Periodic pattern mining or periodicity detection has a number of applications, such as prediction, forecasting, detection of unusual activities, etc. The problem is not trivial because the data to be analyzed are mostly noisy and different periodicity types (namely symbol, sequence, and segment) are to be investigated. Accordingly, we argue that there is a need for a comprehensive approach capable of analyzing the whole time series or in a subsection of it to effectively handle different types of noise (to a certain degree) and at the same time is able to detect different types of periodic patterns; combining these under one umbrella is by itself a challenge. In this paper, we present an algorithm which can detect symbol, sequence (partial), and segment (full cycle) periodicity in time series. The algorithm uses suffix tree as the underlying data structure; this allows us to design the algorithm such that its worstcase complexity is O(k.n2), where k is the maximum length of periodic pattern and n is the length of the analyzed portion (whole or subsection) of the time series. The algorithm is noise resilient; it has been successfully demonstrated to work with replacement, insertion, deletion, or a mixture of these types of noise. We have tested the proposed algorithm on both synthetic and real data from different domains, including protein sequences. The conducted comparative study demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm; it is generally more time-efficient and noise-resilient than existing algorithms.

Efficient Periodicity Mining in Time Series Databases Using Suffix Trees

[서평]「Computer Networks and Internets」

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is a non-destructive investigation tool used for several applications related to civil infrastructures; including buried objects detection and structural condition evaluation. Although GPR can be effectively used to survey structures, signal analysis can be sometimes challenging. The GPR signals can be easily corrupted by noise because the GPR receiver has usually an ultra-wide bandwidth (UWB). The noise collected by the system can easily mask relatively weak reflections resulting from the inhomogeneities within the surveyed structure; especially when they are at a relatively deep location. This paper presents the use of discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to de-noise the GPR signals. Various mother wavelets were used in this study to de-noise experimental GPR signals collected from flexible pavements. The performance of wavelet de-noising was evaluated by computing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the normalized root-mean-square error (NRMSE) after de-noising. The study found that wavelet de-noising approach outperforms traditional frequency filters such as the elliptic filter. At the same level of decomposition, the Daubechies order 6 and Symlet order 6 outperform the Haar and Biorthogonal mother wavelets when de-noising GPR signals by soft thresholding.

GPR signal de-noising by discrete wavelet transform

Rapid technological change, increasing globalization and a changing world of employment with multiple roles during one’s professional life are necessitating a change from knowledge to learning societies. Full participation requires lifelong learning skills, meaning the ability to solve problems, work both independently and in a team, communicate effectively in all formats and on all levels, and self-direct one’s learning and professional development needs. Universities need to take responsibility in preparing students for lifelong learning. While engineering and science degrees traditionally do not emphasize the importance of lifelong learning skills new programmes of study are now being introduced, often using electronic portfolios to support engagement with learning objectives and reflection. This article describes an electronic portfolio initiative that is targeted at engineering and computer science students. The initiative aims to create awareness among students on the nature and importance of lifelong learning skills, to facilitate the development of such skills and to assist students in showcasing their competence regarding these skills. Interviews with industry representatives regarding the characteristics of a lifelong learner and the values of constructing and presenting portfolios were conducted and have resulted in strong support for the electronic portfolio initiative. The article provides background on lifelong learning and electronic portfolios, outlines the design of the initiative and then focuses on feedback from industry representatives.

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Preparation for lifelong learning using ePortfolios

This study explored the consistency and difference of teacher-, student self- and peer-assessment in the context of Web-based portfolio assessment. Participants were 72 senior high school students enrolled in a computer application course. Through the assessment system, the students performed portfolio creation, inspection, self- and peer-assessment; three teachers reviewed portfolios and evaluated learning performances. There were significant differences in the results of the three assessment methods, among which teacher-raters adopted the most rigorous scoring standards, while peer-raters tended to use the most lax standards. The results of self- and teacher-assessment were discovered to be consistent; however, consistency was not discovered between self- and peer-assessment as well as peer- and teacher-assessment. In analyzing their consistency with the end-of-course examination, teacher- and self-assessment demonstrated high consistency, whereas peer-assessment showed a low level of consistency.

A comparative analysis of the consistency and difference among teacher-assessment, student self-assessment and peer-assessment in a Web-based portfolio assessment environment for high school students

Introduction We live in a rapidly changing world driven by technology and economy necessitating the production of qualified and well-prepared professionals. Employers are demanding that university graduates not only have the knowledge, but the appropriate skills to be effective and productive in the workplace. In order to adapt to these challenges, universities worldwide are thinking about how to redesign their academic models. A recent US national panel report calls for a dramatic reorganization of undergraduate education to ensure that all college students receive not just access to college, but an education of lasting value. The report also recommends colleges help students become "intentional" life-long learners, and to create new assessments that require students to apply their learning to the real world (Greater Expectation, 2002). Zayed University (ZU), a laptop university (each student and faculty owns a laptop) based in the United Arab Emirates, has adopted a new educational concept in the region, which is an Outcome-Based learning approach. This new Academic Program Model (APM) is designed to continuously improve the curriculum and provide students with the knowledge and skills to succeed in a rapidly changing world. The life-long learning outcomes, being the kernel of the courses, provide focus to the curriculum in the APM. Furthermore, all courses are designed to clearly show the experiences that students draw upon achieving a Learning Outcome. The ZU OBE learning approach is framed by three sets of learning outcomes. Two are course embedded (general education and major learning outcomes), and the third (the ZU learning outcomes (ZULO)) is a set of higher intellectual outcomes. To fulfill their ZULO requirements, students compile evidence of their achievement in electronic portfolios, which are assessed by a faculty panels. The APM is driven by five critical components: the outcome based curriculum, the e-portfolios, the learning communities, the use of information technology, and the support of the center for teaching and learning assessment. Universities in the USA and worldwide are taking a critical look at their educational systems. A recent US national panel report calls for a dramatic reorganization of undergraduate education to ensure that all college aspirants receive not just access to college, but an education of lasting value. The report also recommends colleges help students become "intentional" life-long learners, and to create new assessments that require students to apply their learning to the real world (Greater Expectation, 2002). Furthermore, universities in the US and worldwide are complaining about the problem of grade inflation (Rosovsky & Hartley, 2002). A number of academic institutions in the US have moved to an outcome-based education framework to move away from the grade point average driven academic framework. In North America, accreditations institutions (such as North Central Association) are asking academic institutions to present a method to assess students learning outcomes in the general education courses. In Columbia College, Columbia, Missouri, assessment of the student learning outcomes in the Information Literacy course is done by giving them a pre-test and a post-test. During the first day of the course, students are given a multiple-choice test about computer literacy. The same test is given to the students during the last week of the course as part of their final examination. The difference between the two grades is used as a measure of their progress. A new academic institution in the gulf region has tackled the above issues by adopting an academic framework that is based on the outcome-based education while still using the grade point average. This academic model is a hybrid approach that accommodates learning outcomes to measure the learning process and uses grades to accommodate the classic academic system. We anticipate that this model will insure that grade inflation is under control and that students are achieving the learning outcomes to become life-long learners (Bouslama, Lansari, Al-Rawi, & Abonamah, 2002). …

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A Novel Outcome-Based Educational Model and its Effect on Student Learning, Curriculum Development, and Assessment

As e-learning gains popularity in many Colleges and Universities worldwide, the evaluation of e-learning readiness is critical for the successful implementation of e-learning as a platform for various learning environments. Success in elearning can be achieved by understanding the needs as well as the readiness of all stakeholders in a particular e-learning environment. This paper provides a discussion on the students’ readiness and their perceptions towards the implementation of e-learning in a university located in the gulf region. The institution under study is in the beginning stages of implementing an e-learning environment for a number of its courses. Students in the College of Information Technology were volunteered to participate in this study. A survey was conducted to identify and analyze key components of e-learning readiness: technology, Internet usage, and general understanding of e-learning and culture at this institution. Study findings indicate that there is a high acceptance level in adopting e-learning in this particular institution. Results also show that a fairly high percentage of students think that e-learning could contribute positively to their learning experience. Finally, elearning may ultimately help students build confidence in taking charge of their learning and become independent learners.

Are Students Ready to Adopt E-Learning? A Preliminary E-readiness Study of a University in the Gulf Region

Introduction A major shift in the past decade has changed the focus in education from a teacher-centered instructional environment to a student-centered one (Brooks, 1997). As grades became insufficient to prove learning took place, universities in the USA and worldwide took a critical look at their educational systems. In 2002 a US national panel called for a dramatic reorganization of undergraduate education to ensure that all college students receive not only access to college but also to an education of lasting value (http://www.aacu.org). One recommendation was that colleges and universities help students become "intentional" life-long learners and create new assessment techniques that allow students to apply their learning to real world problems. In an effort to shift the focus from the traditional lecture style to a student-centered learning style, a number of academic institutions in the US have adopted an outcome-based education framework. Outcome-based education is a method of education that focuses on what students can actually do after they are taught a particular subject. All curriculum and teaching decisions are made based on how to best facilitate the achievement of a desired outcome. This exercise leads to a planning process that is quite different from the traditional educational planning method. The desired outcome is first identified, and then the curriculum is created to support the intended outcomes (Furman, 1994). E-portfolios have been used to document student work to demonstrate learning (American Association for Higher Education. 2008, Smith & Winking-Diaz, 2004). Unlike paper-based portfolios, e-portfolios allow information to be stored, accessed, updated, and presented in various electronic formats to record students achievements. E-portfolios are being adopted at a growing number of colleges and universities in the USA and abroad (Lorenzo & Ittelson, 2005. Several US universities have adopted the e-portfolio assessment concept, including California Lutheran University (http://ww2.clunet.edu/soe/webfolio/index.php), Portland State University (http://www.pdx.edu/unst/frinq.htm), John Hopkins University(2008) (http://cte.jhu.edu/dp/support), the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium (http://www.eportfolio.org), and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (http://www.opd.iupui.edu/coil/eport.htm). For faculty, the e-portfolio can be an effective tool to better manage, review, reflect, and comment on students' work. For students, the e-portfolio enriches their resume, both before and after graduation. In the gulf region the adoption of outcome-based educational models and e-portfolios has been slow. Zayed University (ZU), a fairly recent university located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has adopted an outcome-based Academic Program Model (APM) and the use of e-portfolios to document student learning (Zayed University, 2008a). The ZU e-portfolio assessment system (EAS) was created to allow faculty to assess specific components of student academic work that includes various learning outcomes. Moreover, faculty members use data from the EAS to evaluate how courses are meeting college and university goals. The achievement of learning outcomes and the compilation of e-portfolios has become an important component of the grade point average (GPA) assessment system. E-portfolios enable students to improve and focus their learning and provide them with a tool to showcase their skills. The EAS can be used to measure whether the curriculum meets institution and college/major learning outcomes: Zayed University Learning Outcomes (ZULOs), and Major's Learning Outcomes (MALOs). Currently, ZU has approximately 4000 students and has two campuses, one in Abu Dhabi and one in Dubai, UAE. ZU follows a US based academic model and is perhaps the first university in the Gulf to adopt the e-portfolio to help students achieve learning. During the last six years, the implementation of the APM model was used to facilitate the inclusion of learning outcomes into various courses across ZU curricula. …

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E-Portfolio Assessment System for an Outcome-Based Information Technology Curriculum

Introduction Information and communication technology (ICT) has become a popular tool to facilitate and enhance teaching and learning. Many academic institutions are using ICT to provide support to their curriculum, expand student learning experiences and support the institution's academic program learning outcomes. Moreover, a number of universities are using ICT to be more competitive (Norman, 2007). The Gulf region has seen a major increase in the presence of universities from North America, Europe and Australia. Most of them offer a combination of face to face and distance learning programs. The number of students enrolling in these universities has increase dramatically as people are increasingly moving to the Gulf region for employment (Al-Doub, Goodwin, & Al-Hunaiyyan, 2008; Biju, 2010). Students in the Gulf face difficulties when joining universities offering US and Western style academic programs. One major challenge is the learning habits and styles that students have acquired while in middle and high school. Students are used to the guided teaching and fact based model compared to the independent project based model used in higher academic institutions particularly those offering distance learning programs. The second challenge comes from the fact that students in this part of the world generally graduate from segregated primary and secondary schools that focus on memorization to gain knowledge. Therefore, students have learned to completely depend on their teachers for acquiring knowledge. As a result the concept of problem solving and critical thinking is almost foreign to the majority of the students. This problem seems to be more severe with female students joining higher education institutions. Statistics show that more than two third of the students joining Colleges and Universities in the region are female students. Most public universities in this region are segregated and are trying to find solutions to the dependence of students on teachers. Some academic institutions have identified solutions that include using technology in the classrooms; others have adopted alternative educational models to encourage students to become independent learners and requiring them to own a laptop for an alternative way to learn, communicate, access resources, and share information. A recently established outcome-based university, Zayed University (ZU) has campuses for both female and male students. ZU offers specializations in the fields of business, communication and media sciences, education, information technology and arts and sciences. This segregated university uses an American educational model and has recently achieved accreditation by the Middle States Accreditation Body (http://www.msche.org/). Since its establishment, the University has focused on having a high tech campus that provides the latest technology to facilitate learning. The campus provides students and faculty with wired and wireless connections to various electronic resources. Currently, the University requires every student to purchase a laptop computer. In the year 2000, the University adopted an outcome based Academic Program Model (APM) to provide focus to its curricula and measure student achievement. Two sets of learning outcomes were adopted by the University. University learning outcomes (ULO) are high-level outcomes that focus on life skills, and College specific learning outcomes (CLO) which relate to the abilities needed by students to be successful in their field of study upon graduation. The University provides a technology mediated learning environment where each student and instructor has access to a wide range of ICT tools to communicate, collaborate and share resources. These tools provide anytime anywhere learning opportunities. Currently, more than 5,000 students have access to courses and learning materials on campus and from home via the Blackboard Course Management System (http://www. …

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Using a Learning Management System to Foster Independent Learning in an Outcome-Based University: A Gulf Perspective

Binary tree traversal refers to the process of visiting each node in a specified order. There are two ways to visit a tree: recursively and non-recursively. Most references introduce tree traversal using recursion only. Our literature survey indicated that most references only show the implementations of the recursive algorithms, and only few references address the issue of nonrecursive algorithms. In this paper, we investigate and compare recursive and non-recursive algorithms for in-order, preorder, and post-order traversals. The in-order traversal of a binary search tree is important in searching algorithms, operating systems, and compiler design. In this paper we propose a new non-recursive algorithm for in-order binary search trees that is both efficient and easy to understand. The implementation of this new algorithm was done in Java and the complete algorithm was tested. The new algorithm was found to be faster than other nonrecursive algorithms.

Azzedine Lansari

Papers

A Novel Outcome-Based Educational Model and its Effect on Student Learning, Curriculum Development, and Assessment

Are Students Ready to Adopt E-Learning? A Preliminary E-readiness Study of a University in the Gulf Region

E-Portfolio Assessment System for an Outcome-Based Information Technology Curriculum

Using a Learning Management System to Foster Independent Learning in an Outcome-Based University: A Gulf Perspective

A new non-recursive algorithm for binary search tree traversal