Investigating the impact of video games on high school students’ engagement and learning about genetics

The popularity of video games has transcended entertainment crossing into the world of education. While the literature base on educational gaming is growing, there is still a lack of systematic study of this emerging technology’s efficacy. This quasi-experimental study evaluated a teacher created video game on genetics in terms of its affective and cognitive impact on student users. While statistical results indicated no differences (p > .05) in student learning as measured by our instrument, there were significant differences (p < .05) found in the participants’ level of engagement while interfacing with the video game. Implications on this emerging line of inquiry are discussed.     

Optimal algorithms for the average-constrained maximum-sum segment problem

Given a real number sequence A=(a₁,a₂,…,an), an average lower bound L, and an average upper bound U, the Average-Constrained Maximum-Sum Segment problem is to locate a segment A(i,j)=(ai,ai+1,…,aj) that maximizes _∑i?k?jak subject to . In this paper, we give an O(n)-time algorithm for the case where the average upper bound is ineffective, i.e., U=∞. On the other hand, we prove that the time complexity of the problem with an effective average upper bound is Ω(nlogn) even if the average lower bound is ineffective, i.e., L=−∞.     

Single-machine scheduling with sum-of-logarithm-processing-times-based learning considerations

Scheduling with learning effects has attracted growing attention of the scheduling research community. A recent survey classifies the learning models in scheduling into two types, namely position-based learning and sum-of-processing-times-based learning. However, the actual processing time of a given job drops to zero precipitously as the number of jobs increases in the first model and when the normal job processing times are large in the second model. Motivated by this observation, we propose a new learning model where the actual job processing time is a function of the sum of the logarithm of the processing times of the jobs already processed. The use of the logarithm function is to model the phenomenon that learning as a human activity is subject to the law of diminishing return. Under the proposed learning model, we show that the scheduling problems to minimize the makespan and total completion time can be solved in polynomial time. We further show that the problems to minimize the maximum lateness, maximum tardiness, weighted sum of completion times and total tardiness have polynomial-time solutions under some agreeable conditions on the problem parameters.     

A discontinuous Galerkin solver for Boltzmann–Poisson systems in nano devices

In this paper, we present results of a discontinuous Galerkin (DG) scheme applied to deterministic computations of the transients for the Boltzmann–Poisson system describing electron transport in semiconductor devices. The collisional term models optical-phonon interactions which become dominant under strong energetic conditions corresponding to nano-scale active regions under applied bias. The proposed numerical technique is a finite element method using discontinuous piecewise polynomials as basis functions on unstructured meshes. It is applied to simulate hot electron transport in bulk silicon, in a silicon n⁺–n–n⁺ diode and in a double gated 12 nm MOSFET. Additionally, the obtained results are compared to those of a high order WENO scheme simulation and DSMC (Discrete Simulation Monte Carlo) solvers.     

A Novel Margin Based Algorithm for Feature Extraction

Margin based feature extraction has become a hot topic in machine learning and pattern recognition. In this paper, we present a novel feature extraction method called Adaptive Margin Maximization (AMM) in which margin is defined to measure the discrimination ability of the features. The motivation comes principally from the iterative weight modification mechanism of the powerful boosting algorithms. In our AMM, the samples are dynamically weighted and features are learned sequentially. After one new feature is learned by maximizing the weighted total margin of data, the weights are updated so that the samples with smaller margins receive larger weights. The feature learned in the next round will thus try to concentrate more on these “hard” samples adaptively. We show that when the data are projected onto the feature space learned by AMM, most examples have large margins, and therefore the nearest neighbor classifier yields small generalization error. This is in contrast to existing margin maximization based feature extraction approaches, in which the goal is to maximize the total margin. Extensive experimental results on benchmark datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.     

Adaptive binary tree for fast SVM multiclass classification

This paper presents an adaptive binary tree (ABT) to reduce the test computational complexity of multiclass support vector machine (SVM). It achieves a fast classification by: (1) reducing the number of binary SVMs for one classification by using separating planes of some binary SVMs to discriminate other binary problems; (2) selecting the binary SVMs with the fewest average number of support vectors (SVs). The average number of SVs is proposed to denote the computational complexity to exclude one class. Compared with five well-known methods, experiments on many benchmark data sets demonstrate our method can speed up the test phase while remain the high accuracy of SVMs.     

A novel plastic package for pressure sensors fabricated using the lithographic dam-ring approach

This study presents a novel plastic package for piezoresistive pressure sensors. A photoresist dam-ring patterned using the lithographic process is spin-coated on a piezoresistive pressure sensor to define a sensing channel in the pressure sensor package. Fluid epoxy molding encapsulates the pressure sensor and exposes the sensing channel during a high-temperature molding process at 165 °C. Experimental observations reveal that the silicon membrane of the pressure sensor is completely free of epoxy molding compound (EMC) contamination after the transfer molding process. The effectiveness of the dam-ring in shielding the silicon membrane of the pressure sensor during the molding process was confirmed. The packaged pressure sensor exerts a thermo-mechanical stress on the silicon membrane of the pressure sensor, resulting in an undesired output voltage drift. However, employing a package design with a large sensing channel opening can reduce the effect of package-induced stress. The proposed packaging scheme was a small package volume and surface-mount device (SMD) compatible features, making it suitable for portable commercial devices.     

Design and fabrication of novel micro electromagnetic actuator

This study designs, fabricates, and characterizes a novel micro electromagnetic actuator comprising a PDMS diaphragm, a polyimide-coated copper micro coil, and a permanent magnet. When an electrical current is passed through the micro coil, a magnetic force is induced between the coil and the magnet which causes the diaphragm to deflect, thereby creating an actuation effect. The experimental results demonstrate that the diaphragm deflection can be accurately controlled by regulating the current passed through the micro coil. It is shown that the maximum diaphragm deflection within elastic limits is 150 μm; obtained by passing a current of 0.6 A through a micro coil with a line width of 100 μm. The micro actuator proposed in this study is easily fabricated and is readily integrated with existing bio-medical chips due to its planar structure.