Digital Commons Network^™

Student Perceptions Of Online Interactive Versus Traditional Lectures; Or How I Managed Not To Fall Asleep With My Eyes Open, John A. O'Rourke, Susan J. Main, Martin G. Cooper

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Universities are increasingly experimenting with the online domain to connect with busy and digital-savvy students and counter the decline in face-to-face lecture attendance More often than not universities are offering videoed lectures or PowerPoints with lecturer voice-overs as a way of delivering content. Evidence suggests that while these techniques may provide the flexibility required, some content needs more personalised delivery. In this article the authors explore the development and delivery of an online lecture format. Using a combination of video, text and interactive cell technology, this online offering was trialed in a unit focused on the education of students with …

The Motivation And Identity Challenges For Phd Holders In The Transition To Science And Mathematics Teaching In Secondary Education: A Pilot Study, Robert Whannell, William J. Allen

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Australian secondary education has endured a chronic shortage of qualified mathematics and science teachers for a number of years, particularly in rural and remote areas. A longitudinal research project examining the capacity for the holders of PhD level qualifications in mathematics and science to be utilised as one means of addressing this shortage has been commenced at two regional Australian universities. This paper reports on the pilot study which utilised semi-structured interviews involving five participants at various stages of the transition into secondary school teaching. The interviews examined the motivations of the participants to enter secondary teaching and the challenges …

Educational Innovations And Pedagogical Beliefs: The Case Of A Professional Development Program For Indonesian Teachers, Cher Ping Lim, Jo Tondeur, Hendrati Nastiti, Jeremy E. Pagram

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study aimed to explore the impact of a professional development program on the teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and practices. More specifically, the program endeavoured to design a prototype for teacher professional development in Indonesia that was sustainable and scalable. This one-year program built upon the participating teachers’ existing practices, reinforced with the concept of reflection as a tool for ongoing inquiry of their own practices. The three major components of this program were: action research, peer-coaching and leadership support. By using a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative data collection, this study examined the changes in the participating teachers’ beliefs …

Mobile Applications For Indian Agriculture Sector: A Case Study, Pratik Shah, Niketa Gandhi, Leisa Armstrong

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Government, private agencies and the general public are often interested in the decisions made by the Indian farmers as they have large influences beyond the farm boundary. Over many years, the process of adoption of new technologies and policies in the Indian agricultural sector has received considerable academic attention highlighting the role of many social, financial and other influences on their decision making. The Indian government and other development agencies promote income generating projects as a way of encouraging growth through increased agricultural production and the protection of the natural resource base. The impact of new technology to economic growth …

Geospatial Data Pre-Processing On Watershed Datasets: A Gis Approach, Sreedhar Nallan, Leisa Armstrong, Barry Croke, Amiya K. Tripathy

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Spatial data mining helps to identify interesting patterns from the spatial data sets. However, geo spatial data requires substantial data pre-processing before data can be interrogated further using data mining techniques. Multi-dimensional spatial data has been used to explain the spatial analysis and SOLAP for pre-processing data. This paper examines some of the methods for pre-processing of the data using Arc GIS 10.2 and Spatial Analyst with a case study dataset of a watershed.

An Artificial Neural Network For Predicting Crops Yield In Nepal, Tirtha Ranjeet, Leisa Armstrong

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper examines the application of artificial neural networks (ANNs) for predicting crop yields for an agricultural region in Nepal. The neural network algorithm has become an effective data mining tool and the outcome produced by this algorithm is considered to be less error prone than other computer science techniques. The backpropagation algorithm which iteratively finds a suitable weight value is considered for computing the error derivative. Agricultural data was collected from thirteen years from paddy field cultivation in the Siraha district, an eastern region in Nepal, and used for this investigation of neural networks. Additionally, climatic parameters including rainfall, …

A Survey Of Image Processing Techniques For Agriculture, Lalit Saxena, Leisa Armstrong

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Computer technologies have been shown to improve agricultural productivity in a number of ways. One technique which is emerging as a useful tool is image processing. This paper presents a short survey on using image processing techniques to assist researchers and farmers to improve agricultural practices. Image processing has been used to assist with precision agriculture practices, weed and herbicide technologies, monitoring plant growth and plant nutrition management. This paper highlights the future potential for image processing for different agricultural industry contexts.

Decision Support System Data For Farmer Decision Making, Pornchai Taechatanasat, Leisa Armstrong

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The capacity of farmers and agricultural scientists to be able to make in-season decisions is dependent on accurate climate, soil and plant data. This paper will provide a review of the types of environmental and crop data that can be collected by sensors which can used for decision support systems (DSS) or be further interrogated for real time data mining and analysis. This paper also presents a review of the data requirements for agricultural decision making by firstly reviewing decision support frameworks and agricultural DSSs, data acquisition, sensors for data acquisition and examples of data incorporation for agricultural DSSs.

Role Of Icts In Improving Drought Scenario Management In India, Shubhangi S. Wankhede, Niketa Gandhi, Leisa Armstrong

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Drought is a natural phenomenon that affects social, economic and environmental sectors. It is caused due to low or no rainfall in the specific region and for some duration of time. Reduced soil moisture and ground water level are the other causes for drought. Based on its intensity, drought has impacts on various sectors like agriculture, transportation, forest fire, environment and many more. Agriculture is the major sector being affected by drought resulting in low crop production and having great detriment to economy of the country. In this paper, an attempt is made to study the different causes and effects …

Small To Medium Enterprise Cyber Security Awareness: An Initial Survey Of Western Australian Business, Craig Valli, Ian C. Martinus, Michael N. Johnstone

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) represent a large proportion of a nation’s business activity. There are studies and reports reporting the threat to business from cyber security issues resulting in computer hacking that achieve system penetration and information compromise. Very few are focussed on SMEs. Even fewer are focussed on directly surveying the actual SMEs themselves and attempts to improve SME outcomes with respect to cyber security. This paper represents research in progress that outlines an approach being undertaken in Western Australia with SMEs in the northwest metropolitan region of Perth, specifically within the large local government catchments of Joondalup …

Methods For Multimodal Analysis And Representation Of Teaching-Learning Interactions In Primary Science Lessons Captured On Video, Mark W. Hackling, Karen J. Murcia, Khadeeja Ibrahim-Didi, Susan M. Hill

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Video-based classroom research is opening-up exciting new insights into how teachers generate productive opportunities for student engagement in quality learning, reasoning and the development of their scientific literacy. The significant role played by multimodal representations in learning and teaching becomes evident through the medium of video and its analysis. Classroom research that is framed from social constructivist, sociocultural, activity theory and social semiotic perspectives highlights the social interactions involving multimodal representations which are used to communicate science ideas and also act as semiotic resources for meaning making. Social and cognitive processes of co-constructing meaning are mediated by talk, embodied representations …

Are We Approaching Pit Lake Closure From The Wrong Perspective?, Mark A. Lund, Melanie L. Blanchette

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Pit lakes are similar to natural lakes formed by faulting, glacial action, volcanic action and asteroid collisions. These natural lakes have, after thousands of years, developed into environmentally significant ecosystems. As artificial constructs, pit lakes can be modified prior to filling to enhance lake attributes, such as modification of catchment size, creation of littoral zones and addition of organic matter. Significant advances could be made in successful closure and relinquishment of pit lakes, by 1) choosing appropriate model lakes, 2) understanding successional processes, 3) designing pit lakes to enhance ecological values, and 4) recognizing that it will take time to …

Regulation Of Artisanal Small Scale Gold Mining (Asgm) In Ghana And Indonesia As Currently Implemented Fails To Adequately Protect Aquatic Ecosystems, Karunia F. Macdonald, Mark A. Lund, Melanie L. Blanchette, Clinton D. Mccullough

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Artisanal small scale gold mining (ASGM) operations are largely unregulated, informal and transient. Rudimentary mining and processing techniques used in ASGM often result in degraded environmental, safety, health and social conditions. ASGM requires permanent sources of water, placing most operations close to natural water bodies. Until recently, the impact on these environments has been largely overlooked, with most studies focussing primarily on mercury contamination and health concerns. Based on Ghanaian and Indonesian experiences, regulation of ASGM is a good step toward improvement, but here we argue that regulation alone is insufficient to improve environmental performance, particularly when the impacts of …

Modelling And Analysis On Noisy Financial Time Series, Jinsong Leng

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Building the prediction model(s) from the historical time series has attracted many researchers in last few decades. For example, the traders of hedge funds and experts in agriculture are demanding the precise models to make the prediction of the possible trends and cycles. Even though many statistical or machine learning (ML) models have been proposed, however, there are no universal solutions available to resolve such particular prob-lem. In this paper, the powerful forward-backward non-linear filter and wavelet-based denoising method are introduced to remove the high level of noise embedded in financial time series. With the filtered time series, the statistical …

What Do Elevated Background Contaminant Concentrations Mean For Amd Risk Assessment And Management In Western Australia?, C. D. Mccullough, J. J Pearce

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Water quality contaminants include a range of naturally occurring chemicals that can cause degradation of aquatic ecosystem water values when concentration ranges exceed biological tolerances. Both acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD) and acid sulfate soil (ASS) can increase contaminant concentrations through reduced pH and increased solute concentrations especially of toxic metals and metalloids. Water quality guideline criteria are typically used to maintain existing end use value objectives when managing AMD/ASS-affected waters. However, surface and ground waters of catchments comprising mining resources often show elevated solute concentrations in baseline conditions due to their unique geologies. From an AMD and ASS risk …

Hierarchical Graphical Bayesian Models In Psychology, Guillermo Campitelli, Guillermo Macbeth

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The improvement of graphical methods in psychological research can promote their use and a better comprehension of their expressive power. The application of hierarchical Bayesian graphical models has recently become more frequent in psychological research. The aim of this contribution is to introduce suggestions for the improvement of hierarchical Bayesian graphical models in psychology. This novel set of suggestions stems from the description and comparison between two main approaches concerned with the use of plate notation and distribution pictograms. It is concluded that the combination of relevant aspects of both models might improve the use of powerful hierarchical Bayesian graphical …

Zernike Moments And Genetic Algorithm : Tutorial And Application, Oluleye H. Babatunde, Leisa Armstrong, Jinsong Leng, Dean Diepeveen

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Aims/ objectives: To demontrate effectiveness of Zernike Moments for Image Classification. Zernike moment(ZM) is an excellent region-based moment which has attracted the attentions of many image processing researchers since its first application to image analysis. Many papers have been published on several works done on ZM but no single paper ever give a detailed information of how the computation of ZM is done from the time the image is captured to the computation of ZM. This work showed how to effectively apply ZM on RGB images. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of Zernike moment in image classification system. A neuro-genetic …

Evolutionary Approaches For Feature Selection In Biological Data, Vinh Q. Dang

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Data mining techniques have been used widely in many areas such as business, science, engineering and medicine. The techniques allow a vast amount of data to be explored in order to extract useful information from the data. One of the foci in the health area is finding interesting biomarkers from biomedical data. Mass throughput data generated from microarrays and mass spectrometry from biological samples are high dimensional and is small in sample size. Examples include DNA microarray datasets with up to 500,000 genes and mass spectrometry data with 300,000 m/z values. While the availability of such datasets can aid in …

Multi-Criteria Approach Using Simulation-Based Balanced Scorecard For Supporting Decisions In Health-Care Facilities: An Emergency Department Case Study, Waleed Abo-Hamad, Amr Arisha

Articles

Health research is a priority in every economy, and this research – set in the context of building a more sustainable and efficient health-care system – examines how operations management practices can be translated to clinical applications. Health-care systems in general (and emergency departments (EDs) in particular) around the world are facing enormous challenges in meeting the increasingly conflicting objectives of providing wide accessibility and delivering high-quality services efficiently and promptly. The framework proposed in this study integrates simulation modelling, the Balanced Scorecard, and multicriteria decision analysis with the aim of providing a decision support system for health-care managers. Using …

Mathematics: Creating Value For Engineering Students, Eileen Goold

Conference Papers

While students’ attainment in mathematics and their attitudes about mathematics are strongly inter-related, value is an important concept in mathematics education. It is arguable that lecturers, especially in engineering faculties, know little about the relationships students form with mathematics; for example what value do engineering students place on mathematics learning? Mathematics is often perceived as a difficult subject and it is associated with certainty and with being able to get the right answer. However the narrowness of the assessment process overshadows predictors of achievement behaviour: expectancy (am I able to do the task?) and value (why should I do the …

Putting Mathematics “Into A Form That A Non-Engineer Will Understand", Eileen Goold

Conference Papers

This paper discusses the finding that practicing engineers are challenged by putting mathematics “into a form that a non-engineer will understand”.

Investigating Engineering Practice Is Valuable For Mathematics Learning, Eileen Goold

Conference Papers

While engineering mathematics curricula often prescribe a fixed body of mathematical knowledge, this study takes a different approach; second-year engineering students are additionally required to investigate and document an aspect of mathematics used in engineering practice. A qualitative approach is used to evaluate the impact that students’ investigations have on their mathematics learning and whether this approach creates greater value for students compared to curriculum mathematics learning. This article contains an account of students’ engagement with and their emotional responses to their investigations of professional engineers’mathematics usage.The study illustrates the positive changes in students’ mathematics attitudes arising from their insights …

What Role Does Mathematical Preparedness Play For Engineering Students Who Transfer From And Ordinary Degree Into An Honours Degree?, Michael Carr, Marisa Llorens, Susan O'Shaughnessy, Anne Marie Mccarrick, Domhnall Sheridan

Conference papers

Students who have not achieved a high level of mathematics at secondary school but have a pass in ordinary level mathematics have the option of entering onto a 3-year Ordinary degree (Level 7). Upon successful completion of this award students may apply to progress to the third year of the Honours degree. Up until relatively recently an upper merit (60%) was the minimum required to make this transition. In recent years this requirement has been reduced with many students with lower marks being offered the possibility of transferring.

Relatively little work has been done on the transition from an Ordinary …

The Effect Of Islamic Education Teachers Obtaining Of International Computer Driving License (Icdl) In Computer Applications At Their Schools In Jordan, Nasser Khawaldeh, Eman M. Tamimi

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

This study aimed to describe the impact of Islamic education for teachers on ICDL International Computer Driving in computer applications in their schools in Zarka governorate in Jordan. The study sample consisted of (104) males and females. The study used a descriptive approach.The study revealed the following: There were no statistically significant differences in the use of computer applications due to gender in all domains. There were no statistically significant differences due to the variable of experience. There were no statistically significant differences due to the variable of academic qualification in all domains except for the two domains: spreadsheets and …

Rotational Covariance And Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger Theorems For Three Or More Particles Of Any Dimension, Jay Lawrence

Dartmouth Scholarship

Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states are characterized by their transformation properties under a continuous symmetry group, and N-body operators that transform covariantly exhibit a wealth of GHZ contradictions. We show that local or noncontextual hidden variables cannot duplicate the predicted measurement outcomes for covariant transformations, and we extract specific GHZ contradictions from discrete subgroups, with no restrictions on particle number N or dimension d except for the general requirement that N≥3 for GHZ states. However, the specific contradictions fall into three regimes distinguished by increasing demands on the number of measurement operators required for the proofs. The first regime consists of proofs …

Use Of E-Journals By Research Scholars In University Libraries In Andhra Pradesh, Makkini Anil Kumar, V Pulla Reddy

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The e-journals available in University libraries of Andhra Pradesh are UGC-INFONET journals, open access journals and the journals subscribed by the libraries on their own. The present study is aimed to study the use of e-journals by the research scholars in the libraries of Sri Venkateswara University (SVU), Andhra University (AU) and University of Hyderabad (UH). It is intended to assess the type of e-journals used, purpose for which they are used, amount of time spent in using them, problems in accessing e-journals, search methods used in accessing them, satisfaction with print and e-journals, adequacy of e-journals and training obtained …

Enhancing Students’ Skills Through Technology (Esst) : A One-To-One Computer Solution At Fiji National University, Chaminda Jayasundara Dr.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Fiji National University has come a long way from its time of inception in terms of information and communication technological resources and capabilities. Achievement of its primary responsibility of human capital development depends largely upon its teaching and learning resources. Research has confirmed that ICT has significant potential to assist students who are currently disadvantaged by gender, disability, ethnic and socio economic background. Total student population of the FNU comprises of 75% students who are basically from lower income families of which the annual income is lower than FJD 15,000/=. Therefore, majority of the students do not have their own …

Much Obliged: Analyzing The Importance And Impact Of Acknowledgements In Scholarly Communication, Joshua Finnell

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Author rights, peer review, open access, and the role of institutional repositories have all come under scrutiny by scholars, librarians, and legal experts in the last decade. Much of the conversation is centered on liberating information from the confinements of legal, financial, and hierarchical restraints. The relevancy of traditional citation analysis too, understood within the framework of an h-Index and Eigen factor, is under scrutiny with the rise of altmetrics. Collectively, these issues form the core of the scholarly communication process, from creation to dissemination to impact. However, an overlooked facet of the scholarly communication process is the acknowledgement. …

Measuring And Using Light In The Melanopsin Age., Robert J Lucas, Stuart N Peirson, David M Berson, Timothy M Brown, Howard M Cooper, Charles A Czeisler, Mariana G Figueiro, Paul D Gamlin, Steven W Lockley, John B O'Hagan, Luke L A Price, Ignacio Provencio, Debra J Skene, George C Brainard

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

Light is a potent stimulus for regulating circadian, hormonal, and behavioral systems. In addition, light therapy is effective for certain affective disorders, sleep problems, and circadian rhythm disruption. These biological and behavioral effects of light are influenced by a distinct photoreceptor in the eye, melanopsin-containing intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), in addition to conventional rods and cones. We summarize the neurophysiology of this newly described sensory pathway and consider implications for the measurement, production, and application of light. A new light-measurement strategy taking account of the complex photoreceptive inputs to these non-visual responses is proposed for use by researchers, …