Semantically enriched Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are becoming an essential source of information for both students and teachers. Noticeably, MOOCs have to adapt to the fast development of new technologies; they also have to satisfy the current generation of online students. The current MOOCs’ Management Systems, such as Coursera, Udacity, edX, etc., use content management platforms where content are organized in a hierarchical structure. We envision a new generation of MOOCs that support interpretability with formal semantics by using the SemanticWeb and the online social networks. Semantic technologies support more flexible information management than that offered by the current MOOCs’ platforms. Annotated information about courses, video lectures, assignments, students, teachers, etc., can be composed from heterogeneous sources, including contributions from the communities in the forum space. These annotations, combined with legacy data, build foundations for more efficient information discovery in MOOCs’ platforms. In this article we review various Collaborative Semantic Filtering technologies for building Semantic MOOCs’ management system, then, we present a prototype of a semantic middle-sized platform implemented at Western Kentucky University that answers these aforementioned requirements.     

Inverted pendulum stabilization: Characterization of codimension-three triple zero bifurcation via multiple delayed proportional gains

The paper considers the problem of stabilization of systems possessing a multiple zero eigenvalue at the origin. The controller that we propose, uses multiple delayed measurements instead of derivative terms. Doing so, we increase the performances of the closed loop in presence of system uncertainties and/or noisy measurements. The problem formulation and the analysis is presented through a classical engineering problem which is the stabilization of an inverted pendulum on a cart moving horizontally. On one hand, we perform a nonlinear analysis of the center dynamics described by a three dimensional system of ordinary differential equations with a codimension-three triple zero bifurcation. On the other hand, we present the complementary stability analysis of the corresponding linear time invariant system with two delays describing the behavior around the equilibrium. The aim of this analysis is to characterize the possible local bifurcations. Finally, the proposed control scheme is numerically illustrated and discussed.     

土木工程施工课程线上平台教学实践

土木工程施工课程作为土木工程及工程管理专业的学科基础课和核心专业课程,在疫情防控期间"停课不停教""停课不停学"的要求下,通过线上平台进行授课。由于土木工程施工课程内容庞杂、综合性强、实践性强,且章节之间关联性较弱,探究既能使学生快速适应,又能保证教学质量的在线教学方法至关重要。以华南某高校土木工程施工课程为例,基于中国大学MOOC、建筑云课、腾讯课堂、QQ群等线上平台讲授教学内容,并运用问卷调查对课程线上教学效果进行评价。结果表明,线上教学为学生提供了丰富灵活的学习方式,显著提高了学生的自主学习能力,扩大了学生的知识面,达到了较好的学习效果。     

Usability of a cloud-based collaborative learning framework to improve learners’ experience

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) is concerned with how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) might facilitate learning in groups which can be co-located or distributed over a network of computers such as Internet. CSCL supports effective learning by means of communication of ideas and information among learners, collaborative access of essential documents, and feedback from instructors and peers on learning activities. As the cloud technologies are increasingly becoming popular and collaborative learning is evolving, new directions for development of collaborative learning tools deployed on cloud are proposed. Development of such learning tools requires access to substantial data stored in the cloud. Ensuring efficient access to such data is hindered by the high latencies of wide-area networks underlying the cloud infrastructures. To improve learners’ experience by accelerating data access, important files can be replicated so a group of learners can access data from nearby locations. Since a cloud environment is highly dynamic, resource availability, network latency, and learner requests may change. In this paper, we present the advantages of collaborative learning and focus on the importance of data replication in the design of such a dynamic cloud-based system that a collaborative learning portal uses. To this end, we introduce a highly distributed replication technique that determines optimal data locations to improve access performance by minimizing replication overhead (access and update). The problem is formulated using dynamic programming. Experimental results demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed collaborative learning system used by institutions in geographically distributed locations.     

A Mobile Cloud-Based eHealth Scheme

Mobile cloud computing is an emerging field that is gaining popularity across borders at a rapid pace. Similarly, the field of health informatics is also considered as an extremely important field. This work observes the collaboration between these two fields to solve the traditional problem of extracting Electrocardiogram signals from trace reports and then performing analysis. The developed system has two front ends, the first dedicated for the user to perform the photographing of the trace report. Once the photographing is complete, mobile computing is used to extract the signal. Once the signal is extracted, it is uploaded into the server and further analysis is performed on the signal in the cloud. Once this is done, the second interface, intended for the use of the physician, can download and view the trace from the cloud. The data is securely held using a password-based authentication method. The system presented here is one of the first attempts at delivering the total solution, and after further upgrades, it will be possible to deploy the system in a commercial setting.     

基于MF-R和AWS密钥管理机制的物联网健康监测大数据分析系统

带有传感器的可穿戴式医疗设备不断生成大量数据，由于数据的复杂性，难以通过处理和分析大数据来找到有价值的决策信息。为了解决这个问题，提出了一种新的物联网体系结构，用于存储和处理医疗应用的可扩展传感器数据（大数据）。所提出的架构主要由两个子架构组成：Meta Fog重定向（MF-R）架构和AWS密钥管理机制。MF-R架构使用Apache Pig和Apache HBase等大数据技术来收集和存储不同传感器设备生成的传感器数据，并利用卡尔曼滤波消除噪声。AWS密钥管理机制使用密钥管理方案，目的是保护云中的数据，防止未经授权的访问。当数据存储在云中时，所提出的系统能够使用随机梯度下降算法和逻辑回归来开发心脏病的预测模型。仿真实验表明，和其他几种算法相比，提出的算法具有更小的误差，且在吞吐量、准确度等方面具有一定的优越性。     

Cloud based cyber-physical systems: Network evaluation study

In recent years, the Industry 4.0 concept brings new demands and trends in different areas; one of them is distributing computational power to the cloud. This concept also introduced the Reference Architectural Model for Industry 4.0 (RAMI 4.0). The efficiency of data communications within the RAMI 4.0 model is a critical issue. Aiming to evaluate the efficiency of data communication in the Cloud Based Cyber-Physical Systems (CB-CPS), this study analyzes the periods and data amount required to communicate with individual hierarchy levels of the RAMI 4.0 model. The evaluation of the network properties of the communication protocols eligible for CB-CPS is presented. The network properties to different cloud providers and data centers’ locations have been measured and interpreted. To test the findings, an architecture for cloud control of laboratory model was proposed. It was found that the time of the day; the day of the week; and data center utilization have a negligible impact on latency. The most significant impact lies in the data center distance and the speed of the communication channel. Moreover, the communication protocol also has impact on the latency. The feasibility of controlling each level of RAMI 4.0 through cloud services was investigated. Experimental results showed that control is possible in many solutions, but these solutions mostly cannot depend just on cloud services. The intelligence on the edge of the network will play a significant role. The main contribution is a thorough evaluation of different cloud providers, locations, and communication protocols to provide recommendations sufficient for different levels of the RAMI 4.0 architecture.     

The availability of daylight from tropical skies—a case study of Malaysia

In Malaysia, no long-term daylight data are measured. It was only recently that the need to measure the availability of daylight became urgent when the importance of daylighting in buildings was rediscovered. The hourly daylight availability has been simulated for the Malaysian sky using daylight modelling techniques based on empirical and measured solar irradiation and cloud cover data. This paper presents the techniques involved in producing exterior illuminance data. These data were then compared with measured illuminance at Shah Alam and Bangi, Malaysia. The global illuminance levels are generally high, with values exceeding 80,000 lux at noon during the months when solar irradiation is highest. Even during the months when the ground receives less solar irradiation, the peak illuminance can reach 60,000 lux. Applications and uses of such data are in daylighting design, both for visual and thermal comfort, task illuminance and energy-conscious design of buildings. Recommendations are made at the end of the paper on the various climatic data that are required to be measured for overall daylighting design applications.     

椭圆型偏微分方程的加法Schwarz方法

1.引 言 古典加法Schwarz方法(ASM)对于一般问题收敛很慢,在大多数情况下, ASM只能作为预条件子.另一方面,ASM的并行性能非常好,尤其适合大规模粗粒度并行计算,近年来随着并行机系统及并行计算的兴起,ASM重新受到重视.许多学者研究了怎样提高ASM的收敛速度[1,2,4].他们发现加法Schwarz方法之所以收敛慢是由于在内边界上采用     

图象中心加权中值滤波的改进与应用

中心加权中值滤波具有较好的边缘保持特性及快速实现的特点，但滤噪能力低于其它中值滤波。此文探 讨对中心加权中值滤波的改进方法，提出了中心加权分级实现的思想，使之同时具有边缘保持、快速滤波和噪声去 除的理想效果。