The role of electronic pocket dictionaries as an English learning tool among Chinese students

This study addressed the role of electronic pocket dictionaries as a language learning tool among university students in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The target groups included engineering and humanities students at both undergraduate and graduate level. Speed of reference was found to be the main motivator for using an electronic pocket dictionary. Next, the functionality used was found to be connected to the language proficiency of the learner. Finally, multimedia content was ranked least important. The results of this study have implications for the design of electronic dictionaries and for the teaching of second languages with electronic dictionaries. In particular, device developers should focus on improving the accessing speed and pay less attention to multimedia functionality. Educators should ensure that the device functionality matches the language proficiency level of the students.     

Are electronic white canes better than traditional canes? A comparative study with blind and blindfolded participants

Visually impaired individuals often rely on assistive technologies such as white canes for independent navigation. Many electronic enhancements to the traditional white cane have been proposed. However, only a few of these proof-of-concept technologies have been tested with authentic users, as most studies rely on blindfolded non-visually impaired participants or no testing with participants at all. Experiments involving blind users are usually not contrasted with the traditional white cane. This study set out to compare an ultrasound-based electronic cane with a traditional white cane. Moreover, we also compared the performance of a group of visually impaired participants (N = 10) with a group of blindfolded participants without visual impairments (N = 31). The results show that walking speed with the electronic cane is significantly slower compared to the traditional white cane. Moreover, the results show that the performance of the participants without visual impairments is significantly slower than for the visually impaired participants. No significant differences in obstacle detection rates were observed across participant groups and device types for obstacles on the ground, while 79% of the hanging obstacles were detected by the electronic cane. The results of this study thus suggest that electronic canes present only one advantage over the traditional cane, namely in its ability to detect hanging obstacles, at least without prolonged practice. Next, blindfolded participants are insufficient substitutes for blind participants who are expert cane users. The implication of this study is that research into digital white cane enhancements should include blind participants. These participants should be followed over time in longitudinal experiments to document if practice will lead to improvements that surpass the performance achieved with traditional canes.

     

Determination of the performance of solar systems with the calorimetric method

A calorimetric method is applied to determine the solar system performance by in-situ measured data. The heat store is interpreted as a calorimeter and the information on charge and discharge is extracted from the shape analysis of the heat store’s temperature profile. The method is applicable to any heating system which includes a heat store. In the present paper, this procedure is presented and applied to determine the solar gain for a large solar system for domestic hot water preparation and a solar combisystem. The uncertainty of this method is in the range of ±10%. The results obtained by the calorimetric method are compared to TRNSYS simulations.     

Dyslexic students in higher education and virtual learning environments: an exploratory study

This paper presents the results of an interview‐based study of the use of virtual learning environments (VLEs) among dyslexic students. Interviews were carried out with 12 informants who had been formally diagnosed as dyslexic. The informants were either enrolled in a university or college programme, or had graduated less than a year before the interview. The findings reveal that dyslexic students experience a number of challenges associated with VLE use, including information overload, imperfect word processing tools, inadequate search functions, and having to relate to more than one system at a time.     

Supercooling salt hydrates: Stored enthalpy as a function of temperature

Thermal energy can be stored in supercooled liquids where the material is in thermal equilibrium with its surroundings. The stored latent heat of fusion is released by triggering the crystallization of the supercooled substance. In this study, enthalpy–temperature curves including the effect of supercooling are measured for some well known supercooling salt hydrates (disodium hydrogen phosphate dodecahydrate, sodium acetate trihydrate and STL-47). A series of properties relevant for supercooling energy storage applications are identified, including the optimal working temperature range for the materials, temperature increase during crystallization as a function of degree of supercooling, available enthalpy at different temperatures, and fraction of enthalpy lost in the initial supercooling phase. The enthalpy–temperature curves are measured by a simple and inexpensive method.     

Chord level error correction for portable Braille devices

Chording with Braille codes is a natural way of entering text for users already familiar with reading Braille. Efficient text input can be achieved with small two-handed portable input devices. A strategy is proposed that can correct most chord level errors with little computational overhead.     

Separation of mouse epidermal basal and differentiating cells for microflow fluorometric measurements: a methodologic study

The DNA content of lymphocytes and of basal cells from normal hairless mouse epidermis was measured by microflow fluorometry (MFF). To obtain a relatively pure suspension of epidermal basal cells a combined mechanical and enzymatic method was used. The admixture of differentiating cells into the basal cell fraction after cell separation was 13%. The results were compared with those obtained with conventional Feulgen microspectrophotometry applied to basal cells and dermal lymphocytes in histologic sections. The results from both cytophotometric methods were in good agreement and clearly demonstrated the improved resolution obtained by using microflow fluorometry. When the lymphocytes were not treated with pepsin before being stained with ethidium bromide for MFF, the modal DNA value was consistently below that of the basal cells from the same specimen. Pepsin treatment of lymphocytes, however, increased their fluorescence intensity to the value of epidermal basal cells. The modal DNA value of Feulgen-stained dermal lymphocytes in histologic sections was consistently below that of epidermal basal cells from the same section. The advantage of pepsin treatment for obtaining higher resolution of DNA measurements of basal and differentiating epidermal cells and of lymphocytes was evaluated. The cell cycle distribution of basal cells from epidermis in different states of proliferative activity was determined. Changes in the proportion of cells in S phase were parallel to changes in the 3H-Tdr labeling index.     

Do Norwegian academics who publish more earn higher salaries?

This study correlated salary data with publication data for the academic employees of one of the largest HEIs in Norway. The results show that overall there was a weak correlation between publication output and salary. Both salary and publication output varied across ranks (low, mid, top). Apart from associate and full professors, there were no significant correlations between how productive an academic is and what an academic earns among the different groups. In fact, when comparing non-publishing and publishing low-rank contract researchers, the results show that publishing researchers earned significantly less than what their non-publishing colleagues did. A weak correlation between high-quality publications and salary was found among associate professors only. However, no significant differences in salaries were observed for academics with high-quality publications compared to those with ordinary publications. Overall, the results suggest that publication performance was not used to set salaries among academic groups with few research responsibilities.