1,720,955 research outputs found
Examining perceptions of academic staff on the factors affecting the use of smartphones as a Constructivist Learning Tool : a proposed model
No full textSubmitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters Degree of Information and Communications Technology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2021.The rapid growth of mobile technology has brought enormous benefits in terms of communication and how some tasks may be accomplished using this technology. However, although many benefits have been identified, many disadvantages have also been identified. The focus of this study was to determine the perceptions of academic staff members on the factors that affect the use of smartphones as a constructivist learning tool by students rather than as a mere communication and distraction gadget.
The factors that could affect the use of smartphones as a constructivist learning tool were identified through a comprehensive literature review. Based on the factors found, a model depicting the relevant factors was constructed, and the model was validated. Six independent constructs for the model; Demographics, Attitudes towards smartphones, Facilitating Conditions, Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Usefulness, and Performance Expectations, were identified by grouping variables to measure each construct together. A questionnaire, based on the constructs and variables, was administered. The resulting data were analysed to validate the model. The conceptual model, tested by the survey, showing the significance of each factor, indicated that all the independent constructs impact the use of smartphones as a constructivist learning tool, either for communication and/or sharing academic-related activities.
The results of this study found that Demographics, such as academic departments, Attitudes towards smartphones, Facilitating Conditions, Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Usefulness, and Performance Expectations all impact the use of smartphones as a constructivist learning tool.
Integration of an autoencoder model with an actor-oriented system
No full textTraditional machine learning frameworks often struggle with scalability, modularity, and efficient resource management, especially when dealing with vast data. Actor-Oriented Systems offer a robust framework for building such scalable systems, allowing concurrent processing and efficient handling of large datasets. This study investigated the integration of Autoencoders (AE), which are pivotal in unsupervised learning, with Actor-Oriented Systems to enhance the modularity, scalability, and maintainability of the model training process. The study seeks to leverage the capabilities of AE and Actor-Oriented Systems to achieve high-quality image reconstruction and efficient processing. The study also attempted to understand the underlying patterns in the data, assess the performance of the model, and demonstrate the benefits of modular and scalable systems. Key findings from the results showed significant improvements in training efficiency and performance of the model, especially when using Actor-Oriented Systems. The training time was reduced from 16.96 seconds to 14.21 seconds, and the validation loss improved from 0.2768 to 0.2100, indicating better generalisation and learning. Data augmentation techniques further enhanced the robustness of the model, leading to more accurate reconstructions of the test images. Actor-Oriented Systems facilitated concurrent processing, improved modularity, and enabled the system to scale efficiently with increasing data volume. This study also highlighted the practical benefits of integrating AE with Actor-Oriented Systems, providing valuable insights into building more robust, maintainable, and scalable machine learning workflows
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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