Assessing the effects of gamification in the classroom: A longitudinal study on intrinsic motivation,social comparison,satisfaction, effort,and academic performance

Gamification, the application of game elements to non-game settings, continues to grow in popularity as a method to increase student engagement in the classroom. We tested students across two courses, measuring their motivation, social comparison, effort, satisfaction, learner empowerment, and academic performance at four points during a 16-week semester. One course received a gamified curriculum, featuring a leaderboard and badges, whereas the other course received the same curriculum without the gamified elements. Our results found that students in the gamified course showed less motivation, satisfaction, and empowerment over time than those in the non-gamified class. The effect of course type on students' final exam scores was mediated by students' levels of intrinsic motivation, with students in the gamified course showing less motivation and lower final exam scores than the non-gamified class. This suggests that some care should be taken when applying certain gamification mechanics to educational settings.     

基于实时路况的交通信号灯智能管控方法

为解决城市严重的交通拥堵问题,提出一种基于实时路况的交通信号灯智能管控方法。实时检测交叉方向车辆,计算车道占用率,应用模糊控制理论优化信号灯切换频率,确保双向车道均衡使用。实验利用实测数据,结合模拟分析结果,针对早晚高峰以及中午等3个典型时段道路交通状况,与传统定时控制方法进行比较,比较结果表明,该方法能够有效地利用车道,增强交通通行能力,较传统的定时控制方式更具有适用性。     

利用标志点多视图约束实现结构光扫描高精度粗拼接

在采用标志点拼接的结构光扫描系统中,两两相邻视图拼接存在累积误差,导致拼接精度会随拼接次数下降,为此提出一种利用标志点多视图几何约束的高精度拼接方法.首先利用两两视图拼接的方式在扫描过程中构建标志点多视图网络,并利用光束法平差技术优化多视图网络得到高精度全局控制点;在此过程中保存每个视局部坐标系下三维点云,然后将各局部坐标系下点云和全局控制点进行拼接,得到物体表面完整的三维数据.该方法克服了传统拼接过程中累积误差,提高了多视角三维扫描拼接精度;并通过实验证明了所提出算法的有效性.     

Incremental subgradient method for nonsmooth convex optimization with fixed point constraints

This paper proposes an incremental subgradient method for solving the problem of minimizing the sum of nondifferentiable, convex objective functions over the intersection of fixed point sets of nonexpansive mappings in a real Hilbert space. The proposed algorithm can work in nonsmooth optimization over constraint sets onto which projections cannot be always implemented, whereas the conventional incremental subgradient method can be applied only when a constraint set is simple in the sense that the projection onto it can be easily implemented. We first study its convergence for a constant step size. The analysis indicates that there is a possibility that the algorithm with a small constant step size approximates a solution to the problem. Next, we study its convergence for a diminishing step size and show that there exists a subsequence of the sequence generated by the algorithm which weakly converges to a solution to the problem. Moreover, we show the whole sequence generated by the algorithm with a diminishing step size strongly converges to the solution to the problem under certain assumptions. We also give examples of real applied problems which satisfy the assumptions in the convergence theorems and numerical examples to support the convergence analyses.     

基于事件逻辑的改进Needham-Schroeder协议安全性证明

安全协议是现代网络安全的基础,密码协议的安全性证明是一个挑战性的问题。事件逻辑是一种描述分布式系统中状态迁移的形式化方法,用于刻画安全协议的形式化描述,是定理证明的基础。用事件序语言、事件类和一个表示随机数、密钥、签名和密文的原子类,给出身份认证协议可以被形式化定义和强认证性证明理论。利用该理论对增加时间戳的Needham-Schroeder协议安全性进行证明,证明改进的Needham-Schroeder协议是安全的。此理论适用于类似复杂协议形式化分析与验证。     

Fast local image inpainting based on the Allen–Cahn model

In this paper, we propose a fast local image inpainting algorithm based on the Allen–Cahn model. The proposed algorithm is applied only on the inpainting domain and has two features. The first feature is that the pixel values in the inpainting domain are obtained by curvature-driven diffusions and utilizing the image information from the outside of the inpainting region. The second feature is that the pixel values outside of the inpainting region are the same as those in the original input image since we do not compute the outside of the inpainting region. Thus the proposed method is computationally efficient. We split the governing equation into one linear equation and one nonlinear equation by using an operator splitting technique. The linear equation is discretized by using a fully implicit scheme and the nonlinear equation is solved analytically. We prove the unconditional stability of the proposed scheme. To demonstrate the robustness and accuracy of the proposed method, various numerical results on real and synthetic images are presented.     

Continuum electrostatic approach for evaluating positions and interactions of proteins in a bilayer membrane

Orientations of proteins in the membranes are crucial to their function and stability. Unfortunately the exact positions of these proteins in the lipid bilayer are mostly undetermined. Here, the spatial orientation of membrane proteins within the lipid membrane was evaluated using a Poisson–Boltzmann solvent continuum approach to calculate the electrostatic free energy of the protein solvation at various orientations in an implicit bilayer. The solvation energy was obtained by computing the difference in electrostatic energies of the protein in water and in lipid/water environments, treating each as an implicit solvent model. The optimal position of transmembrane proteins (TMP) in a lipid bilayer is identified by the minimum in the “downhill” pathway of the solvation energy landscape. The energy landscape pattern was considerably conserved in various TMP classes. Evaluation of the position of 1060 membrane proteins from the orientations of proteins in membranes (OPM) database revealed that most of the polytopic and β-barrel proteins were in good agreement with those of the OPM database. The study provides a useful scheme for estimating the membrane solvation energy made by lipid-exposed amino acids in membrane proteins. In addition, our results tested with the bacterial potassium channel model demonstrated the potential usefulness of the approach in assessing the quality of membrane protein models. The present approach should be applicable for constructing transmembrane proteins–lipid configuration suitable for membrane protein simulations and will have utility for the structural modeling of membrane proteins.     

基于指尖触控的互动投影系统

随着人机交互技术的不断发展,互动投影技术的应用逐渐广泛.该技术通过摄像机等传感器技术感知周围场景动态并结合投影的显示功能实现交互的方式,如增强现实、结构光编码、三维重建等.基于触控的互动投影技术在未来的嵌入式人机交互系统中具有广阔的前景.文章基于单目摄像机与投影仪系统实现能够在任意平面徒手触摸的交互.系统的功能主要通过前景区域分割、指尖点的定位以及触摸检测三个步骤来实现.与目前相关领域的研究文献进行的对比实验证明,所提算法在稳定性、准确性以及实时性等方面具有一定优势.