ABSTRACT:
A quasi-experimental study of a pedagogical treatment in critical thinking was undertaken in a college of business. The quantitative results demonstrated significant improvements in 6 of 7 measures of critical thinking using a validated assessment instrument. This treatment was taught in the college of business for four years. A qualitative/quantitative survey was taken of the graduates of the college who had taken this treatment. Quantitative results were validated by the qualitative responses of the graduates. Graduates were confirmed to use the critical thinking knowledge, skills and strategies they had learned in their personal, academic, and professional lives. Graduates were also shown to be highly satisfied with the effects of the treatment in their personal, academic, and professional lives.

ABSTRACT:
The paper look at the fancy build-up of our planned constructions, conventionally assessing on-the-go progress. The survey covers the tricky cross-links of ‹collective orders› and acknowledged ‹rationality›, viz., reverence and dependence assigned to mind objects expressing culture and ethics. Our relationship with the external world is, then, shortly tacked, because we need some sort of certainty about the ‹real› consistency of what is perceived, to trust in planned improvements. Afterword, the analysis moves to ‹intelligence› enabled processes, with especial focus on political cohesion rules, necessary foundation of the organised effectiveness. Last, the conditional framework of the human progress continuance is sketched, mentioning the existing economy globalisation drawbacks, to enlighten the requirements imposed by the impending ecology globalisation. The topics repeat known facts, only, perhaps, assembled by unusual construal.

ABSTRACT:
The response of cells to a flow has been studied in vitro. The response of cells was examined in two types of flow channels: a circumnutating flow in a donut-shaped open channel in a culture dish, and a one-way flow in a parallelepiped rhombus flow channel. Variation was made on the material of the parallelepiped channel to study on adhesion of cells to the plates: glass and polydimethylsiloxane. Behavior of cells on the plate was observed under a flow of a medium with an inverted phase-contrast-microscope. The shear stress on the plate is calculated with an estimated parabolic distribution of the velocity between the parallel plates. The adhesion of cells was evaluated with the cumulated shear, which is a product of the shear stress and the exposure time. The experimental results show that cells are responsive to the flow, which governs orientation, exfoliation, and differentiation. The response depends on the kinds of cells: endothelial cells orient along the stream line, although myocytes orient perpendicular to the stream line. The adhesion depends on the combination between scaffold and cell: myocytes are more adhesive to glass than cartilage cells, and fibroblasts are more adhesive to oxygenated polydimethylsiloxane than glass.

ABSTRACT:
In this paper we suggest an approach to a completely automatic contouring the left ventricle (LV). We use the method of signatures to describe the shape of the contour. Analysis of contours performed manually enables us to conclude that the signature of any contour of any patient has the shape of the inverted letter "M". This allows reducing the contouring problem to the problem of signature reconstruction. So, the task is transferred from a two-dimensional space in a one-dimensional. Algorithm of semi-automatic contouring based on the known first frame contours is described. So, it is obvious that the problem of completely automatic contouring demands to select the contour on the first frame automatically. Solution of this problem is to restore the signature with the correct shape in the form of the inverted letter "M" and we offer a way to do it.

ABSTRACT:
The visually challenged are often alienated from mainstream society because of their disabilities. This problem is even more pronounced in developing countries which often do not have the resources necessary to integrate this people group into their communities or even help them to become independent. It should therefore be the aim of governments in developing countries to provide this vulnerable people group with access to assistive technologies at a low cost. This paper describes an ongoing project that aims to provide low-cost assistive technologies to the visually challenged in Barbados. As a part of this project a study was conducted on a sample of visually challenged members of the Barbados Association for the Blind and Deaf to determine their ICT skills, knowledge of Braille and their use of assistive technologies. An analysis of the results prompted the design and creation of a low-cost Braille device prototype. The cost of this prototype was about one-half that of a commercially available device and can be used without a screen reader. This device should help create equal opportunities for the visually challenged in Barbados and other developing countries. It should also allow the visually challenged to become more independent.

ABSTRACT:
Background/Purpose: Over 1/3 of adults over age 65 experiences at least one fall each year. This pilot report uses a classification regression tree analysis (CART) to model the outcomes for balance/risk of falls from the Gentiva® Safe Strides® Program (SSP). Methods/Outcomes: SSP is a home-based balance/fall prevention program designed to treat root causes of a patient

ABSTRACT:
This paper is an investigation of the Melbourne Recital Centre as a case study to define the parameters necessary for good acoustical quality as it relates to the Binaural Quality Index and determining the intimacy of the hall by its initial time delay gap. The Melbourne Recital Centre, designed by Ashton Raggatt McDougall Architects, is a significant case study, as its design was driven by the acoustic requirements of reflection and diffusion through Odeon Acoustical Software. It achieves the same acoustical quality of older, ornately designed shoebox concert halls, from the perspective of contemporary design and fabrication tools and techniques. The sleek design of the Melbourne Recital Centre successfully reflects sound waves in low, mid, and high frequencies due to corresponding wall panel differentiation in the corresponding scales, as engineered by Arup Acoustics.

ABSTRACT:
Reinforced concrete bridge piers are subjected to complex loading conditions under earthquake ground motions. Bridge geometric irregularities and asymmetries result in combined actions imposed on the piers as a combination of displacements and rotations in all six degrees of freedom at the pier-deck juncture. Existing analytical tools have proven their inadequacy in representing the actual behavior of piers under these combined actions, particularly in their inelastic range. The objective of this investigation is to develop a fundamental understanding of the effects of these combined actions on the performance of RC piers and the resulting system response. This paper describes a part of the CABER project that verifies the numerical hybrid simulation of the curved bridge. In this part two models were introduced, a whole model and a sub-structured hybrid model. The whole model was established using the Zeus-NL analysis platform, which is capable of performing inelastic nonlinear response history analysis of the whole curved bridge. The hybrid model was divided into three modules which comprised the deck, left and right piers, and the middle pier of the bridge. The three modules were modeled by Zeus-NL as a static analysis module interface. The simulation coordinator (SimCor) software was utilized to communicate between these modules using a Pseudo-Dynamic time integration scheme. Results obtained from both models were compared and conclusions were drawn.

ABSTRACT:
Our goal is to call teachers’ attention to the need for selfrenewal, challenging them to consider it a necessary approach to innovating interdisciplinary education. Our prescription for sustained self-renewal: Each teacher assembles a gallery of intellectual heroes — gifted and articulate thinkers — to serve as their own life-long teachers. In this paper, we share our experience teaching a “skills course” to interdisciplinary graduate students in Purdue University’s Center on Aging and the Life Course. The course, titled “To See and To Seize Opportunities”, exposes scholars-in-training to an array of skills and attitudes that foster self-renewal and peak performance. Leading educators must work hard to create better opportunities for self-renewal. By envisioning even our best teachers as unfinished and under construction, we open up a new dialogue situating the self-renewal of teachers at the very core of educational excellence across a broad range of disciplines. To innovate interdisciplinary education, we believe it is time for a curricular re-think, emphasizing the importance of a transdisciplinary skills course in which teachers and their students can explore transformative ideas on personal development and self-renewal — in the classroom together.

ABSTRACT:
The technological innovations promote the availability of geographic information on the Internet through Web GIS such as Google Earth and Google Maps. These systems contribute to the teaching and diffusion of geographical knowledge that instigates the recognition of the space we live in, leading to the creation of a spatial identity. In these products available on the Web, the interpretation and analysis of spatial information gives priority to one of the human senses: vision. Due to the fact that this representation of information is transmitted visually (image and vectors), a portion of the population is excluded from part of this knowledge because categories of analysis of geographic data such as borders, territory, and space can only be understood by people who can see. This paper deals with the development of a model of interpretation of topological spatial analysis based on the synthesis of voice and sounds that can be used by the visually impaired (blind).The implementation of a prototype in Google Maps and the usability tests performed are also examined. For the development work it was necessary to define the model of topological spatial analysis, focusing on computational implementation, which allows users to interpret the spatial relationships of regions (countries, states and municipalities), recognizing its limits, neighborhoods and extension beyond their own spatial relationships . With this goal in mind, several interface and usability guidelines were drawn up to be used by the visually impaired (blind). We conducted a detailed study of the Google Maps API (Application Programming Interface), which was the environment selected for prototype development, and studied the information available for the users of that system. The prototype was developed based on the synthesis of voice and sounds that implement the proposed model in C # language and in .NET environment. To measure the efficiency and effectiveness of the prototype, usability tests were conducted with the visually impaired (blind). The qualitative and quantitative analysis of samples demonstrated the feasibility of the model and its computational implementation. The prototype is being used at a special school for the visually impaired (blind) and has helped and benefited approximately 500 people.

ABSTRACT:
It is a fact that fashion plays an important role to select a career, new options of careers from engineering are preferred by students instead of traditional options; for example, Mechatronics, Aeronautics, Automotive specializations, Bionics, Biomedical and others are so popular. Every day, new necessities are required in the world and it is necessary to find the way to solve them, for that reason these new majors are good options to students, however traditional areas are important too. Information Technology is not the exception because every enterprise, school, association and organization needs computers with systems that help to solve specific situations or to manage resources. In Mexico, Information Technology careers are been affected for low enrollment of students, of course private universities have suffered more this situation than public schools [1]. In this research work are shown the most important factors that have a real incidence to choose an Information Technology career. The methodology consisted in the design of a survey using seven points Likert´s scale where potential students could express more about their expectative, preferences and required abilities to study these majors. The mentioned survey had three versions and each one was validated through Cronbach’s Alpha. Data collected were analyzed using statistical software SPSS to obtain the critical success factors.

ABSTRACT:
This position paper explores one possible framework within which the integration of research, education, problem solving, and outreach may lead ordinary members of society towards inquiry-based personal knowledge. Research is considered as a ‘cognitive tool’ and it is argued that the direct participation of the public in dedicated research projects facilitates the understanding of the process by which knowledge is obtained, and therefore its application. Some of the new specific concepts of research that have been recently developed (such as citizen research, community research, participatory research) are briefly reviewed, before introducing the more generic concept of ‘c-Research’ (where the ‘c’ stands for ‘cooperative’ and ‘collaborative’) and describing the key differences with respect to ordinary research. The paper concludes with some hints on the implementation of a c-Research structure.

ABSTRACT:
Mathematical competitions among students have two main goals. The first goal is just like any other competition - to discover the strongest competitors. The second is to enhance interest in mathematics. The first aim is quite achievable, however the other goal, is far less attainable. Mathematical competitions in the classical form of the exam is not, in our opinion, the best way to incite the students

ABSTRACT:
Students were surveyed regarding usage of ebooks. Findings demonstrate that their propensity to using Ebooks increases as costs decrease, Tecnological advancements have led to ebooks being more than a written text displayed in digital format as web sites provide more up to date information. Also, licensing changes such as Creative Commons allow for more data to be accessible for students allowing for more student research opportunity.