground:
New Zealand has among the highest global rates of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC), disproportionately affecting older adults. Although NMSC is generally low-risk, surgical treatment in very elderly, multimorbid patients may offer limited survival benefit while posing procedural risk. This study evaluated whether comorbidity burden predicts short-term all-cause mortality in patients aged ≥85 undergoing surgical excision of localised NMSC.
Methods:
A retrospective observational study was conducted on patients managed surgically at Waikato Hospital in 2015. Demographics, tumour characteristics, procedures, and complications were recorded. Comorbidities were recorded and analysed using the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). Overall survival at 24 and 60 months was estimated with Kaplan–Meier curves. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional-hazards models were used to examine predictors of mortality.
Results:
Among 303 patients, 24.75% were alive at 60 months. Median survival was 36.5 months. Higher CCI scores strongly predicted mortality, and increasing age beyond 90 years markedly reduced survival. Dementia, chronic kidney disease, congestive heart failure, COPD and vascular disease were significantly associated with higher short term mortality risk. Excised tumours were largely low-risk lesions.
Conclusions:
Comorbidity burden is a strong predictor of short-term mortality in elderly patients with NMSC. Incorporating comorbidity indices into surgical decision-making may help identify patients who may benefit from conservative or non-surgical management
Cold chain optimisation models: A systematic literature review
No full text‘Cold chains’ are specialised supply chains that help preserve the quality of temperature-sensitive products, from procurement to fulfilment. They are vital for essential goods, including perishable food and medicine. Due to their refrigeration requirements, cold chains incur higher operational costs, energy consumption, and emissions than traditional supply chains. Additionally, they pose a risk of product decay or wastage. Despite the extensive research on cold chains, there is a need for a comprehensive review of optimisation models to consolidate existing knowledge and identify areas for further investigation. As such, cold chain optimisation models may deliver substantial commercial, environmental and social benefits, warranting a state-of-the-art overview.
We employ pertinent keywords to retrieve articles published up to and including 2023 from Scopus, followed by content analysis to select 234 publications from 122 peer-reviewed journals. First, we synthesise optimisation models and solution methods addressing collaboration, strategic network design, storage design, tactical planning and distribution planning. Next, we distil nine components, often unique to cold chains, prevalent in these models. Then, we establish multiple research trends and gaps (related to stakeholders, methodology, technology and novel approaches) in this burgeoning field, which will interest people exploring optimisation opportunities in cold chains. Finally, we point to future research avenues for academics, provide actionable learnings for firms’ decision-makers, and outline governmental aspects for policymakers
Teaching Requests for Assistance in a Vocational Setting: Using a Script-fading Intervention for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
No full textPersons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are significantly underemployed when compared to persons without disabilities. As employment plays a central role in social inclusion and improved quality of life (QoL) outcomes, low employment rates among persons with IDD are an increasing concern. Consequently, researchers have investigated the barriers faced by individuals with IDD relating to employment. Past research has suggested that social misconceptions about the interests and abilities of individuals with IDD have led to a lack of access to vocational skill training and education, ultimately resulting in skill deficits in the IDD population. Therefore, improving vocational training is required to bridge the gap in vocational skills in the IDD population. Vocational training commonly focuses on developing technical skills despite employers expressing an increasing preference for soft skills. More specifically, soft skills that improve productivity are highly valued in employment, such as requesting assistance with work-related tasks. Scripting interventions have been proven to be highly effective for teaching social and communication skills in clinical settings. However, little is known about the efficacy of script-fading procedures in real-world employment settings. The present study investigates the use of a script-fading intervention to teach two adults with IDD to request assistance with work-related problems in a real-world employment setting. A secondary aim of the study was to identify whether a procedural modification influenced response rigidity, which is a common critique of scripting interventions. We compared the participants’ response rigidity (scripted and unscripted responses) across rigid and flexible script training conditions. A multiple baseline design was used to assess the acquisition of requests for assistance across the rigid and flexible script-training conditions. Both participants acquired the target skill, and there were no significant differences in acquisition across script-training conditions. These findings demonstrate that script-fading is a highly effective intervention for teaching employment-related social skills in real-world employment settings. Additionally, the participants’ response rigidity was not associated with a script-training condition. Instead, the data displayed individual differences in response rigidity. Overall, the present study provides preliminary evidence of the use of script-fading as a vocational training intervention
Investigating the Application of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Taxonomy
No full textTaxonomy plays a crucial role in biological research by offering foundational data for many
scientific disciplines. However, limited resources, ecological shifts, and many undiscovered
species pose a severe challenge, termed the ’Taxonomic Impediment’. This encompasses
uneven taxonomic resources distribution, lack of unified data formats, difficulties balancing
classify efficiency and data quality, and a heavy reliance on expert knowledge and manual
labor.
The rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially Large Language Models
(LLMs), offers new opportunities to streamline taxonomic workflows given taxonomy’s
extensive use of natural language. This study investigates the applications of LLMs in taxonomy
and develops LLM-based research pipelines to demonstrate their practical potential.
The research consists of three main components: (1) a pilot study (Chapter 2), designed to
select relevant taxonomic data types, evaluates the current potential of LLMs in taxonomy,
and explores the integration of Prompt Engineering and Knowledge Graph (KG) techniques
into LLM-based taxonomic tasks; (2) the Description to Matrix (DtoM) pipeline (Chapter
3), which utilizes ChatGPT-4o within a Python environment to automatically extract
morphological characters from unstructured descriptions and convert them into structured
data matrices; and (3) TaxonGPT (Chapter 4), which uses LLMs to automatically generate
taxonomic descriptions and taxonomic keys from morphological matrices, by integrating
knowledge graphs and error-checking modules to reduce ’AI hallucinations’ and enhance accuracy.
Experimental results indicate that DtoM accurately transforms unstructured taxonomic
descriptions into structured matrices across multiple datasets. TaxonGPT further highlights
the potential of LLMs in taxonomy, with benchmark evaluations confirming significant performance
in accuracy, efficiency, and reproducibility. Despite these promising findings, limitations
in training data can induce biases in specialized fields, resulting in variable performance
in taxonomic classification across different taxa and incurring high computational costs. Future
research could focus on improving LLMs stability to enable more reliable large-scale
taxonomic studies. As an exploratory AI-driven study, this research validates the feasibility
of employing LLMs for automated taxonomy tasks while ensuring high accuracy, laying the
foundation for more comprehensive intelligent taxonomy research