Search results for "computers"
showing 10 items of 3243 documents
Determinants of the interannual relationships between remote sensed photosynthetic activity and rainfall in tropical Africa
2007
International audience; The response of photosynthetic activity to interannual rainfall variations in Africa South of the Sahara is examined using 20 years (1981-2000) of Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) AVHRR data. Linear correlations and regressions were computed between annual NDVI and annual rainfall at a 0.5° latitude/longitude resolution, based on two gridded precipitation datasets (Climate Prediction Center Merged Analysis of Precipitation [CMAP] and Climatic Research Unit [CRU]). The spatial patterns were then examined to detect how they relate to the mean annual rainfall amounts, land-cover types as from the Global Land Cover 2000 data set, soil properties and soil typ…
Improving Scalable K-Means++
2021
Two new initialization methods for K-means clustering are proposed. Both proposals are based on applying a divide-and-conquer approach for the K-means‖ type of an initialization strategy. The second proposal also uses multiple lower-dimensional subspaces produced by the random projection method for the initialization. The proposed methods are scalable and can be run in parallel, which make them suitable for initializing large-scale problems. In the experiments, comparison of the proposed methods to the K-means++ and K-means‖ methods is conducted using an extensive set of reference and synthetic large-scale datasets. Concerning the latter, a novel high-dimensional clustering data generation …
Planning, implementing and evaluating a social and communication skills course for riding instructors
2016
Social and emotional skills are very important for effective coaching. As research in this field is still very limited, the purpose of this study was to plan, implement and evaluate a course teaching social and emotional skills to riding instructors. The objective of this research project was to analyse the usefulness and feasibility of a social and communication skills course for riding instructors. The present research study is an educational action research case study approach. The course was based on Thomas Gordon’s Model of Human Relationships and included different skills such as I-Messages, Active Listening, Shifting Gears and Problem Solving Skills. In total four participants took p…
Albanian students’ motives for preferring certain real-life situations for learning mathematics
2011
This article reports on a qualitative investigation of Albanian students’ motives for preferring certain real-life situations to be used in school mathematics, and possible connections of these motives to characteristics and issues within Albanian society. It is based on realistic interviews with students from Grades 8 and 9 in a school in the district of Shkodra in northern Albania. Interviews were conducted after students experienced five teaching units which dealt with mathematics embedded in real-life situations. Results are expressed in terms of contextmechanism-outcome configurations as proposed by critical realist theory. Most of the resultsare supported by those from a previous quan…
Students’ Experiences of Reflective Writing as a Tool for Learning in Physiotherapy Education
2015
The purpose of this study was to examine physiotherapy students’ experiences of reflective writing. The students (n = 32) were asked to video record their practical activities at school and at workplaces, and to write reflective journals on their experiences. The research data about students’ experiences of reflective writing were collected by interviewing the students. The data were analyzed phenomenographically. The findings revealed four qualitatively different experiences of reflective writing: 1) writing as a useless task; 2) writing as a tool for deepening understanding; 3) writing as a tool for self-reflection; and 4) writing as a tool for professional development. These categories d…
The Influence of Agricultural Support on Sale Prices of French Farmland: A Comparison of Different Subsidies, Accounting for the Role of Environmenta…
2013
In this paper, using data from individual transactions for the period 1994-2010 in the French NUTS2 region Brittany, we investigated how environmental regulations and transaction land regulations influence the price of sold plots. Regressions on three sub-samples of buyers were performed in order to assess whether different buyers have different attitude or plans regarding the farmland purchased: a sub-sample including only farmer buyers, a sub-sample including non-farmer individual buyers, and a sub-sample including non-farmer nonindividual buyers. Estimations were performed ignoring and accounting for spatial interactions (model SARAR). Results indicate that the price of land decreases wh…
Oppilaiden kanssa vastuuta jakamassa : peruskoulun kahdeksannen luokan oppilaiden autonomian vahvistaminen englannin oppitunneilla samanaikaisopetuks…
2016
The aim of this ethnographic and autoethnographic research was to explore what kind of a learning culture existed in an 8th grade English class in a Finnish basic education school in the 2011-2012 academic year. The class was taught jointly by a subject teacher and a special education teacher. A teaching experiment was implemented with the support of co-teaching during which teachers aimed to strengthen students' learning autonomy: to support their active learning and help them act as responsible learners. The research data included participant observation notes, interviews of a subject teacher and students, and different kinds of documents produced by teachers and students during the imple…
Optimal Resource Allocation in Multi-Hop Networks: Contention vs. Scheduling
2014
CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance) is actually the most used method in ad-hoc networks for transmitting on a contending medium, even if it shows poor performance in presence of hidden nodes. To increase performance, we propose an algorithm that combines CSMA and TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) approaches. The adopted solution consists of grouping contending nodes in non-interfering subsets and granting a different numbers of time slots to different groups, while using the CSMA to manage medium access among nodes belonging to the same subset. An optimization procedure to assign the time slots to each subset of nodes and to find an equilibrium between contention …
El efecto moderador de la edad en la relación entre el valor percibido, las TIC del minorista y la lealtad del cliente
2010
AbstractInformation and communication technology (ICT) may represent a source of benefits for retailers. However, there is a debate in the literature on how ICT influences customer-supplier relationships. In addition, the evidence on the effect of age on consumer attitudes towards retail technological solutions is not conclusive. This paper proposes and tests a model to analyze the influence of retail ICT on consumer loyalty towards the retailer, as well as to assess the moderating role of consumer age on this relationship. As a result, customer assessment of retail ICT, together with perceived value, exerts a positive influence on consumer commitment and satisfaction, being the latter an a…
FROM A COLLABORATIVE DESIGNING OF STORYTELLING TO A ROBOTIC AND VIRTUAL WORLD REPRESENTATION
2012
This paper presents an experiential learning lab focused on building a digital storytelling using both robots with LEGO Mindstorms and virtual worlds with Kodu Game Lab. The experiential laboratory (32 hours) has involved 33 children of secondary schools in a collaborative learning setting in formal (school labs) and informal learning context (external cultural association). In a first phase of the activity children used Lego Mindstorm robotic kits, assembling them and creating a physical environment (pasterboard arenas) where robots were programmed for moving and taking actions. In a second phase children were invited to transfer the physical world built for robots in a new digital storyte…