ABSTRACT:
We describe an "Annotated Lectures" system, which will be used in a global virtual teaching and student collaboration event on embodied intelligence presented by the University of Zurich. The lectures will be broadcasted via video-conference to lecture halls of different universities around the globe. Among other collaboration features, an "Annotated Lectures" system will be implemented in a 3D collaborative virtual environment and used by the participating students to make annotations to the video-recorded lectures, which will be sent to and answered by their supervisors, and forwarded to the lecturers in an aggregated way. The “Annotated Lectures” system aims to overcome the issues of limited studentinstructor interaction in large-scale education, and to foster an intercultural and multidisciplinary discourse among students who review the lectures in a group. After presenting the concept of the “Annotated Lectures” system, we discuss a prototype version including a description of the technical components and its expected benefit for large-scale global education.

ABSTRACT:
An inductively coupled wireless coil for a radio frequency (RF) probe has been designed and applied to a human knee joint to improve the signal to noise ratio (SNR) in a magnetic resonance image (MRI). A birdcage type of a primary coil and a Helmholtz type of a wireless secondary coil have been manufactured. The coils were applied to a human knee with a 3 T MRI system. SNR was calculated both in the proton density image and in the T2 weighted image of MRI. The experimental results show that the designed coils are effective to increase SNR in the human knee MRI.

ABSTRACT:
Peer-assessment is a process wherein students grade the work of their peers rather than relying on an expert. With the recent advent of online tools for peer-assessment [1] it is possible to utilize peer-assessment within any course context, even extremely large courses, with virtually no logistic or economic barriers. Given this potential for widespread use, the present paper highlights the pedagogical value of peer-assessment by breaking down a specific assignment and highlighting the manner in which the learning experienced by students maps onto prominent categorizations of strong pedagogy. We argue that peer-assessment provides a powerful compliment to multiple-choice testing by providing support for the sort of deep, critical and creative learning that is simply not possible to either encourage or assess via multiple- choice.

ABSTRACT:
The history of technological innovations in education has many examples of failed high expectations. To avoid becoming another one, current multimedia ICT tools need to be designed in accordance with how the human mind works. There are well established characteristics of its architecture that should be taken into account when evaluating, selecting, and using educational technology. This paper starts with a review of the most important features of human cognitive architecture and their implications for ICT-based learning. Expertise reversal effect relates to the interactions between levels of learner prior knowledge and effectiveness of different instructional techniques and procedures. Designs and techniques that are effective with low-knowledge learners can lose their effectiveness and even have negative consequences for more proficient learners. The paper describes recent empirical findings associated with the expertise reversal effect in multimedia and hypermedia learning environments, their interpretation within a cognitive load framework, and implications for the design of learner-tailored multimedia.

ABSTRACT:
Motivating students to contribute to learning communities is not a new problem, nor is it restricted to online learning. However it becomes especially obvious in large online courses where student collaboration is one of the intended learning outcomes. This paper describes two models for driving student engagement in producing user-generated and user-reviewed content. It discusses the motivation for participation and gives results from two subject areas. The behaviour of students of second and third level language courses is compared to that of first level technology students when their participation is simply encouraged and when it is required for assessment. A model for driving user-engagement is proposed and related to previous experience in online learning.

ABSTRACT:
Three-dimensional virtual worlds such as Second Life continue to expand the way they provide information, learning activities, and educational applications. This paper explores the types of learning activities that take place in Second Life and discusses how learning takes place, with a view toward developing effective instructional strategies. As learning objects are being launched in Second Life, new approaches to collaboration, interactivity, and cognition are being developed. Many learning-centered islands appeal to individuals who benefit from interaction with peers and instructors, and who can access learning objects such as information repositories, simulations, and interactive animations. The key advantages that Second Life offers include engaging and meaningful interaction with fellow learners, media-rich learning environments with embedded video, graphics, and interactive quizzes and assessments, an engaging environment for simulations such as virtual labs, and culturally inclusive immersive environments. However, because of the steep learning curve, technical difficulties, and cultural diversity, learners may become frustrated in Second Life. Since Second Life is social learning environment that emphasizes the creation of a self, effective learning requires step-by-step empowerment of that new, constructed self.

ABSTRACT:
One of the most serious problems in software engineering projects is the communication between users and developers. It is widely recognized that communication problems are a major factor in the delay and failure of software projects. During university education, students are usually well-skilled in programming languages, hard- and software engineering tools and project management. This paper provides theoretical background and some successful examples how we train our students under ‘real world’ conditions within software projects at the university e.g. to work in teams or to communicate with different stakeholders? Both method and employability result in excellent ratings.

ABSTRACT:
As educational technologies become more commonplace, they are often created with the intention of benefiting students through some novel approach, or to fill a perceived educational gap. While these rationales are good ones, it should also be realized that through the use of innovative technologies educators and researchers alike are presented with a unique and powerful opportunity to conduct laboratory-like research in a naturalistic environment. Thus giving the „invisible researcher‟ the ability to test the desired effectiveness of the tool, and to use the tool as a vehicle to understand learning, all in an unobtrusive manner. This not only ensures that new educational technologies are doing what they were designed to do, but also promises to create pedagogically superior tools and an improved learning environment for both students and educators. To illustrate how this can be successfully implemented, two evidence-based technologies are discussed (the webOption and peerScholar) where research has assisted in tool development and also furthered our understanding of educational theory.

ABSTRACT:
In the heavy engineering industrial sector numerous technical standards, ISO (International Standards Organisation) in particular, exist which invariably contain a glossary of terms providing definition within the context of the standard. However, there is a high level of ambiguity surrounding common terminology and limited consistency across these standards. Our case study company Silcar Pty Limited (Silcar) has recognised the opportunity to strategically expand its business into the provision of high value services to assist clients with the management of large and complex technical assets in heavy industry and essential service utilities. The strategic development of a knowledge management capability enables Silcar to take-on larger scale, higher value added and more flexible asset performance management propositions across a diverse range of industry, client and geographical situations. This research paper explores the concepts that support this capability and discusses the approach taken to achieve the vision of consistency on language.

ABSTRACT:
Transportation is facing fundamental change due to the rapid depletion of fossil fuels, environmental and health problems, the growing world population, rising standards of living with more individual mobility and the globalization of trade with its increasing international transport volume. To cope with these serious problems benign, renewable energy systems and much more efficient drives must be multiplied as rapidly as possible to replace the polluting combustion engines with their much too low efficiency and high fuel logistics cost. Consequently the vehicles of the future must be non-polluting and super-efficient, i.e. electric. The energy supply must come via smart grids from clean energy sources not affecting the health, climate and biosphere. It is shown how this transition to the clean, sustainable energy age is possible, feasible and why it is urgent. The important role of international ISO, IEC and ITU standards and the need for better legislation by means of the Global Energy Charter for Sustainable Development are also highlighted.

ABSTRACT:
In a highly competitive global economy the development of sustainable, innovative responses from Industry is now vital. Many industries globally need to respond rather than react to current economic climate through sustainable (economically and environmentally) development. The steel industry is a critical player in the urban landscape. Like many industries, small, medium enterprises (SMEs) are vital players within the steel industry supply chain. The Australian SME steel housing sector (based in rural and regional areas) are still developing systemic capabilities with the aim of realizing its full potential. The question of an effective sustainable industry is much larger than any one player. This paper aims to present a proposed methodological approach for sustainable cluster development based on previous industry wide investigations. Through the lens of scalability of a socio complex adaptive system, SME development becomes arguably the most significant player with regards to industry cluster development. By starting with SME development it’s possible to build an understanding of a simultaneous two layered approach, “bottom up – top down” whilst including a very diversified group.

ABSTRACT:
Generally, the task of a roadmap is to make sure that from the given starting point we can achieve the final destination within the specified constraints. This paper describes the roadmap developed and followed to implement Knowledge Management (KM) in ESOC. Once having recognized the need of KM and performed some benchmark activities, the first important step of the roadmap is to lay down the foundation for KM at ESOC. This foundation consists of setting up the organization of KM, performing an analysis of the knowledge existing in the different technical domains and conducting the knowledge coverage and criticality analysis. Based on the obtained results, an appraisal is performed with the conclusion that specific actions such as the development of knowledge capture, sharing and preservation methodologies in ESOC, should be followed up. Next phase of the roadmap is dedicated to expand existing KM tools as well as designing and launching new prototypes. The paper presents also the model developed for the expansion of the KM system. The model is based on the application of the Minimum Factor Law, known earlier in the agricultural field, to the field of KM. Finally, the last step of the roadmap is the institutionalization of the KM system.

ABSTRACT:
In the modern world, everyone must recognize that it is nearly impossible to separate many domestic and international problems and managing international challenges will take the efforts of all nations. As a result, each and every person must think like a global citizen and practice mindfulness in daily life. Using the complex interdependence model as a basis for examining citizen diplomacy, this paper suggests ways that new media can be used to introduce students to a global perspective on the world. Further, it provides faculty members with a set of guidelines for structuring projects that task students with the challenge of taking positive action to effect political and societal change.

ABSTRACT:
Teaching Software Engineering to professional master‟s students is a challenging endeavor, and arguably for the past 20 years, Carnegie Mellon University has been quite successful. Although CMU teaches Software Engineering at sites world-wide and uses different pedagogies, the goal of the curriculum -- to produce world-class software engineers -- remains constant. This paper will discuss two of the most mature versions of Carnegie Mellon‟s Software Engineering program -- the main campus program and its “daughter program” at the Silicon Valley Campus. We discuss the programs with respect to the dimensions of curriculum, how students work and learn, how faculty teach, curricular materials, and how students are assessed to provide insight into how Carnegie Mellon continues to keep its programs fresh, to adapt them to local needs, and to meet its goal of excellence after 20 years.

ABSTRACT:
atom. The relativistic effect is taken into account. Trial wave functions depending on the variational parameters are constructed for this purpose. Energies as well as standard deviations are plotted versus the variational parameters. The experimental data are presented for comparison.

ABSTRACT:
The importance of this study emerges from the importance of the points it discusses as it attempts to study the effectiveness of the suggested program of mathematics that develop the thinking skill of the children in preschool age. Accordingly, it comes from the attempt to teach the children the skill of thinking as one of the important and required skills for the children to accommodate with the surrounded environment and to help them develop and grow completely and to accommodate with themselves and their society. The purpose of this study is, thus, summarized in the answering of the following questions: 1- How can we create a program that uses mathematical activities and that contribute in the development of thinking skill of the preschool child? 2- To what extent is that program effective to develop the skills of thinking of the preschool child? The research sample is composed of 35 children for the experimental group and the same number for the controller group from the KJ2 children. The results of the research showed the effectiveness of the suggested program and its obvious contribution in the development of the thinking skills for the preschool children in a more effective way than the traditional methods used.

ABSTRACT:
This paper presents a low power and high speed 3D-DWT (three-dimensional discrete wavelet transform) architecture using stacked silicon dies for image compression of medical images. The interconnections of stacked chips are based on TSV (through silicon via) techniques. Its low power operation is due to short signal paths between layers. The area of 3D architecture is much smaller than that of 2D counterpart having the same performance. Each circuit/system layer can be optimized since it can be fabricated using a different technology. The 3D-DWT architecture consists of two processing elements (PE): a PE-odd (processing elements-odd) and a PE-even (processing elements-even) layer. Each layer processes pixel data derived from rows of the y axis, scanning from left to right side of the image data. Each layer operates in parallel yielding high throughput. The architecture can be used to compress medical image such as X-ray, MRI, NRI, CT and endoscopy by processing images frame by frame.

ABSTRACT:
Quality is a dignity to a country and also masterpiece and bedrock for the development of a country. To recover economical prosperity immediately right from the II world war, Japan founded Demin Quality Award to encourage the improvement of quality and promote the whole scale of competence core for enterprises in 1951. All the products produced by Japan are entirely favoured by the customers around the world during the period of 1975. The Japanese made automobiles, electronics and appliances are inexpensive and competitive enough to sluggish the economy growth of USA. To counter the serious threats and regain the advantage of the market, the United States finally founded Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, MBNQA to provide a series of standards for excellence performance in 1987. European Excellence Award was set up by the European Foundation for Quality Management, EFQM for advancing the superiority of tech development in 1991. Among the developing countries, there is no exception can be made for the emerging countries, especially in area of Aisa. Taiwan is the first country in Asia to establish Taiwan National Quality Award, TNQA in 1990 to represent the great honour of quality, also the first national quality award in this area. As the candidate with the great potential to be developed country in this region, not only Taiwan is struggling to advance its technology, but also promote the quality issues by quality related policies of government. Therefore, this paper is to examine the process of involvement in the promotion to Taiwan National Quality Award for three different enterprises, the 1assessment of various dimension in company through spot visit by judges of TNQA, and the analysis of interview record from the superior executives for the further research and introductive contribution of this award. Conclusively, this paper is trying to draw the overview of how to improve the excellence of quality in the practice of business operation and provide the suggestions and contributions to the policies of TNQA.